Manchester United Referee Conspiracy by Nadim Bedran 19 September 2013  Fans of Manchester City have suffered at the hands of the Manchester United Referee Conspiracy. Last season Man U were the only team not to have a player sent off or a penalty given against them. That’s just last season before text gate appeared in the papers – there’s plenty more proof out there… After I wrote my last piece, on Manchester United’s relationship with the FA, I was taken aback by the response I had. I suggest to people who haven’t read it to jump to that post now as it gives a lot of background on what we will look at in this article. As stated in my previous post, the fortunes of the institutions surrounding football in the UK will be negatively hit should any proof of corruption come out. It is naturally in their interest not to investigate the matter. In fact, the managers that have come out and questioned the refereeing selection process (Rafa Benitez, Andre Villas Boas) have been turned into laughing stocks by the English press corps. So, investigate some more I did. And some of the stuff I found out surprised even me. During United’s title winning 2010/11 season, they only lost 4 league games. I looked at who refereed those games and how long they then spent without being assigned Manchester United games as well their subsequent trend of behavior towards United. Michael Oliver took charge of their first defeat, the February 2011 2-1 loss at Wolves. He was not given another Manchester United game to referee until December 2011. Since then, Oliver has had 2 United games. United have won both, with Oliver refusing to give a clear Fulham penalty in the 1-0 United win late last season at Old Trafford; a game came right at the end of the title race. A few weeks ago, Oliver gave United a penalty for a shocking dive by Danny Welbeck in the home win against Wigan. The second game United lost was away to Chelsea. Martin Atkinson was the referee then and some of his decisions incurred the wrath of Alex Ferguson. Atkinson was not given another United game to referee for an ENTIRE YEAR. Atkinson was further punished with his decisions that went against United that day. He was not given a single Premier League game to referee for a full month. Even worse, he was subsequently given 3 lower league games to referee that season- when he’d previously not officiated a single one that campaign. It seems that Atkinson was given a clear message that day. The 3rd United loss came at Anfield, where a Dirk Kuyt hat trick secured a 3-1 home win. The referee that day was Phil Dowd. He was criticized by Ferguson for not sending Jamie Carragher off. In the very next United game Dowd refereed, he gave them a penalty which secured a 1-1 draw at Blackburn and their 19th league title. Giving United penalties in the very next game you referee for them after having been criticized is a trend we’ll soon notice. The final United loss of the 2010/11 season came at the Emirates, where Chris Foy refereed a 1-0 Arsenal win. It will come to no surprise to people to know that Foy was subsequently not assigned a United league game for, again, AN ENTIRE YEAR. He did however referee 2 United games in the cups during that time. The first was in the Carling Cup against Crystal Palace. He awarded United a penalty. The second was at Manchester City in the FA Cup. United got a penalty and Vincent Kompany was sent off early in the game. To resume, we’ve just analyzed what happened to the 4 referees that officiated United’s 4 league losses in the 2010/11 season. 2 of them were not given any more United league games for a full year (Atkinson and Foy), a third for 9 months (Oliver). 2 of those referees gave United penalties in the very next game (Foy and Dowd) they took charge of and one refused to give a blatant one to the opponents
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 07:41:35 +0000
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