Premierleague 08-09

[BaaBaa.]

United, bless them, still have the referee on their side. Maybe todays decision that cost Bolton (Ronaldo again, although to be fair, even he looked embarassed) will be the end of ref Styles inflated career?Apart from Chelsea against Liverpool has there ever been a worst penalty decision, anywhere?

The Chelsea v Liverpool Penalty was also Styles, also one he gave against Sun Jihai in a Man City v Blackburn game (I think last season) was equally an absolute joke.

He should be sacked as should Mike Riley, he is just a petty little man with a chip on his shoulder, he gives out cards for nothing at all and then bottles the big decisions.

Its amazing that these 2 morons can be considered the best officials the country can come up with.

[Wanderlust]

I have thought for a long time that there should be (in the top leagues at least) an additional penalty area assistant referee who positions himself behind and to the opposite side of the goal to the one running the line, with his sole duty to be another pair of eyes on any incidents in and around the penalty area, but likely to be much closer than either of the others, and would be able to provide either backup or clarification if the views of the others were obscured. This would be particularly useful with penalty decisions and 'did the ball cross the line' decisions if the authorities do not want to use video, Hawkeye or other gadgets to assist the refs. Offsides would still have to be ruled by the man running the line though.

When you think about how much exertion referees put in during a match, it is inevitable that their judgement can be off sometimes, particularly near the end of matches - maybe they should even consider swapping the 4th official and the ref over at half time? Most of the refs are a lot older than the players they are trying to keep up with after all. Or at least having a ref substitution at some point, either due to the pace of the game or him having an off day - it would at least take the sting out of situations, but someone would need to make the decision, so I would guess it would have to be the observer in the stands. Players have to go off because they're tired so why not refs? It's a well known fact that decision making is one of the first things to go when you are tired.

[redzonerocker]

some interesting & valid points w/lust.
personally i would go for the video ref like they do in rugby but only for penalty decisions & ball crossing the line, nothing else, otherwise the game will become to stop & start.
sky can reproduce the replays in a matter of seconds so the decision could be made before the kick is even taken. if the video ref reviews the decision & deems it not a pen or the ball had crossed the line, he contacts the ref & the decision can be rectified.
i'm not in favour of to much technological interference but in this modern age where the game is a lot quicker, a few tweaks can only help

by the way, what about wigan's penalty decision yesterday
10/10 for artist impression or what . .

[Wanderlust]

I actually thought it was a penalty because i think the defender stood on the guy's foot - he just made a bit of a meal of the fall which if anything might have meant the pen wasn't awarded. Wigan deserved the result though I thought.

[redzonerocker]

I actually thought it was a penalty because i think the defender stood on the guy's foot - he just made a bit of a meal of the fall which if anything might have meant the pen wasn't awarded. Wigan deserved the result though I thought.

from the camera behind the goal it shows the defender played the ball first
easy to define by the direction the ball went, in this case goalwards not towards the flag as it would have done if palacios had played it
made a meal of it ? more a feast

[Arcadian]

Why do you support a particular team? I find it interesting that unless he is local to a club you can often guess a supporter`s approximate age by the team he supports, eg when Liverpool dominated in the 70`s and 80`s they influenced youngsters who are now late 30 to 40 something. Many teenagers support Arsenal due to their success in the 90`s. Man U are a special case and when asked which team, qualify their reply with "but I`ve always supported them. AND ANOTHER THING does anybody else hate the term "footy". It seems to be used by middle class bandwagon jumpers who also probably call rugby "rugger". Aaagh.

[Wanderlust]

Arcadian,
I don't use the term 'footy' or 'rugger' unless I am attempting to mimic those you describe, but it doesn't really irritate me the way 'soccer' does!
On your point about which team people support, while I think your generalisation fits quite a few, and particularly people from outside the UK, for those in the UK it will be down to a lot of other factors as well; location, family, friends, enemies, school and maybe even how much the individual knows about football as opposed to a fashionable thing to do.

Without wanting this to sound like 'Alcoholics Anonymous', I'm 47 and support West Ham! I was born and grew up in Orpington, which is in the far north of Kent but is also part of the London Borough of Bromley. The closest professional teams to there are Crystal Palace, Charlton and Millwall but when I was at the age where I 'chose' my team, none of them were even close to being a top division side, and thus were hardly ever on TV, which at the tender age of 5/6 was my only exposure to football. At that time, the clubs seen most on TV from London were Spurs, Chelsea and West Ham. Spurs were almost a Northern club to me so it was a choice between the other two. As the crow flies West Ham was a lot closer than Chelsea, although I discovered later that public transport is a different thing as I had to travel West (to Victoria) before I could go East on train and tube on a match day. The deciding factors for me (and I suspect other impressionable boys of the same era) was the 1966 World Cup with Moore, Hurst and Peters, plus how the Hammers actually played, along with all the blokes I knew at school supporting Chelsea - I guess that is a trait I have always had, not to go with the majority. So by the age of 6 I had claret and blue blood in my veins, played in a number 9 West Ham shirt for my cub and scout team, got verbally abused most of my time at school for being the only Hammer and have had some of my highest highs and lowest lows while following them. I have never been a season ticket holder nor able to watch them every week live, due to age initially (my first ever game was at Upton Park with my Dad to see Liverpool stuff us 2-0 in 1974, a pattern that has been repeated throughout my support!) and then due to my career in retail which of course meant working every Saturday, but while I was a student in Coventry I went to every away game my finances could stretch to, and of course being glued to the radio on Saturday afternoons and Match Of The Day and The Big Match on Saturday night and Sunday afternoons, as well as reading every scrap of info I could find in the papers. Of course this was when all games were played at 3pm on a Saturday or Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm. Best moment is probably winning the FA Cup against Arsenal in 1980, while there are too many bad moments to pick out one, but in recent memory THAT Steven Gerrard goal in the FA Cup Final 2 years ago; fantastic match though. As Bill Shankly memorably said years ago when asked about West Ham 'Lovely people, lovely club, lovely football - 4 points for us every season' (or words to that effect, in the days when it was 2 points for a win). Liverpool have caused more bad moments than most teams for us, including denying us the possibility of playing in Europe when we finished high enough in the 80's, but the ban on English clubs was in force. Revenge will be ours though (on the pitch of course!)

So, I'd like to hear others' stories on why they support their teams...

[caller]

Chelsea by way of family and location. Both sides of my family come from the Sands End area of Fulham - where the gas works is/was - thats where most of them worked. Thats within spitting difference of the Bridge and years later got me a guarenteed paking space when 'visiting' my grandparents. It the area that now contains all the wealth along the river - Chelsea Harbour and the like.

My father went to most games and although I grew up the other side of Putney Bridge, I went with him. Just about all my mates were fans too and there came a time when Dad stopped going so regular and I started going with friends.

We were allowed to go to night games when young only because one of my friends Dads worked for the Post Office Office in Vanston Place and we would meet him there and then be picked up after the bus journey home.

I remember going to every home game in the 69/70 season and being able to get a cup final ticket but not being allowed to go to Wembely as I was too young!

Used to go to most matches home and away, have survived numerous 'riots' (if believing the press), did some work for the club, remember Seb Coe hosting discos to raise money, am a 'pitch owner' but now rarely go - sadly (cost and other priorities)

I miss the buzz.

I have a huge collections of programmes that I might have to sell in due course as well!

[Super Joe]

I'm 47 and support West Ham! I was born and grew up in Orpington, which is in the far north of Kent but is also part of the London Borough of Bromley.

Sarf of the river, you should be a Charlton or Millwall fan!!
Only kidding, I'm from West London and a Spurs fan. From school we used to get the bus to Brentford for years, then when a bit older Uncle (Spurs fan) took me to WHL. Then few of us started going regularly when old enough to get the train.

Older fans who started supporting Liverpool, Man U, Chelsea etc when they were winning are a disgrace IMO, especially as they can not admit it. If as a kid you started supporting whoever cos they were successful and you actually go to games regularly is not an issue IMO.

SJ

[BaaBaa.]

Well I was born in 1980 and being from the NorthWest it was an obvious choice.

My old man is not into Football in the slightest, so I guess even at a young age I could see that being a Manchester United fan is just wrong, my school was probably 70% United Fans.

Obviously Liverpool werent a bad little side in the 80s, but unfortunately for me the Liverpool dynasty come to an abrupt end just as I was at the age I was really getting into Football and I've had to endure the Man Utd years ever since.

[Super Joe]

som num na, join the club

SJ

[BaaBaa.]

som num na, join the club

SJ

Hey I'm not complaining.

We had many years of mediocrity but Rafas built us a great squad.

Im sure your lot will be near the top of the league next season.

Just not the premier league.

[Super Joe]

We're both cup teams nothing more. Only your cups are somewhat more prestigious than ours
Many Spurs fans can't accept it, fortunately I can as too long in the tooth to let it bother me anymore.

SJ

[Bamboo Grove]

I am not from England so some of you may think I shouldn´t be supporting an English club. However, when I was 10, I became football crazy. My hometown´s team´s colours were red and white so I chose my foreign team according to that. In those days you could watch, maybe 10 English League football matches on tv and the first team that I saw to have my team´s colours were Arsenal. Thus at the age of 10, in 1970 I became a Gunner. Football was actually a great motivator for me to learn English as there were magazines like Goal and Shoot available in Finland but only in English and I wanted to know what they said about my team.
As for why a foreign team? Well, watching my hometown team wasn´t that exciting, they were in the old 2nd. div and not good. Never been to the highest level in Finland. Mind you, nowadays it´s even worse, the team is full of Russians and going down to the 3rd. division, which would be league 2 in England. Som nam nah.

[BaaBaa.]

We're both cup teams nothing more.