*Official* English Football Season 2008-2009

[garage flower]

Maybe they all thought it was crap refereeing and your bias for barca, may reflect the way you've seen it.

As i didn't feel it was jingoism from me, I must have been mistaken on it all, and fooling myself.
.


Well you suggested this, which kind of says we're all being biased:




But maybe I'm mistaken, never mind, lets forget about, I will in twenty minutes, as I care that much about it

Ok, "ludicrous assertions" may have been a bit OTT, but I was taken aback by the extent to which people were/are backing the - in my opinion - jingoism fuelled coverage on - particularly - Sky.

In terms of my own bias, it can be difficult to stay objective in the face of Chelsea's destructive approach to the game, but it really isn't a stretch to echo Uppercut's view that things simply didn't go Chelsea's way on a number of - though certainly not all - the key, debatable decisions. There's really nothing more sinister at play.

 

[grecian]

Anyway this diverting fracas has taking this thread beyond 6,900 posts which is a record for a footie season one, I think. I put it down to the quality of the starter of the thread, TBH

 

[garage flower]

Oh yeah, forgot that you were allowed to repeatedly pull away at an attacker's shirt

So you do do irony! I'd have to see it again, but still remember it being very innocuous. I find it odd that you're continually picking up on the shirt-pulling (do you remember the incident in Chelsea's penalty box in the first leg?) and yet don't seem bothered about the supremely cynical rotational fouling policy that Chelsea employ to snuff out opposition attacks. Iniesta was probably a victim of a dozen of these - at a fairly conservative estimate - over the two legs.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Anyway this diverting fracas has taking this thread beyond 6,900 posts which is a record for a footie season one, I think. I put it down to the quality of the starter of the thread, TBH

Haha, check to top 3 posters.

GeraintIsMyHero 958
dontcloseyoureyes 628
grecian 418

That's insane, Corrin's nearly posted 1000 times in this thread.

 

[grecian]

Haha, check to top 3 posters.

GeraintIsMyHero 958
dontcloseyoureyes 628
grecian 418[

That's insane, Corrin's nearly posted 1000 times in this thread.

Yeah, Imagine what he'd of done if Tranmere had made the Play-offs.









(too soon)

 

[cpr]

3 things I'd like to say.

1) Fair play to Lampard, rather than run around crying at the ref, went over to shake Iniesta's hand and swap shirts. Takes a man to stand up to the truth and take it on the chin. Have to say the little porkers grown on me this season

2) All the injustice was well worth it just to watch Jamie Redknapp almost crying in frustration at the end.

3) Re:- Fletcher. Where was the linesman in all of this, did he flag, was he even consulted? Surely was in a far better position (at least should have been) to make the call. About time referee's in big games manned up and admitted they are part of a team and consulted their 'assistants'

 

[duffer]

Loving it. Suck it up ****os.

 

[Uppercut]

Now this is a bit rich. I seem to recall a Champions League Semi-Final last season where a certain side played absolute anti-football to knock Barcelona out of the competition, wonder who that was....

Sure. If they'd scored a last-minute winner against us in that match, I could have had no complaints that they'd deserved it because that stuff happens when you don't put a team away. As it happened, Barca didn't deserve to go through (moreso than us actually earning it) because if you can't put the ball in the net in 180 minutes of football you have no business being in a CL final.

99% of the time I'll say the team that scores more goals deserves their victory.

 

[Pothas]

The only explanation I can find for the one-eyed coverage on Sky, the biased news reports on the BBC and ITV, the rantings of Alan Green, and - by all accounts - the predictable drivel spouted by Lovejoy on 606 is jingoism. It's perhaps a small sample, so I could be accused of generalising, but it represents most of the coverage I've seen or heard or heard about tonight.

Fooling yourself in what respect?

Lovejoy was so hilarious, got so stressed bless him. Hates Barcelona now, kept on saying how he wanted Man utd to destroy them. Really want Barca to win the final just to anoy the smug top 4 premiership brigade.

 

[Burgey]

Maybe they all thought it was crap refereeing and your bias for barca, may reflect the way you've seen it.

As i didn't feel it was jingoism from me, I must have been mistaken on it all, and fooling myself.
.


Well you suggested this, which kind of says we're all being biased:




But maybe I'm mistaken, never mind, lets forget about, I will in twenty minutes, as I care that much about it

Frankly don't give a **** about how bad the refereeing is, the way players (from all teams) carry on when things go against them is ****ing disgraceful. If I was a referee and I had players yelling at me and manhandling me, I'm afraid I'd just snot one of the 75-80kg ****wits into next week, and that'd be the end of it.

Surely there has to be a FIFA directive making it illegal for players to touch match officials? If there isn't one, they should make it an automatic red card. It's ****ing appalling.

 

[Johnners]

Haha, just seen the highlights and that was pretty shocking from the ref. Especially the Drogba one, and the Pique handball. Highlight would have to be Ballacks reaction after Chelseas last shot in injury time though, literally lol'd at that one.

 

[Ausage]

Frankly don't give a **** about how bad the refereeing is, the way players (from all teams) carry on when things go against them is ****ing disgraceful. If I was a referee and I had players yelling at me and manhandling me, I'm afraid I'd just snot one of the 75-80kg ****wits into next week, and that'd be the end of it.

Surely there has to be a FIFA directive making it illegal for players to touch match officials? If there isn't one, they should make it an automatic red card. It's ****ing appalling.

So so agree with this. One of my pet hates about football is that players get away with acts towards referees that would have them belted in other sports. Imagine an NRL ref getting manhandled the way some of these refs get treated. Gallop would ban them back to the stone age, and rightly so imo. I was so pleased to see Vukovic get banned a couple of years back, despite the fact he missed the Olympics because of it.

Refereeing is a bloody difficult job. All these people complaining about refereeing standards need to realize that this often physical pressure exerted on them by players makes it far more difficult to do that job properly and without bias. They need clear minds to make good split second decisions, and anything that works counter to that should be dealt with harshly.

Not wanting to excuse complete rubbish refereeing of course.

 

[aussie]

The away goals rule needs to change for such results.

 

[duffer]

Frankly don't give a **** about how bad the refereeing is, the way players (from all teams) carry on when things go against them is ****ing disgraceful. If I was a referee and I had players yelling at me and manhandling me, I'm afraid I'd just snot one of the 75-80kg ****wits into next week, and that'd be the end of it.

Surely there has to be a FIFA directive making it illegal for players to touch match officials? If there isn't one, they should make it an automatic red card. It's ****ing appalling.

Aye, it's a joke. Also it's not like Chelsea have never gotten results thanks to dodgy officiating before have they? Irony overload at their 'sense of injustice' mantra after the game. Suck it up fellas, you can try and buy the trophy again next year.

 

[Burgey]

Aye, it's a joke. Also it's not like Chelsea have never gotten results thanks to dodgy officiating before have they? Irony overload at their 'sense of injustice' mantra after the game. Suck it up fellas, you can try and buy the trophy again next year.

As I see it, if you're a professional sportsperson, part of the package has to be the self discipline not to act like that to officials. I'm not saying it isn't high pressure or there isn't a lot at stake, but you've got to be able not to assault a referee (and that's what pushing/ jostling/ yelling at them from 5 centimetres away is).

 

[roseboy64]

Drogab's reputation may have been at the core of the decisions tonight, no doubt about it. Two wrongs don't make a right though, I take no pleasure in Darren Fletcher's misfortune despite having seen United benefit from poor decisions over the years; I take no pleasure in seeing Chelsea shafted just because Drogba goes down quicker than an Essex girl. And I don't see that diving is any worse than shirt pulling, as I said a few posts back.

Essex hmm.....

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

99% of the time I'll say the team that scores more goals deserves their victory.

Barca scored more goals than Chelsea?

 

[TT Boy]

 

[TT Boy]

 

[TT Boy]