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Hello! Emergency appointments, heated conspiracies and a staggering 15-game suspension. The world’s referees are in the eye of a storm.
On the way:
Referees and radicalisation: Widespread assault on officials spreading across game
The only consolation of Monday’s quarrel between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, in which Galatasaray accused Jose Mourinho of making comments with racist undertones, was that they weren’t arguing about referees. Official-bashing, some of it literal, is rife in Turkish football, the insidious consequence of paranoia and jacked-up conspiracy theories.
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But those two clubs finding something else to fight about was in some ways prophetic. The pressure on, and distrust of, domestic referees in Turkey is such that authorities there parachuted a foreign official in for the most flammable of fixtures, Slavko Vincic from Slovenia. He was in and out for a fee of just over £8,000 ($10,000).
And as it happened (until Mourinho said Galatasaray’s bench had jumped “like monkeys” in response to an alleged dive), the 0-0 in Istanbul passed off without obscene controversy. Maybe Vincic is from a higher plane, with a steadier touch, but the very fact Galatasaray versus Fenerbahce could not be safely given to a Turkish official is symptomatic of football’s fraying patience, far and wide.
Rory Smith has documented what can only be described as a widespread assault on the refereeing fraternity. It’s a bind of a profession when you consider that in Turkey, everybody thinks they are the victims of bias. Smaller clubs feel decisions favour the establishment, comprising Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas. Adana Demirspor, from the south of the country, abandoned a Super Lig match against Galatasaray this month in protest at an (admittedly awful) penalty call.
At the same time, however, you have each of the ‘big three’ from Istanbul convinced that the other two clubs have officials tucked in their pockets. And this isn’t to suggest conspiracies are confined to Turkey, either — the evidence proves otherwise.
15-game ban
As Rory’s article goes on, it rises to a crescendo where multiple clubs in several countries are not just getting humpty with referees but actively going after them.
In Spain, Real Madrid are unloading on decisions that, in their view, represent “a level of manipulation and adulteration that can no longer be ignored”. Marseille, who sit second in France’s Ligue 1, are surrounded by flames after their president, Pablo Longoria, blamed corruption for a 3-0 defeat against Auxerre over the weekend.
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Longoria backtracked on his outburst but last night, he was poleaxed with a 15-game ban by the people who run French professional football. The words he used — “It’s planned, it’s rigged. It’s a s****y championship” — couldn’t be easily erased, which is kind of the point. The creeping onslaught (Milan are on the warpath in Italy) is examining integrity with a force that feels unhealthy and menacing. You couldn’t claim in good conscience that objectivity is a club’s core strength.
Which isn’t to suggest referees can’t get better, shouldn’t face scrutiny or shouldn’t be held to high standards of impartiality. It would be reckless to blindly assume that every one of them clears those bars. But the contradiction is that football, and irate teams themselves, need the people they can’t abide. The game simply can’t function without them. When rage is ubiquitous, how do we square that circle?
News round-up
Around the grounds: Dorgu’s nightmare home debut, Liverpool extend lead, what’s Tuchel up to?
TNT Sports
Powering into the encyclopaedia of home league debuts from hell: Patrick Dorgu for Manchester United.
His role in one of two wet concessions by United last night was surpassed in eye-bleeding terms by him hacking through the left shin of Ipswich Town’s Omari Hutchinson a few minutes before half-time. There are red cards, and then there is Dorgu’s.
With 10 men, and gnawing incompetence notwithstanding, United edged the game 3-2. I’m not sure if that says more about them or Ipswich, who are increasingly wasting space in the Premier League.
The other top lines from yesterday’s action:
- People will be calculating the date Liverpool can lift the title. An easy win over Newcastle United took them 13 points clear. It’s been the Mohamed Salah show at Anfield but this week, Dominik Szoboszlai stepped up. Nice timing.
- As for Arsenal, better luck next year (again) after a 0-0 draw at Nottingham Forest. Mikel Arteta said they would throw in the towel “over my dead body”. Somebody check his pulse.
- England head coach Thomas Tuchel hasn’t been seen around the grounds much but he turned up at Don’t-Call-Them-Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat against Manchester City. Spurs fielded a few English players. City’s starting XI contained none. Maybe Tuchel just wanted a night out of the house.
- And don’t go anywhere without first bowing down to this piece of Khephren Thuram skill for Juventus. True, they lost to Empoli in the Coppa Italia, but quality is quality…
Premier Sports
Best of TAFC
- Japan claimed the SheBelieves Cup last night, topping the standings with a perfect record after beating the USWNT 2-1. Emma Hayes’ side took second place but it’s the first defeat on her watch. In truth, Japan were the best team at the tournament.
- The lights went out on Wembley but a short power cut (below) didn’t impede England Women’s 1-0 win over Spain in the Nations League. It must have pleased boss Sarina Wiegman to see some devilment in their display.
(Getty Images)
Catch a match
(Kick-offs ET/UK time)
Premier League: West Ham United vs Leicester City, 3pm/8pm — USA Network, Fubo/TNT Sports.
Serie A: Bologna vs Milan, 2.45/7.45pm — Paramount+, Fubo/OneFootball.
And finally…
Vanarama National League
I know for a fact that, like me, you were all over, er, Altrincham versus Newcastle United Under-21s in the National League Cup this week (a prize contested by teams from England’s fifth tier and selected academy Premier League squads).
Brevity aside, it yielded a rare occurrence: a penalty for one team generating a free kick for the other. Altrincham’s Joe Nuttall (once a Manchester City kid) was tasked with burying a spot kick late in the tie — but he unceremoniously halted his run-up just before he had applied boot to ball, complaining about the pitch.
Football Association laws state that “feinting to kick the ball once the kicker has completed the run-up” is punishable with an indirect free kick to the opposition and a yellow card, both of which were forthcoming. Nuttall, understandably, was a picture of incredulity. But rules are rules.
- Just to wrap up the GIF we brought you from Uruguay on Tuesday (of one player chinning another with a full-force slap): the guilty party, Soriano Capital’s Mario Gonzalez, has landed a nine-game ban, according to official documents. No complaints, plenty of regrets.
(Top photo: Ahmad Mora/Getty Images)
