Weekend Football

[Arn]

Not sure they could do anything as United's lawyers would have just highlighted Gerrard on Brown.

The corruption talk is laughable, they have **** all money anyway. They'd be advisable buying a decent midfield rather than risking getting relegated through bribing refs if they did actually have some. That's not to say the FA and referees arent intimidated by whiskey nose.

Do you believe that Webb didn't see this? If you agree that he must have seen it then the game is corrupt. It wasn't a mistake or anything like that. He didn't give the penalty and a red card for some reason that he only know about but it wasn't a mistake.

[Shaggy]

Dave Whelan pulls his tongue out of Ferguson's arse for once...although he still gets a quick rimming in.


Wayne Rooney escapes FA punishment to everyone's surprise - even Manchester United's

Manchester United were so resigned to Wayne Rooney being charged by the Football Association on Monday, following his use of the elbow on Wigan’s James McCarthy, that they had explored possible loopholes to spare the 25 year-old from a ban, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

By Mark Ogden and Rob Stewart 11:00PM GMT 28 Feb 2011

To the surprise of many, United’s forward escaped an FA charge after the referee of Saturday’s match, Mark Clattenburg, insisted in his official match report that he saw the incident and was satisfied with the action taken - a free-kick to Wigan.

Rooney will be free to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday because the FA was unable to charge him with violent conduct, which could have led to a three-match ban, due to the referee’s insistence that his action at the time was sufficient.

So convinced were United and manager Sir Alex Ferguson, however, that Clattenburg would claim he made a mistake in failing to dismiss Rooney for hitting McCarthy, senior figures at the club had sought advice from experts familiar with the FA’s disciplinary procedure. Options were being explored over building a case for Rooney’s defence, despite video evidence seemingly diminishing any hope of a successful appeal.

Clattenburg, who will take charge of Fulham’s Premier League clash with Blackburn on Saturday after escaping a demotion to the lower leagues, discussed the Rooney-McCarthy incident with FA officials on Monday morning before submitting his official report.

The decision prompted an angry response from Wigan chairman Dave Whelan who complained of double standards.

“I cannot understand how the FA can say there will be no further action,” Whelan told the Daily Telegraph. “Manchester United is a great club and Fergie is just simply the best manager, but it is the referees who seem to be afraid of applying the law to United and I don’t know why.

“Man United get treated a little bit differently to the rest of the football clubs. I wish they would treat Wigan like that. I wish we could get away with certain things that Man United get away with.

“Mark Clattenburg is usually a very good referee. I could not believe that he [Rooney] was not sent off. Had it been one of our players, he would have walked.

"Rooney was only 10 yards from the referee and it was a deliberate elbow. It was the swipe of an elbow right across the head and a clear sending-off offence.”

Clattenburg’s stance was supported by the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, whose general manager, Mike Riley, said: “Mark took the correct course of action with this incident. Match officials are trained to prioritise following the ball, as that’s where the greater majority of incidents are going to take place.

“However, we also do a lot of work around the area of peripheral vision to be aware of anything that might potentially happen off the ball.

“In this incident, Mark was following play but caught sight of two players coming together and he awarded a free-kick because he believed one player had impeded the other. We should be clear that Mark did nothing wrong in officiating this incident as he acted on what he saw on the pitch.”

Fifa regulations which prevent the 're-refereeing’ of games retrospectively, with the exception of circumstances when officials admit they have failed to take the necessary action, effectively left the FA powerless to act further after receiving Clattenburg’s report.

Yet there was also a sense of relief within the FA that a precedent had not been set which could have led to officials erring on the side of caution during future games, whereby yellow cards would be issued instead of red on the grounds that the FA would then deal with the matter on a Monday morning.
Retrospective action was taken against Manchester City’s Ben Thatcher for elbowing Portsmouth’s Pedro Mendes in 2006.

Another incident involved United defender Rio Ferdinand for striking Hull City’s Craig Fagan last season. However, both are dissimilar to the Rooney case as both referees admitted to the FA that they failed to take appropriate action during the game.

Despite Chelsea potentially suffering because of the United forward’s availability on Tuesday night, manager Carlo Ancelotti insists he has no argument with the outcome.

Ancelotti said: “If these are the rules, and the FA decided this, I am happy to play against Rooney.”

[Exiled_red]

To the surprise of many, United’s forward escaped an FA charge after the referee of Saturday’s match, Mark Clattenburg, insisted in his official match report that he saw the incident and was satisfied with the action taken - a free-kick to Wigan.

Rooney will be free to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday because the FA was unable to charge him with violent conduct, which could have led to a three-match ban, due to the referee’s insistence that his action at the time was sufficient

So Mark Clattenburg is saying that a freekick was sufficient and that it doesn't deserve a booking or a red card If that's the case Clattenburg should hardly ever book anyone

Clattenburg’s stance was supported by the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, whose general manager, Mike Riley, said: “Mark took the correct course of action with this incident. Match officials are trained to prioritise following the ball, as that’s where the greater majority of incidents are going to take place.

“However, we also do a lot of work around the area of peripheral vision to be aware of anything that might potentially happen off the ball.

I wouldn't expect anything else from Mike Riley

“In this incident, Mark was following play but caught sight of two players coming together and he awarded a free-kick because he believed one player had impeded the other. We should be clear that Mark did nothing wrong in officiating this incident as he acted on what he saw on the pitch.”

So he is essentially admitting he didn't see it properly he just guessed at what happened which seems to contridict what he said before Surely having seen the video he has to change his decision.

[PTP]

A caller on talksport last night - a bluenose spoke some sense.....

It's clear as day that the rooney has done him - now granted the ref can say in real time, at speed he just saw a coming together....but when you see the replay, he has clearly got it wrong.....so the FA should say too the ref, either you admit your mistake and it should have been a red and then we ban rooney for 3 games, or if you think you have got it right, we ban you for three games

[Fredo]

So says Oliver Kay.

OliverKayTimes Oliver Kay
I wish everyone would drop the "FA is biased for/against United" business. System is far too screwed up to handle bias

[lfcred]

A caller on talksport last night - a bluenose spoke some sense.....

It's clear as day that the rooney has done him - now granted the ref can say in real time, at speed he just saw a coming together....but when you see the replay, he has clearly got it wrong.....so the FA should say too the ref, either you admit your mistake and it should have been a red and then we ban rooney for 3 games, or if you think you have got it right, we ban you for three games

Makes perfect sense!
This rule would be far too sensible and logic for the FA to implement!

[Neil Young]

Thommo just said Clattenburg shoudl be banned for 3 games. Thommo is PTP.

[Neil Young]

F*ck. Ian Dowie just said FIFA told the FA not to interfere in the wake of the Ben Thatcher incident. I said the same earlier in this thread.

Ian Dowie is...

[Assassin]

F*ck. Ian Dowie just said FIFA told the FA not to interfere in the wake of the Ben Thatcher incident. I said the same earlier in this thread.

Ian Dowie is...Dirks father

[Drago]

Everton getting beat by Reading.

[Mattshark]

Everton getting beat by Reading.

Terrible game, more amusingly Chris Waddle claimed that Shane Long is a Premiership quality striker

[Drago]

Still getting beat then.

Knock out Chelsea and then lose at home to the mighty Reading.

[McDermotX]

Man.....I'd love to be a ref.

That Nani fecker would be getting carded every time he went down...................these refs know that feigning injury is an offense on the pitch, don't they ?

[McDermotX]

Luiz....1-1

Nice finish.....great defending. Vidic piss-poor again, don't expect Sky to pick up on that.

[Kenneth]

Er, it's not the weekend.