Mascherano

[homer1]

See that is BS though. They reopened the case on the thatcher foul when he got the six game ban.

That's what I thought - there has to be mechanisms in place for extraordinary circumstances ......... Cole purposely & publicly made an absolute ass of the referee and the referee, his linesmen & the fourth official (knobhead) being too ****in stupid or ignorant to pay attention at the time should not result in him getting away with it

[dww]

See that is BS though. They reopened the case on the thatcher foul when he got the six game ban.

No Bennet said he didn't see the "forearm smash" and gave the yellow for something else. See this article.

[El Jefecito]

No Bennet said he didn't see the "forearm smash" and gave the yellow for something else. See this article.

See thats weird because I read the other day that the FA would not revisit the taylor punishment like they did the thatcher one as there was no clear intenet to injure. Seems like they can't get their story straight.

[dww]

See thats weird because I read the other day that the FA would not revisit the taylor punishment like they did the thatcher one as there was no clear intenet to injure. Seems like they can't get their story straight.

The FA got a bollocking off of FIFA for being inconsistent in their application of their own rules last season (or maybe the one before). They seem now to have tightened up.

Although once a red card has been handed down that scenario is different to the one in which the referee missed the incident and as the FA in this case got FIFA to back down I suspect that the rules are different in that case. Maybe it is just a misrepresentation of the differences in the scenarios in the source you read?

[AFII]

The FA can punish a player for bringing the game into disrepute if they want to. It has nothing to do with if the ref report the incident in his report or not.

It of course helps if the ref reports it.

[carlton]

Purple nose and his portuguese mate are the biggest *****ng hypocrits, wasnt it only a couple of weeks that they went the hack on the referees and this keith hackett bloke? Didnt purple say words to the effect that hackett had done nothing to lift the standard of offcials in his time and that he was basically a lazy arse? And queeroz or whatever his name is was even more over the top. To hear them spout all this 'respect' bollocks is just typical, well, Man U. Cun*s.

[dww]

Is Hackett right to criticise referees in public?

* Mihir Bose - BBC sports editor
* 24 Mar 08, 01:01 PM

Much has been said about referee Steve Bennett and his sending off of Javier Mascherano for dissent.

However, no-one has considered that on the morning of the match Bennett got a very public ticking off by his boss Keith Hackett. How much did this colour his refereeing of the Manchester United versus Liverpool clash?

After the match I went back to Hackett's column in the Sunday Telegraph which centred on Bennett being the fourth official in the Tottenham versus Chelsea midweek match where Ashley Cole's horrendous foul on Alan Hutton merited only a yellow card not a straight red.

He took Bennett to task in no uncertain terms.

Hackett, who is the general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, selects referees for matches and had chosen Bennett for the Old Trafford match and Mark Clattenburg for the Chelsea versus Arsenal match because as he put they both "show maturity and calmness in pressure situations".

However, much of his article was as blunt a criticism of a referee as I have ever read. If a player or manager had made it he could well have faced an Football Association charge.

Steve Bennet and Javier Mascherano

He excused referee Mike Riley from blame over the Cole incident because he did not "have the best viewing angle afforded to him".

But Hackett could find no excuse as to why Bennett did not help out Riley.

"It was unfortunate that Steve didn't come in to say to him that it was a red. I'm waiting to discover why the two of them didn't have the trust in each other to come to the right decision because when I looked at the screen I automatically thought the player was off. It was over the top, committed with excessive force and endangered the safety of the opponent," said Hackett.

Hackett's anger was all the greater because he has fitted all match officials with communications systems to help them to talk to each other.

Bennett was also dammed in Hackett's eyes because he is a very senior referee and the only possible reason Hackett could think of for Bennett's failure to do his job was that he was distracted by his other duties in the technical area.

I understand Bennett may at the time of the incident have been busy trying to put up the board saying how much injury time would be played, as the incident came towards the end of the first half.

I do not know if Bennett read these words over his cornflakes before he went out at Old Trafford but if he did then there can be little doubt that his antenna would have been up to make sure he did not earn more rebukes from his boss.

Mascherano certainly did not help his cause but Bennett was clearly in no mood to take prisoners.

[El Jefecito]

Tell me he is not the most passionate player we have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZwVp19UmbA&feature=related

And "He is a scouser", "He hates United", "He hates the blue****e" ...

[Red_hot]

I love him.

[El Jefecito]

I love him.

I love him more than you. I even have a childhood friend of his who I work with, so that puts me in pole position

[Marky]

Tell me he is not the most passionate player we have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZwVp19UmbA&feature=related

And "He is a scouser", "He hates United", "He hates the blue****e" ...

I'm pasting your Mascherano sig pal.

He's a ****ing legend the lad and i mean a legend.

[El Jefecito]

[AFII]

Referee Steve Bennett's report lands Liverpool's Javier Mascherano in hot water
David Maddock 26/03/2008

Javier Mascherano will feel the weight of the FA disciplinary machine today after referee Steve Bennett reported him for failing to leave the pitch after his Old Trafford red card.

The Argentine midfielder sparked outrage by protesting his innocence after he was sent off on Sunday.

Mascherano, who received a second yellow card for protesting against Liverpool team-mate Fernando Torres's booking, has insisted he did nothing wrong.

But Mirror Sport can reveal that Bennett has told the FA in his official match report that the South American refused to leave the pitch after being sent off.

He is understood to have said that Mascherano only eventually made his way to the tunnel because he was led off by his team-mates, a clear breach of the regulations demanding that players leave the field immediately.

That opens the door for the FA to charge Mascherano with misconduct, with his automatic one-match ban almost certain to be extended by another two games.

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has demanded a 'solution' to the current refereeing crisis.

Benitez has requested urgent talks with referees' boss Keith Hackett in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the scenes at Old Trafford.

The FA yesterday held over their conclusions to an inquiry into the Argentine's behaviour for 24 hours as they studied a video of the incident.

Benitez accepts his player "made a mistake", but still believes it was a harsh overreaction to dismiss the midfielder for merely asking 'what's happening?' And the Spanish coach wants talks with Hackett to try to diffuse the situation and clarify the rules as the debate over players' attitude towards officials intensifies.

"I would like to speak to him (Hackett) because it is important that we find a solution. At Liverpool, we respect the game, we respect the rules and we respect the referee," Benitez said.

"It's important to remember that Mascherano was the first Liverpool player to be sent off in the league this season."

The automatic one-match ban rules Mascherano out of the Merseyside derby on Sunday and he looks certain to miss the games against Arsenal and Blackburn too.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...9520-20363197/

[tomasjj]

Bennett fails to take action as 4th official when Ashley Cole ****s up. Bennett then proceeds to make up for his failure by penalising another player from another team in another match.

The mind boggles.

[AFII]

Bennett fails to take action as 4th official when Ashley Cole ****s up. Bennett then proceeds to make up for his failure by penalising another player from another team in another match.

The mind boggles.

To make matters even worse is that he did nothing at all against Rio when he ran 20 yards or so and told him to book Masch a few minutes earlier.

You can also add Ronaldo's protests during the whole game when he waived his arms in the air time after time and Bennett did nothing at all.