^loving it

3/1/2011 5:35:07 PM

i hate y'all

3/1/2011 6:55:56 PM

oh well. :/

3/1/2011 6:57:54 PM

In all seriousness though, that sucks balls because because Spurs are now fif

not cool

3/1/2011 7:46:49 PM

Blue is the color, football is the game.

3/1/2011 9:53:16 PM

3/1/2011 10:04:24 PM

3/1/2011 10:07:20 PM

3/1/2011 10:12:59 PM

That was unexpected.

hilarious, but unexpected.

3/1/2011 10:54:42 PM

Fergie blames the refs after every single loss, that song is overplayed

3/1/2011 11:01:59 PM

3/2/2011 2:51:29 AM

^^ Did you even watch the game? Any unbiased observer would agree that Atkinson bottled it.

3/2/2011 7:47:05 AM

I didn't watch but Ferguson always complains about refs when they lose. It gets old, even when he's right.

The complaining is even more annoying after Rooney skating for his elbow

3/2/2011 8:09:59 AM

^ exactly what I was going to say.

Luiz should have been sent off I will agree but he wasn't. As they say Karma is a bitch.

3/2/2011 9:24:01 AM

^^^Are you more upset about Luiz not being sent off or the penalty towards the end?

3/2/2011 9:29:14 AM

3/2/2011 8:21:43 PM

rooney may have played in spite of elbowing a guy in the head, but ashley cole played after shooting a guy with a rifle, so i'd say they're about even.

3/2/2011 8:46:32 PM

um no

3/2/2011 9:37:16 PM

um, yes


Guns are illegal for regular citizens to own in the UK


Ashley Cole should be in jail

3/2/2011 9:51:22 PM

Quote :

"A licence is not required in Britain for an air rifle, and criminal charges are unlikely, but a civil claim could be made by Cowan."

no

[Edited on March 2, 2011 at 10:08 PM. Reason : lol link]

3/2/2011 10:07:26 PM

holy shit. i just saw the highlights from the man u/chelski game. what a load of horse shit. luiz should have been sent of twice and vidic's second red was hardly a foul.

i'm not too pissed about the penalty call, but that looked soft as well. smalling was already planted and it looked to me (admittedly biased here) that zhirkov didn't even try and run around him.

3/2/2011 10:52:40 PM

mad u?

3/2/2011 10:54:32 PM

3/2/2011 10:55:23 PM

i just wanted to come in here to post that im mad...well not anymore, but i was mad. jadn, however, yeah he was mad

3/2/2011 11:10:35 PM

a great day to be a Manchester City Gunners fan

3/2/2011 11:20:53 PM

David Luiz should have been sent off.

Vidic should have been sent off.

Penalty was legit but soft.

3/2/2011 11:27:01 PM

Right on cue, the FA is looking to take action against SAF for bitching about the refs.

It wasn't a greatly officiated game by any stretch, but whining about the refs, especially when you're SAF, makes you look petty and childish.

I mean, how hard is it to say they were the better team that day to the media even if you don't believe it in your own mind?

ib jadn says he is playing mind games with the officials and this is part of a master plan

3/3/2011 5:56:43 AM

Quote :

"vidic's second red was hardly a foul."

Was a foul, not what I'd consider a bookable offense, though.

3/3/2011 7:10:37 AM

he's not playing mind games. he's bitching because the referee fucking sucked and ruined a fair contest.

and I still think it's absolute shit that you can't criticize the referees. If they get shit wrong so blatantly wrong that the entire globe sees it, you should be able to complain about it. The FA needs to take public action against the referees when they do shit like this - NOT sanction the coaches.



and that penalty was nowhere near legit. watch the replay and Smalling had his leg out a full second before Zhirkov came in and got "tripped" aka LOST THE BALL. The penalty was called before the play even happens. That's Atkinson making up his mind that something was going to happen beforehand and then not being strong enough of a referee to admit that he was wrong and give United the indirect kick out of the box.

[Edited on March 3, 2011 at 7:20 AM. Reason : .]

3/3/2011 7:17:38 AM

Quote :

"I sense a disturbance in the mad"

3/3/2011 7:45:24 AM

yep, I am still mad

3/3/2011 8:08:30 AM

Quote :

"I still think it's absolute shit that you can't criticize the referees. If they get shit wrong so blatantly wrong that the entire globe sees it, you should be able to complain about it. The FA needs to take public action against the referees when they do shit like this - NOT sanction the coaches."

1 - Cool sportsmanship.

2 - Coaches make mistakes, players make mistakes, and guess what... so do referees. What's the point of openly allowing jackasses who will always use referees as scapegoats, regardless of if they're guilty or not? If a referee has a 100% correctly called game, they will still get bitching from one side or the other. It's a shit job with pretty shitty pay compared to what players and coaches are on and the number of quality officials in the world is already a small number. Let's make it a free-for-all where anybody can tell the referee they suck and see how many people want to become referees then.

3 - Get over the mad.

3/3/2011 8:14:47 AM

1 - Sportsmanship is about fairness and impartial referees. When Chelsea has games refereed by Martin Atkinson, they don't lose. Fact. 13 games now since 2006. Several won under acrimonious circumstances. SAF didn't even bring that up - the BBC did. That's not suspicious to you?


2 - Yes, Referees make mistakes. Treating them as though they are infallible and transferring complaints about their performance to teams & managers is wholeheartedly wrong. If a manager criticizes a player for performing poorly - or for elbowing one of his players in the head, he's not investigated for improper conduct. So why is the ref "above it all" ? He's not. And pretending like he is is goddamn it laughable.


3 - Eat a dick.

[Edited on March 3, 2011 at 8:41 AM. Reason : .]


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/9379989.stm


read up and shut up

[Edited on March 3, 2011 at 8:45 AM. Reason : .]

3/3/2011 8:40:08 AM

So how would giving everybody the chance to bash referees help a goddamn thing?


United players: HEY MARTIN ATKINSON YOU FUCKING SUCK

Atkinson: Ohhh, thanks so much for the criticism, I will do better next game. All you had to do was berate me a little more next time, that would have worked just as well.


besides, FA doesn't give a fuck about referees like they should anyways, Fergie and Co. can deal with a little slap on the wrist every now and then, that's why it never stops them from doing exactly what you want them to be able to do


ohhh so what you're saying is the PL has dirty referees and it's a big conspiracy against poor Man United? I thought you were just saying they were shitty referees. If this is your opinion, then you're a dumb ass. And if you want players/coaches to be able to call out referees for conspiracy refereeing and cheating, then you're even stupider because there's no way the league is going to let players/coaches egg on the masses about cheating and ruin the perception of the league

[Edited on March 3, 2011 at 8:47 AM. Reason : .]

how does your BBC link support anything you're saying? Should there be changes in the way they're assessed and judged? Sure. But that doesn't mean pricks like Alex Ferguson should be able to say whatever the fuck they want about referees after their team loses

[Edited on March 3, 2011 at 8:49 AM. Reason : .]

3/3/2011 8:45:12 AM

Because the referees aren't held accountable.


If they get publicly criticized then the FA will be forced to do something about it. There's no need for this secretive evaluation system they use. Instead of trying to make the referees better, they let them get away with murder and then shield them from the fallout.

Quote :

"ohhh so what you're saying is the PL has dirty referees and it's a big conspiracy against poor Man United? I thought you were just saying they were shitty referees. If this is your opinion, then you're a dumb ass. And if you want players/coaches to be able to call out referees for conspiracy refereeing and cheating, then you're even stupider because there's no way the league is going to let players/coaches egg on the masses about cheating and ruin the perception of the league [Edited on March 3, 2011 at 8:47 AM. Reason : .] how does your BBC link support anything you're saying? Should there be changes in the way they're assessed and judged? Sure. But that doesn't mean pricks like Alex Ferguson should be able to say whatever the fuck they want about referees after their team loses [Edited on March 3, 2011 at 8:49 AM. Reason : .]"

If you'll read the article you'll see that the overall issue I'm addressing is the refereeing. It is obvious that referees have biases. The article addresses ways that other leagues grant credibility to their refereeing corps, while the english refs manage to always hide behind secrecy.

IF you'll read what I've said, at no point do I insinuate that there's some vast "Anti-United conspiracy." The link supports every one of my points, it just seems that 1 either you didn't read it or 2 you're too fucking stupid to read.

[Edited on March 3, 2011 at 8:57 AM. Reason : .]

3/3/2011 8:48:25 AM

Quote :

"The article addresses ways that other leagues grant credibility to their refereeing corps, while the english refs manage to always hide behind secrecy."

It does. I've read that article before. I agree with it.

But you did not address anything other than players and coaches not being allowed to bitch and moan about a referee's performance after the game.

Quote :

"When Chelsea has games refereed by Martin Atkinson, they don't lose. Fact. 13 games now since 2006. Several won under acrimonious circumstances. SAF didn't even bring that up - the BBC did. That's not suspicious to you?"

Sure sounds like insinuating there.

3/3/2011 9:15:41 AM

Insinuating that there is a bias from Atkinson towards Chelsea. Which the article supports. Do you care to carry on?

3/3/2011 9:25:17 AM

... and that the Chelsea conspiracy was the reason United lost. Semantics, whatever.

United lost, get over it dude. If you want to think something illegal went down, go for it.

3/3/2011 9:32:25 AM

The Chelsea bias is what caused United to lose. It's a very different thing from insinuating that an entire league is conspiring. Atkinson exhibits an obvious Chelsea bias, ergo, he should not be assigned to referee Chelsea games.

At the very least you have to question why a ref who has given out the most cards in the league is assigned to the biggest match of the day. Obviously he has a propensity to put himself in the spotlight instead of managing the game and remaining unnoticed. There has to be an issue taken with that.

I'm not saying that there was a conspiracy for United to lose, I'm saying that there is a problem when the association who assigns the refs fucks up, and is not held accountable. I'm saying that the refs fuck up, and they're not held accountable. Their whole brotherhood of protection is a sham. It's like Mubarak in Egypt or Ghaddafi in Libya - they believe they're right no matter how many times they get proven wrong. If you can't agree with that then I'm not even going to bother trying to explain it to you anymore.

[Edited on March 3, 2011 at 9:41 AM. Reason : not fair to call him a "fan"]

3/3/2011 9:41:11 AM

I agree 100% there are some serious issues with the referee appointments, assessments, etc.

But the original discussion was on how you felt it was necessary to let players/coaches say whatever they want about a referee's performance after a game... that's where I totally disagree with you. Unless it's the most ridiculous blatant cheating ever from a referee, coaches and players should not be able to just rip into referees whenever they feel wronged, especially right after a game where they're not exactly in the best state of mind to critique.

I would like to see referees at their own press conferences, answer questions on their performances, explain their decisions, and admit bad calls if they've happened.

3/3/2011 9:52:45 AM

Quote :

"not fair; marked by injustice or partiality or deception; "used unfair methods"; "it was an unfair trial"; "took an unfair advantage""

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=unfair

Quote :

"Cheating is an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one's own interest, and often at the expense of others, Cheating implies the breaking of s...."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheat




If you feel that your opponent has been granted an unfair advantage, aren't you obliged to call it out?

I mean, seriously.

3/3/2011 10:10:34 AM

in theory but every coach that loses a game feels the need to blame the official and you can only cry shitwolf so many times


There needs to be other channels to lodge complaints with a fair, open panel instead of a mic in your face in the 15 minutes after a game

3/3/2011 10:13:35 AM

In other news, Kolo Toure fails a drug test and is suspended. No one is saying what the drug was though, so it could very well be something silly.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_6793012,00.html

3/3/2011 2:29:41 PM

Maybe it was Charlie Sheen?

3/3/2011 2:32:05 PM

I'm pretty sure it was only Emilio Estevez.


If it were Charlie Sheen, he'd be dead, right?

3/3/2011 6:29:59 PM

His face would most certainly be melted off

3/3/2011 10:06:36 PM

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/columnist/darke_ian/id/6178860/alex-

Ian Darke is mad.

3/3/2011 10:22:30 PM

I love Ian Darke.

3/4/2011 8:19:53 AM

Ah you're right. His children would be weeping over him too.

3/4/2011 9:09:56 AM

Rumor this morning on the Twitters is that he took his wife's diet pills which caused the failed test

3/4/2011 9:33:33 AM