Joke justice, that’s what it is. An assistant referee is dropped for daring to ask a footballer to show some common courtesy to fans. A top referee is then undermined because he issued a debatable, but justifiable red card. It is no way to mark 150 years of the FA.
I doubt whether there has been a time during the last century and a half that the reputation of our match officials has been so regularly chewed up and spat out with such contempt.
Referees and linesmen are treated like a dodgy prawn at the FA’s anniversary buffet, craftily expelled into a convenient tissue with a dab at the corners of the mouth and a glance around to check if anybody noticed.
Dropped: Linesman John Brooks told City's stars to thank their fans for paying £62Well, we noticed, and it’s nasty. The stories might have been pushed to the side by lurid confessions about drugs and diving, but it is ordinary referees who are being routinely cheated today.
John Brooks, Mike Dean and Phil Dowd came under attack this week, in two cases by the very organisations that are supposed to protect them. I ask you what sort of sport allows an assistant referee like Brooks be dumped from the match list?
This official’s ‘crime’ was to have the temerity to remind Joleon Lescott that, rather than head straight down the tunnel on the final whistle at The Emirates, it would be civil if the Manchester City players acknowledged the travelling fans who had turned up. Especially since they had paid a bloody fortune for the experience.
Expensive: Manchester City fans protested at having to pay £62 for a ticket at ArsenalA Sky Sports microphone picked up Brooks saying: ‘They’ve paid 62 quid over there, go and see them.’
Damn right. But rather than quietly commend the man for his sentiment, or mark him down as possessing the authority of a future top official, the young linesman was summarily suspended by the professional referees body. And what’s more, the FA allowed it. There’s motivation for you. Ex-player Ian Wright claimed it was ‘extraordinary’ of the linesman to dare to offer an opinion to a footballer. ‘They do not need to be told,’ he sniffed.
They do. That’s the point.
Seeing red: Vincent Kompany was sent off by Mike Dean for a tackle on Jack Wilshere More from Des Kelly... DES KELLY: Well, nothing lasts forever... it's been a blast! Sportsmail's brilliant columnist bows out after almost a decade at the top 31/05/13 Des Kelly: When it came to the most important tick of his career clock, Sir Alex bowed out at the perfect moment 10/05/13 DES KELLY: The idea that governing bodies are serious about exposing drug cheats is a myth... the cover-up makes my blood boil 03/05/13 Des Kelly: Sorry Liverpool, this isn't a conspiracy by the PM, FA, MI5, British Dental Association, and Society Against Cannibalism in Sport 26/04/13 Des Kelly: An immense river of humanity will flow through London... the marathon must produce mighty roar of defiance 19/04/13 DES KELLY: Fans come a distant second to Cup cash 12/04/13 Des Kelly: Forget his politics... is Paolo really up to the job? 05/04/13 Des Kelly: The evidence is so subtle many missed it... is this bonfire a case of smoke and mirrors? 29/03/13 Des Kelly: British taxpayers have just handed West Ham a stadium worth half a billion pounds... where's my bit of this £630m council house? 22/03/13 VIEW FULL ARCHIVERemember, too, that during a match Brooks will hear countless footballers suggest he should perform lewd acts on himself that require great dexterity, without the referees’ chiefs or the FA doing diddly squat about it. Yet should he politely remind one vastly paid pro of his moral obligations, they can’t wait to slap him around the chops.
Brooks is 22 years old. I cannot fathom why he would contemplate becoming a referee in this sort of climate. He’d get more job satisfaction sitting at home in his undies all day, scratching his rear with an ice cream scoop.
Not content with allowing the turf to be ripped out from under one linesman’s feet, the FA then set about one of their more established figures. Referee Dean sent off Vincent Kompany for a tackle on Jack Wilshere he deemed reckless. It prompted hyperventilated nonsense about how this would mean ‘the death of the tackle’, as if there had never been a controversial dismissal in a match before.
Tackling has been in decline for years. I’ve moaned myself about how the game has effectively become a non-contact sport. But I’ve no problem with seeing the back of two-footed lunges and instances where defenders leave the ground to win possession.
As Martin Keown astutely observed on these pages, Kompany continually creates a problem for himself by leaping in.
Even if the call was harsh, the referee’s subjective view had merit. In the split second the players came together, Dean saw it as dangerous. Some agreed. Some did not. But you can sit three people down in front a screen, repeatedly show them the same incident, and they would all have entirely different views. Two of them would be wrong. And I would be right.
But rather than stand by the referee and back his call, the FA once again showed all the backbone of a chocolate éclair and overturned the dismissal. This feeble surrender feeds a climate where any decision made by an official practically requires a collective vote before it is allowed to stand.
Angry: Sam Allardyce was furious with referee Phil Dowd after two controversial penalty decisions against Manchester UnitedA review of whether a ball crosses the line is straightforward and factual. But when a tackle is made, referees have to make subjective assessments of intent and recklessness - and all in a split second without the aid of slow-motion hindsight.
When the FA undermine their own officials, the likes of West Ham manager, Sam Allardyce, take it as an invitation not only to complain some handball call went against him, but also to suggest referee Phil Dowd’s decision making process is biased and fundamentally flawed. The FA have now charged him. Presumably on the basis that it’s their job to undermine a referee, not his.
NO SYMPATHY FOR LANCE THE SHARKSir Bradley Wiggins said he would not tune in. ‘I won’t be watching,’ he said. ‘It will be a great day for some people and quite a sad day for the sport.’
Too many in cycling have looked the other way for too many years as far as drugs and Lance Armstrong are concerned. That’s been the trouble.
Wiggins should have been glued to the box, if only to look upon the man who could cause cycling to be kicked out of the Olympics if a grand conspiracy to protect him over the years at the UCI is now unearthed.
Snub: Tour De France winner and London 2012 time trial champion Bradley Wiggins said he wouldn't watch Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah WinfreyBut wasn’t Armstrong shifty? There were times when he appeared convincing, as the best liars always are. There were times when he sounded sincere, too. But the cold, dead eyes gave him away.There was nothing in there. Armstrong was on Oprah to tell the world he had been doing some soul-searching - and any day now, they may even find it.
I wouldn’t hold your breath, though. He has the eyes of a shark, features that offer no compassion and betray no emotion.
At times, he gazed up and off into the distance as he reviewed his lawyered version of the truth before delivering it. The eyes darted from side to side when he was sought to avoid an answer.
But there was never a flicker of genuine remorse. The drug cheat-cyclist wanted people to warm to him and forgive him, yet absolutely nothing about the man inspired the feelings of empathy he desperately sought. He was very sorry that he had been caught; sorry his reputation had been destroyed, too. But the TV show kept flashing back to interviews from 2005 where he telling the world that black was white, with the same kind of sociopathic intensity he was selling now.
Disgraced: Shamed cyclist Armstrong admitted to doping his way to seven Tour De France victoriesArmstrong simply ‘did not feel like it was cheating at the time’. Doping was ‘like having air in our tyres or water in our bottles,’ he said. He did it because ‘everyone’ was at it, you see?
Is that why he took secret drug deliveries and lied under oath? He didn’t think it was cheating? Do me a favour.
The more I watched, the more I disliked him. What started as a blunt confession gradually became a strangely emotionless exercise in self-justification and half-truths.
The resulting confession was still more than the media expected, me included. Oprah had done some homework. She had heard the messages sent to her. She is the Queen of American TV for a reason and she nailed the cyclist’s drug past with a viewer-grabbing salvo of quickfire yes-no questions.
Attack: 2008 Olympic road race winner Nicole Cooke took a swipe at drug cheats when she retired from cycling this weekArmstrong admitted to doping, taking EPO, and using drugs in all of his seven Tour de France wins. He looked as if he knew those questions were coming, but the answers were still out there.
We had violin-inducing stuff about Mum being ‘a fighter’. He admitted he was a bully and a ‘jerk’. Oprah let him wriggle away from too many specifics on dumping rivals and intimidating critics as the discussion went on. He was then allowed to offer patent bull**** excuses as his interviewer slipped back into schmaltz.
But, after years and years of deception, the stark cynicism of how he built his career and burnished his halo on a gigantic lie had been confirmed.
There was a second part of his interview, but this was enough for me. I went to bed sincerely hoping I never see Armstrong’s face again.
ADKINS' FATE IS DISGUSTINGThere have been more unjust sackings than the dismissal of Nigel Adkins at Southampton. Roberto Di Matteo’s departure after winning the Champions League springs to mind. But the treatment of Adkins is truly disgusting.
When he took over the Saints they were stuck near the bottom of League One. Spin on 28 months and two promotions later and Southampton are in 15th place in the Premier League, above Newcastle, whose manager has an eight-year contract. They have lost only two of their last 12 games, but the owner Nicola Cortese still believes it isn’t good enough.
This unlikeable Italian chairman hustled a former Argentina defender who cannot speak English into Adkins’ chair while it was still warm. What a terrible call. I fear Southampton will suffer for this. Indeed, a part of me hopes so, just to see the look on Cortese’s face.
Dismissal: Southampton sacked manager Nigel Adkins (left) and brought in Mauricio Pochettino (right) as his replacementROMAN STUCK WITH RAFA
Rafa Benitez, the future former manager of the current not-going-to-be-Champions, has an unofficial approval rating of just 24 per cent among fans at Stamford Bridge (down to 23 per cent by the time you reach the end of this sentence).
You might argue that Benitez doesn’t pay attention to polls*. But are Chelsea stuck with their unpopular boss?
Following Pep Guardiola’s decision to join Bayern Munich and spurn Roman Abramovich, former assistant manager Ray Wilkins said that no top manager would dare touch the Chelsea job. That sounds like a ‘yes’ to me, then.
*A poll says Benitez pays attention to polls about 23 per cent of the time, which is right, since most of them are made up, like this one.
Stuck with Rafa? Pep Guardiola's decision to join Bayern Munich left Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich with managerial headacheMore... Fergie claims FA will be flooded with appeals after Kompany is let off the hook 'Weasel' Armstrong is STILL lying despite Oprah confession, blasts WADA chief It's official! Rafa's the WORST Chelsea manager of Roman's reign at the Bridge
