Yesterday I read this.
” Manchester United’s troubled defence of the Premier League title is harming the English flight’s world wide brand, says competition’s chief executive Richard Scudamore ” he said “ It’s a double-edged sword.when your most popular club isn’t doing well, that costs you interest and audience in some places ”
Two or three years ago I suggested on ACLF that it was in the interests of the Premier League , that MUFC continued to win . I also suggested that with the huge sums of money at stake trough Sky and other broadcasters there is every possibility that they had been given a helping hand over the years.
Obviously I was attacked and accused of making up conspiracy theories and told to sit in the corner with some tin-foil on my head. I was “just making up excuses“.
The fact that penalties against MUFC were almost as rare as Chicken’s teeth was dismissed as mere coincidence.
That they were allowed to foul us at will , while a sideways glance at one of their players got our lads a booking was just incompetence by a nervous referee.
But it went on for 20 years. The same things over and over.
Remember Vidic tipping over the crossbar with the assistant Ref looking right at at ? It was a great save , but fucking hell !
But people assumed I was saying it because I was an Arsenal fan. When the reality was it happened to evey team they played.
Well I hate to say I told you so but I told you so
When you are selling a product, such as the Premier League, it helps to have a flagship club. That was United.
Just look at Golf. When Tiger Woods is out the viewing figures are down together with course attendances. Why? Because he is the PGA’s flagship player. And they will help him in any way they can, because its to their benefit.
The Premier League needed MUFC to be successful, I believe they made it so.
Where there is muck there is brass.
I cant for the life of me think of any massively rich institution where there has not been skullduggery ,illegality and corruption when there are large amounts of money to be made.
Governments all over the world- corrupt
Churches all over the world throughout the ages-corrupt
Big Business-corrupt
Local governments-corrupt
Time and again, we see the evidence of this
Sport then? You bet your life !
Cheating and corruption being exposed with monotonous regularity.
Just recently we have had Cycling, Swimming, Snooker, Horse racing, Cricket, Rugby, Boxing and on and on.
Football then?
Well hell yes.
Not on Hackney Marshes, but in Italy, one of the world super powers in the game.
Of course that could never happen in England though ? Eh? What with the English being so free of such greedy bastards?
Oh, it could you say?
But it doesnt. Or at least its yet to be proven. But seriously, what are the chances its not when everything else in this country seems to be ?
Its not just MUFC that I feel there has been a dark hand in, oh no !
The Premier league is watched(and paid for by subscriptions to Sky and all) by millions of people world wide. That’s of £billions of income. Its sold as an exciting and close league. Where any team can beat any other team. Thats why its the most sold League worldwide. That image must be maintained to keep sales up. It has to be competitive and blood and thunder. Thats the “hot spot” selling point.
I believe if Referees applied the rules as they should it would be far less competitive. It would become like La Liga where the big clubs routinely dispatch the lesser teams without breaking sweat.
This would have a terrible effect on their ability to sell games.
The English game is about “power and pace” (thanks for that Mr. Hansen) because they make sure it is. Not because its good (the England team has proven that for almost 50 years now) but because it sells. Nothing can be allowed to damage that selling point, especially some intellectual French bloke and his team of sissies .
Play blood and thunder football or play at a disadvantage. That’s my opinion.
Of course City and Chelsea did go some way to altering the landscape. They started introducing new selling points ,like Galacticos . They greased the wheels and have also benefited. Again the huge sums of cash they injected helped the League sell itself.
I know we don’t like to believe it but City got into the Champions League that first year by benefiting hugely from Referees being lenient and generous toward them and the opposite with their treatment of Spurs. Spurs were the better team and the Refs effected about a 12 point swing in City’s favour. Coincidence ? Yeah right !
In short, I cant prove it , but I’d bet my life the game in England is bent.
Written by pedantic george @Blackburngeorge.
Positively Arsenal 
Keeping the Man UTD & penalties analogy: How the flipping heck Liverpool had a bazilion penalties last season?
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Couldn’t agree more.
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ha ha Mr Angry from Blackburn…… written with passion George, how could I disagree. The whole world is bent and based on greed. (and Man Utd)
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tramazopan for you old boy. Nutter
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George i agree 1000%. this echoes my thoughts many years now. However…say youre the owner of united or chelsea……you invest millions……will you let some idealistic frenchman mess around with your chances for the trophies? Will you not secure it in some way?
This is not about winning and the glory of victory and such bollocks ..hehe…these concepts died ages ago….the point is MONEY. I invest 200m and you invest 20m ….hehe….you think ill let you finish above me? irrespective of how good you are as a football team….
So…granted as a club we were at a period where our expenditures and investments in the sky/epl carousel did not command any respect from the powers that be. Where were our lawyers, pr machine, delegates, “commandos” ..where were our black ops guys to make noise all the way to…even the Hague courts ?
More importantly you reckon Wenger does not know about these things and how the system works? Is his turn to english youngsters more than just having fans of the club as players? Is it an alternative , in the knowledge that arsenal can not spend/invest as much as the rest top3, to promote these kids in an attempt to see “will they cheat/kick their own too?”
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Well said George. I think from the current and ongoing media blitz that Man Utd will be given a very generous helping hand. In regards to proof, Untold Arsenal and their related Referee Decisions website have done great work in the past. The proof is also there every time we watch a match.
Can Arsenal overcome the huge institutional bias? That is the test. I believe Arsenal are better. If the players believe it then they will overcome, even if only for a season.
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http://youtu.be/mM747L9Wf8M
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George, it is common knowledge MU, esp. under Red Nose, had favourable refereeing. It was just Bill who disagreed. Maybe Gooner Andy too. Take off that tin hat and don’t sulk in the corner!
But in fact rivalries are more valuable than dynasties, I think. That’s why MU vs. Arsenal was so valuable to building the league’s audience. Unfortunately MU did better than us during those years and then managed to out do Chelsea once Mou left. PL had the best of both worlds–a dynasty with rivalries. LVG will likely get them in 4th or better. Some of it will be skill and some will be a helping hand back up, perhaps.
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Rantetta
I wish you’d not posted that video…. I’m fucking feeling angry now, ruined my day you have!
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My mate who used to work with me told me once his father attended the referee gathering thing they have where an ex. Ref at times gives a public speech and it was graham poll who spoke and to the surprise of everyone said refs had instructions not to card rooney when he went on his mad rampage in the past. I believe we all witnessed that and wondered how that little loser went unpunished so many times. I have no doubt that manu have won a number of undeserved titles. If you want a further proof, watch an interview session with keown where he is watching the old trafford game where we won the title and he said things like he couldnt believe how that ref was allowing manu to get away with slaughter without being even carded and one touch from an arsenal plaryer he would get carded.
Who doesn’t know scholes. How many red cards he avoided. It was an absolute joke. Keown even mentioned they had to prepare for this in training due to the injustices of the officiating.
I think nowadays though manu dont have the same influence as other teams have come to fore like chelski and city so it is more balanced rather than back then when arsenal was targeted mainly due to not being british enough. I mean look at last year at OT against pool. When is the last time any team got 2 penalties at OT let alone 3 where it should have actually been 4 in total but 3 is a record.as you see their influence is not as strong. There are other teams which can promote EPL nowadays with top star names and they deserve being out of CL which is influencing them not getting top names i think even though money is not an issue.
Compare their situation to arsenals in the FA cup final where the ref did everything he could to make sure we didnt win the game but we did win it. The game should have been over in regular time long ago had arsenal been awarded the 3 clear cut penalties. There is still perhaps this idea in the. Heads of football officials that is it wenger and arsenal who are ruining the english game due to allowing foreign players take the place of their english counter parts. You all recall like 10 years ago this was the theme week in week out in the media.
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I just noticed the video above…thats another proof…they are disgusting…riley and his ilk would have been murdered in latin america if fans had sniffed there was a conspiracy..
People dont talk about the OT title because we won it but that one was also another occasion for that…
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George & Co.
There was a shockingly truthful interview last summer from that turd-guzzler Mike Riley on BBC where he was actually boasting about his referees influence in the ‘brand’ of football the Premier league was presenting to the world.
‘His referees’ I’ll remind you.
I’ll try to find it again.
He also mentioned how few frees and cards were given, so I suppose the refs don’t want to give them to teams for giving the Arsenal a good dirty northern bastard style kicking.
Our friends at Untold have been saying this for years and have been slagged of by the disgruntled Wonga-outs as merely deranged conspiracy theorists and excuse mongering apologists for Arsenal’s precieved failures.
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You can bet your biscuit tin of dollars under the bed that the powers that be will give Van gall every possible helping hand.
last season they treated Moyes like he was still the Everton manager at old Trafford.
Offsides were called against manure, dives were not awarded and they didn’t even get their penalties in extra time to rescue themselves. Van Gall won’t tolerate that kind of mismanagement from the football authorities ..
The red scum will be given back their top 4 place, if at all possible at our expense;
failing that the Micky mousers will be kicked off the top table Tao make room.
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I dont know why I bother sometimes. Miserable lot
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You don’t need to prove it PG.
The numbers are up on Untold, last time I checked the house of Riley had not dared to attempt an injunction!
Recently there were some comments and articles about how Dutch coaches looked at field hockey as they revolutionised the game.
Field hockey, the closest sport to football, harder to call for the refs (smaller sphere, lots of sticks in the way etc) have used live interactive tech. for years now. Coaches have appeals, the ref and 4th official are miked up to the TV! Imagine that at OT! No time gets wasted with ‘ard men throwing their manbags all over the place, and usually the appeals to the 4th official only affirm what a good job the refs are doing.
There is no rational or reasonable reason for the officials in the bigger richer football to not receive the same level of support.
Smart people keep saying it could never happen here. I guess they must have deliberately ignored the Lou Vincent confession last week:
“I am a cheat”
In domestic English cricket.
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I think all top clubs benefit from generous refereeing and a good manager will teach his players how to work a referee to maximum effect. I was always impressed by Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi who, after committing some violent assault on an opposition striker, would steeple their hands in prayer to the referee and plead for mercy – and it usually worked.
Working the referee is a professional skill that has to be learned, sharpened and applied.
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While I am a bit dubious about the necessity of having a ‘captain’ I have to admit that one useful function they can fulfil is to be constantly chattering and whining in the referee’s ear, wheedling and twisting every little advantage out of the official over every minute of the game.
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It is therefore a requirement to have a
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? ………Fox in possession of the armband rather than a lion.
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“Working the referee is a professional skill”: Arteta!
The competent professional referee is not that easily worked.
And when they prove to be more bent then a U-bend *four pen Probert was ‘avin a larf’* Arteta keeps his focus.
Though even The Prince lost it with the official in the dying minutes of the 0-2 victory in Munich when those tough Munchen players were diving about all over the shop. Again, if they can sort it out in Hockey, then there is simply no excuse. No one wants to see footballers diving in order to finish a close contest. Replay, fourth official, the end!
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* in hockey any ambiguity on the call usually results in the 4th official supporting the on-field officials call. The same as in cricket. This only increases the respect and admiration for the officials from both players and fan alike. Everyone wins. Apart from Riley.
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Precisely Fins – Mikael as Iago to Mike Dean’s Othello
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Riley is more of a horse loving Caligula, Anicoll.
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The Queen’s horse no less.
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Callum Chambers is to become a Gunner.
Looks like another masterstroke by Wenger and Ivan.
I wonder if Schneiderlin was just a smokescreen?
If we got him as well, Southampton might just as well drop out of the Premiership for want of any players left.
Mind you, Arsenal are now in a strong position to offer some real high quality loanees to help out the saints and build on that ‘special relationship’ and all that stuff.
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Spot on George. Unfortunately for United, the law of unintended consequences has caught up with them. Opening up the league to oligarchs, billionaires and oil-sheiks has resulted in more pressure to level the playing field. Abramovich did not spend his billions to be screwed over by dishonest or incompetent refereeing. They could ignore Rafa’s protestations during his time at Anfield but not Mourinho’s. We experienced the leniency now enjoyed by City when the referee simply ignoring our nailed-on penalty appeals in that 5-2 defeat. Is it any surprise that the pressure to introduce technology has intensified. FIFA probably thinks they have placated the public by introducing goal-line technology but in my opinion this is simply the thin edge of the wedge.
My other observation is how much long can the English game continue to allow the routine kicking and rotational foul of technical superior teams and their star players when there is growing intolerance for such tactics in Europe?
As for working the refs, I present no better example than that by Mikel Arteta in that FA cup match vs Everton at the Emirates. We have to be clever on the field as well as off.
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It seems some in the media are finally
coming around to
Our view of the World
http://blog.paddypower.com/2014/07/26/fck-it-i-like-arsenal-one-mans-struggle-to-dislike-arsene-wenger/
Mind you, they are now a club sponsor so perhaps they have been asked to change the mood music.
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Bang on, PG.
@ D_G
Graham Poll (I think it was) wrote an article that appeared last season, in which he mentioned that SAF would call him up before games (which is in itself scandalous) to warn him not to be too fussy in his refereeing, and that if the officiating of games was not to Sir Red Nose’s liking, he would call up the ref afterwards and scream at him. Poll’s response to this, he said, was to referee ManUre games in a more lenient way than he reffed other matches. The shocking thing is that he saw this as an acceptable and sensible compromise rather caving in to pressure!
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– ” rather caving in to pressure”
+ “rather than caving in to pressure”
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So, United are going through everything we predicted they would? Those nine trophyless years look a hell of a lot more sensible now. If you try to buy trophies, they end up costing dearly.
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Gainsy – If you overspend, you pay sooner or later. If you massively overspend….
BTW: Has Pool learnt anything from Spurs last year? Already 4 modestly talented new players to compensate for the loss of one massively talented star. Am not doing any prediction this year as last year I was wrong about them finishing outside the top-4 but they have ahuge challenge ahead.
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The Mickey mousers haven’t got in anyone to cover the Bottler’s waywardness in midfield yet.
One of the first steps to resolving a problem is admitting you have one in the first place. Luck for us delusions run deep along the Mersey.
The scallies haven’t been a realistic title challenger since they lost Alonso and Mascherano, last season was a one hit wonder from hunter’s favourite player but that was never going to last.
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Shotta, next season is going to be lovely. I want to see how Brenda deals with CL football, how Van Gaal does with a Smalling/Jones, Smalling/Evans CB partnership, how Pellegrini sorts out his FFP mess and the specialist in failure with Roman pulling the reigns back on spending. It’s enough to make one happy about our club and the fact that we’re finally over a metaphorical hump as far as paying for the stadium is concerned.
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Pretty obvious that the shackles are finally off and Wenger can realistically go after quality targets. We ate a bit light defensively but there is still some ways to go in the window. I am confident we will maintain a stronger challenge in both PL and CL next season. Boom-shacka-la-ka!
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This is not a post for debate, it is a statement of fact. In every big business around the world there is corruption and to suggest money had no effect on the English game is just plain ignorant, the height of stupidity. The English media suggest Fifa is corrupt yet think our game is clean …fuckwits
In others news good to see new players coming in and possible loan deals within the premier league which should benefit our players. Apparently Ospina official and Callum Monday
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Tonight’s game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEQNc2VwBcc
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Thank you very much, dups.
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How come those little moves only happen when Jack is on the pitch?
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I hope people remember this is a pre-season friendly against a team in the middle of their competitive season with a mostly young, makeshift team in the Arsenal shirt. This is about fitness, rather than results.
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Not great officiating, there should have been an Arsenal throw in before that last chance for NYRB
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No Trevor (Gaz) its because you used smiley faces and I dont fucking like them.
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I must remember this in my future comments
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a fit abou is the best midfielder at arsenal. he clearly dominated the second half despite the quality of players around him.
bellerin has football brain. thats all you need to become a great player.
jack played that role today. the deep lying midfielder. never a holding midfielder. he did well.
monreal is a decent option in the CD. did well there.
our set pieces need to improve.
henry is the new dennis bergkamp.
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See. Now you can be seen.
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People Gaz is a MUFC fan , a very good mate of mine, and an absolute twat- just like me.
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Passenal I think you must have your blinkers on or are you asking officials to cheat when it suits.
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Yes I have to agree with with you George I is a twat and a very good friend
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Rub of the green my friend just rub of the green. United would have still won what they have won over the years.
I have examples of refs helping out other teams but I won’t use them because it won’t change the fact that MUFC is hated by so many out of jealousy. Our success is for so many years is not because we were ever good but because the man in black (green or blue or whatever colour) won all our trophy’s for us or with is. Don’t think so….
The problem is this – To many other team managers players and supporters put on the blinkers when they get a bit of success! Example Man Shitty, the Scousers and Jose and his clowns and Mr Wenger well he never see’s anything if it’s his players committing common assault on the pitch.
Man United helped make the premiership as big as it is world wide not because they cheated or referees helped them but because they have been and still are an amazing football club.
From once hating Mr Wenger I have actually become to respect him for what he has done and achieved at Arsenal and long may he continue BUT don’t tell me he doesn’t need a visit to specsavers…
With no smiley faces
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Today’s friendly was an excellent run-out. Losing was even better as it should hopefully shake us out of our post FA cup euphoria. There’s a lot of work to be done for us to be at our best by August 16th. Our combinations in midfield need sharpness, our wide play was laboured and finishing non-existent. Some fringe players had better improve sharpish or they will be playing for another club by August 31st. Expecting to see major improvements by next Saturday.
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Welcome Gaz
I’ve heard this “I hate Wenger” comment from a few non-Gooners over the years and I truly do not understand why. Please be honest, before your current predicament of being acquired by a despot would you have been disappointed if Wenger would have been your manager?
As for the “specs avers” comment…yawn, yawn, fucking yawn….
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