Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Nice to see it happens everywhere, not just in MLS as some opine

We need refereeing consistency demands Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson believes that there needs to be more consistency in refereeing decisions.

Ferguson was speaking after his side had beaten Bolton Wanderers 3-0 at Old Trafford on Saturday.

He was unhappy that referee Peter Walton, who awarded United a penalty in the 21st minute which was subsequently saved, did not send off Zat Knight for illegally denying a clear goalscoring opportunity. ...

See the whole story here, from Click-Manchester.com

Kicking Back Comments: So there are two sides to this. First is, a 3-0 loss win is frankly hard to pin on a referee. In a case like this I would think an initial comment would be one of introspection, not blame I think Sir Alex got it mostly right, and was my mistake for thinking otherwise initially as I had the score reversed. Due apologies to Sir Alex (I think my bias just showed through). Second, fairly often we hear a chorus of "experts" saying that what the MLS needs is Eurpoean referees to come in and be more consistent. Well guess what, Sir Alex may want to consider hiring some MLS guys for consistency.

Yes I recognize (now more than before) these two points are in conflict, which is what makes the whole thing funny to me in the first place.

2 comments:

  1. In this case, Manchester United actually won the game, so Sir Alex is not blaming the referee for the result. If his point is that a red card in the 21st minute COULD have had a huge impact on the outcome (in a different game), then I agree. I also agree with you regarding the calls for foreign officials in MLS; the grass is always greener on the other side!

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  2. Thanks Ian.

    I retract my statement regarding Sir Alex as I had the score backwards. That said, as you aptly noted, the remainder stands.

    Thanks for reading,
    PK

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