Jeff Winter, retired ref, professional media whore and the only man with facial hair bad enough to rival Craig David, happily waded into the argument between Sir Alex Ferguson and Alan Wiley last month, calling the United manager a ‘bully and a coward’ for deeming Wiley to be out of shape after his side’s 2-2 draw against Sunderland.
However, it’s since been brought to The Spoiler’s attention Winter may not be in the best position to be taking the moral high ground on being magnanimous. Jeff’s official website “Jeff Winter Entertainment & Media” (no, really) is an amazing shrine to egotism, the highlight of which has to be the ‘Reader’s Letters‘ section.
A selection of Winter’s finest correspondence after the jump …
Last night’s round of Europa League games saw two unfamiliar blokes cutting rather lonely figures beside each goal. Making its trial debut as part of Michel Platini’s grand plan to cut out diving, ghost goals and general tomfoolery, was the ‘Additional Assistant Referees’ (AARs) system - basically plonking two flagless linos goalside.
Their biggest challenge, last night’s tie between Everton and AEK Athens, was a mixed bag. A contentious penalty shout was turned down, probably correctly, but Louis Saha was then sent off in the dying minutes for raising his hands, after having his legs used as kicking posts by AEK defender Juanfran.
Despite coasting to victory 4-0, David Moyes found time to moan about the new system:
‘It’s amazing - they see the small arm from Louis but not the big kick that was aimed at him beforehand, despite all those officials in and around the box now.
He would love it if Fergie stopped criticising refs! Love it!
Liverpool are sitting pretty three points clear of the table ahead of this weekend’s games, but the pressure to stay at the top seems to getting to Mr Benitez. We all know he’s as mad as a box of frogs, but we’ve never seen him get quite as worked up as he did in a press conference earlier today.
Rather than talk about the upcoming Stoke game, Rafa chose to lay into Sir Alex, even suggesting that the powers that be should let Fergie write the fixture list to stop him complaining about it.
Benitez started his rant by condemning Ferguson’s lack of respect for referees:
“I want to talk about facts. I want to be clear, I do not want to play mind games too early, although they seem to want to start.
“During the Respect campaign - and this is a fact - Mr Ferguson was charged by the FA for improper conduct after comments made about Martin Atkinson and Keith Hackett.
“He was not punished. He is the only manager in the league that cannot be punished for these things.
“How can you talk about the Respect campaign and yet criticise the referee every single week?
“We know what happens every time we go to Old Trafford and the United staff. They are always going man-to-man with the referees, especially at half-time when they walk close to the referees and they are talking and talking.
“All managers need to know is that only Mr Ferguson can talk
Southampton boss Jan Poortvliet was outraged that his extremely average side were not able to beat Manchester Utd yesterday, complaining that Matt Paterson’s dreadful lunge shouldn’t have been a red card (judge for yourselves above), United’s opener was offside and the penalty decision was incorrect.
While Poortvielt attempts to push the needle on the complain-o-meter past the “William Gallas” mark are admirable, he raised a point that we have heard many times before:
“Arsene Wenger says the 50-50 decisions always go with United - and I agree with him.”
Professor Wenger is no stranger to this viewpoint, and both Jose Mourinho (”It is not possible to have a penalty against Manchester United and it is not possible to have a penalty in favour of Chelsea”) and Avram Grant (”I do not think the world is against Chelsea, or English football. But in this case there were some coincidences for Manchester United.”) have made their opinions known in recent years.
So, is there a genuine bias towards the Premier League champions, or are jealous opponents simply trying to make excuses? Let us know your thoughts below…
Standards must improve or Fergie et al may take drastic action
Yesterday, we told you our plans to improve the state of refereeing in the top flight, and it seems that many members of the League Managers Association (LMA) agree with our proposals. According to The Telegraph, certain managers are prepared to strike over refereeing standards, and they wish to implement new technologies and clearer rules to overcome the problems:
Some LMA members, aggrieved at what they perceive as referees’ shortcomings, have become militant and want more radical action.
[…]
Managers are calling for representation on the PGMOL and improved “referee talent identification”, according to the LMA.
They also want a proper debate on “goal-line technology, video technology, offside and handball laws, technical area dismissals and goalkeeper dismissals”.
Until they get the officiating standards they feel they deserve, managers may order their teams to stay in the dressing room at the point when referees would normally instruct the teams to line up in the tunnel. This would embarrass the officials and cause a right old kerfuffle for broadcasters (and , er, the fans who have paid a fortune to watch football, not to sit around and wait).
We’re pretty sure this strike would never happen - it sounds like the LMA are simply throeing their toys out of the pram ahead of a proposed meeting with the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), which has been called to iron the issues.
It’s better in the Czech Republic, claims Roman Bednar
The FA and Premier League’s Respect campaign took another blow today when Czech forward Roman Bednar admitted that the standard of officiating in the top-flight was poorer than in his homeland.
The Baggies striker voiced his concerns after being left disappointed by referee Mike Dean’s performance in Sunday’s Midlands derby defeat to Aston Villa at The Hawthorns. He said:
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