International breaks breed vacuous nonsense. Step forward Sky with an "in-depth" survey which apparently shows that English referees are the best in the world. Really?
For a start, Murdoch's manipulators failed to inform us exactly who they questioned, how many people were in the sample group, what nationality mix existed, who undertook the poll and how the question was phrased. Without such background, we are in bobbins territory here.
We'd like to hazard a guess that, in fact, no such survey exists - just a figment of the imagination and a blatant use of the mainstream media to provide disinformation about the highly corrupted referee roster in England. To the Premier League and the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOB), this was a necessary exercise following a whole collection of early season blunders, frequently in the full glare of Sky's televisual exposure.
So, are the PGMOB bunch the best in the world?
Our answer would have to be a resounding no. In fact, NO...
A few points in support of this assertion are provided below:
* Even if the alleged poll did take place, the xenophobic nature of any population will always skew such a survey. If you were to ask the English (or indeed most other nationalities) which country has the best criminals or the most creative tax avoiders, the same nationalistic bias would be evident.
* We have posted frequently the highly corrupt infrastructures perpetrated by the PGMOB in league with Scudamore's brigade at head office. In addition to some officials exhibiting a racist bias in their decision making, peculiar links to certain global betting markets and a compromising sponsorship deal with AirAsia - a company set up by Thaksin Shinawatra, we have a very limited pool of officials for Premiership games. In other European leagues 30 to 40 referees are chosen while England sticks to just nineteen officials. Of the 47 Premiership games to date this season, 34 of them (72%) have been officiated by just nine referees (Bennett 5 games, Clattenburg, Dean, Halsey, Riley and Wiley 4, Foy, Styles and Webb 3). With such a small and dominant grouping, the probability of corruption increases exponentially. These ref's annual wages may be trumped by several orders of magnitude in any match - the average global betting turnover on Premiership games in the current season has been £74 million ($148 million) and some events have seen turnover four times this level. Everybody has their price and referees who take home merely tens of thousands of pounds in legitimate earnings annually are no different from the rest of us when it comes down to moral rectitude.
* Throughout Europe, the best referees are generally to be found lower down the domestic league ladders. These officials are rarely corrupt and are determinedly professional in trying to develop their officiating careers to the highest possible strata. It is unfortunate that the selection process for the top levels is not meritocratic - as in any septic tank, the stools always rise to the top.
* An economically valid manner of determining the status of referees from any particular country is to compare selections for Europe's premier club competition, the Champions League. If one checks out the UEFA selections for last season and the qualifying rounds for the current tournament, one finds the following numbers of matches per country (the second phase matches are given a weighting of x2 to take account of their importance): Germany 23; Italy and Spain 17; Norway 16; England 14. Looking at the events since Michel Platini took over from the inappropriately incumbent Lennart Johansson, the data is even more revealing. Only three out of 61 Champions League games have seen the choice of a PGMOB official which is hardly a ringing endorsement for the professionalism of English officials.
* There is no focus on the true agendas of the PGMOB officials in the mainstream English media and such media instead put down any perceived indiscretions to good old English eccentricity - never a peep about betting money. Graham Poll, three yellow cards, allegedly threatening Chelsea players - what a wag! Compare the number of column inches given to Raymond Domenech, the French manager, and his allegations about the Italians buying off referees in Under-21 competitions. We have no opinion on the match that Domenech alludes to but Italian referees have got a bit of previous, to put it mildly. Think calciocaos Mark I and Mark II, Paolo Rossi and the major betting-and-bribes scandal of the eighties or the numerous occurrences relating to Internazionale in the European Cup in the sixties. Related to this story are two very interesting reactions. Firstly, Michel Platini, who is quickly realising the necessities of realpolitik in the UEFA family, protested about Domenech's comments despite the fact that he played for Juventus for five season's immediately following Rossi's suspension and he can hardly have avoided the corrupt quirks of the Italian game. For Platini to defend the validity of the Italian version of our great sport is myopic. Secondly, Arsenal's Wenger, obviously fancying the French manager's post at some point in the future, spoke on RMC radio castigating Domenech with the twisted logic of: "Personally I didn't appreciate it. I believe managers have a form of responsibility to calm things down before matches. I don't think he [Domenech] was right". Unless Wenger is taking an unusual interest in the betting patterns of Under-21 international matches, he is clearly promoting a peculiarly French version of omerta here. Personally, I am not a great fan of Domenech's managerial style and France are a top side in spite of his input as opposed to because of it. But, I applaud his courage to speak out as very few other insiders are willing to do so, Mr Wenger included.
* During last Friday's emotionally fraught Super Cup match between Milan and Sevilla, Jim Beglin on ITV stated that referee Konrad Plautz was favouring the Andalucians. Fellow commentator Clive Tyldesley suggested that Beglin might wish to explain what he meant by that comment which, after several seconds of peculiarly pregnant pause, he did. His attempt at backtracking from any implication that an official might exhibit bias was unconvincing as he pretty much stuck to his guns with some minor platitudinal nuances thrown in.
The top level English referees are not the best in the world. They are not the best in Europe. They are not even the best in England - watch any Championship or Football League game and compare with Rob Styles for Liverpool/Chelsea or Howard Webb for Man Utd/Spurs. The English Premiership is evidently not the only league in Europe that suffers from the referees proximity to global betting markets - think Germany, Italy, Croatia, Russia etc etc etc. However, in our view, the Premiership is the worst on a corruption level currently as it is the only territory that is in public denial of the links between organised crime and refereeing. While this denial remains the spun reality, the game will continue its steady and inexorable demise.
Our final quote is from that highly principled operator, Mr Sven Goran Eriksson. Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, ol' blue eyes stated that: "The best thing about English referees is that they are fair". Coming from the manager of a club that is owned by double arrest-warranted Thaksin Shinawatra, a man who is indirectly sponsoring (and, hence, paying) the Premiership officials, this can only be taken as a clear example of Swedish doublespeak.
One note of concern relating to His Excellency's ability to keep buying off those whom he deems necessary to be bought off should be mentioned here. Shinawatra is currently bemoaning the fact that his Swiss bank accounts have been frozen although both the Swiss and Thai authorities clearly state that this is not the case. In our estimation, Shinawatra hasn't managed to secrete away enough cash in offshore financial centres (OFCs) to fund his spending spree and is creating fallacious realities to prepare the people in the blue half of Manchester for the worst. "Good old bank secrecy is no more. Absolute discretion is a thing of the past," the good doctor bleated. Our collective hearts are bleeding...
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
