Last Thursday morning, at 07:42, we posted about the inappropriate financial linkages and behaviour of PGMOB referee, Mark Clattenburg.
Two hours later, he had been suspended for allegedly dodgy business practices.
We're taking requests from readers for future libellous content...
Just like the hyperreal Premiership title race, the battle to become the worst match referee last season went right down to the wire.
Mark Clattenburg, Rob Styles and Howard Webb all went into the final round of games knowing that a poor performance would guarantee them the Worst Referee Title.
Styles, unfortunately, only got a 4th Official post and struggled to add to his seasonal underperformance. This left the sprint to the finish open to Mark Clattenburg, and he did not let us down with ######################################################, to claim the title for the first time.
From being the premier referee in 2006/07, Clattenburg has morphed into last season's most problematical official.
From Integrity to Murky in twelve months.
From Anti-Hero to Zero over the summer break.
From Flavour of the Month to Suspension in one week.
Life is nothing if not dynamic for The Electrician.
Before we go on, here is the Bum Ref Index Final Table 2007/08.
Note that only the inner core of 14 Select Group Tier 1 officials have been included.
Best Referee of the Season: Peter Walton.
2. #################
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12. Rob Styles
13. Howard Webb
Worst Referee of the Season: Mark Clattenburg.
Last season, 18 members of the Select Group of PGMOB referees were used in the Premiership (one game was refereed by non-Select Group official, Andy D'Urso, due to illness). #############################################################################################
We like the symmetry.
The G14(18) no longer exists.
Long live the G14(18)!
The PGMOB 14(18) most certainly still exists.
Whereas Bennett got 31 games and Riley got 30, Uriah Rennie, the one Black official had just 5 matches, while Stroud and Mason only officiated at 7 games.
Barry Knight got zero.
Nil.
The data becomes more curious when one assesses the televised games.
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We judge the PGMOB officials in a range of ways to come up with our Bum Ref Index.
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Anyway, back to Mark Clattenburg.
Last weekend, Clattenburg gamed the illusion of the Arsenal versus Real Madrid betting event, and on Wednesday night, he was in Hungary for a rare, if meaningless, European game.
As he and his new hair settled down for a good night's rest, he will have been looking forward to officiating at the season opener between Man Utd and Pompey at The Mall.
His career was going well.
By Thursday lunchtime, the man's life ###################### was uproar.
The PGMOB had decided to suspend Clattenburg over alleged debts to a former business partner in the electronics company that they control (Clattenburg has numerous 'outside' interests).
The suspension was inevitable.
As more and more fans are joining-the-dots and discovering the invalid links between referees and bookmakers, the authorities within the game are doing their utmost to keep this reality opaque.
In the close season, there has been ample coverage across the European media for developments in match-fixing cases involving referees...
Italy - Several players involved in a new calciocaos.
Portugal - Porto buying off referees in 2003/04 and the banning of these officials.
Germany - Bundesliga referee Robert Hoyzer released from prison for his role in match-fixing with Croatian mafia.
Romania - Gigi Becali openly buying off match officials to try and buy Steaua the title.
NBA - Referees working with broadcasters to achieve desirable and marketable outcomes to matches and tournaments.
In the British press, there has been next to nothing - too busy focusing on the illusory transfers of Adebayor, Ronaldo, Lampard, Owen, Berbatov, Barry et al.
The link mustn't be made explicit.
That is why Clattenburg was removed from the Community Shield.
And the mealy-mouthed media keep up their good work on behalf of the destruction of the sport.
Paul Wilson writes a whole piece himself today on The Guardian website.
Entitled "Time to Show the Ref Some Respect", the article covers today's Community Shield and the subject matter of its headline.
At no point does Wilson mention Clattenburg.
Two-and-a-half days is evidently too long a time in Wilson's world.
The Guardian/Observer have another delight for us today - an article by The Count, Richard Scudamore. In it, The Destroyer Of The Game refers to the 'virtuous circle' than underpins the Premiership.
He doesn't delve into the depths of this circle, otherwise names like ################################################################################################################ alongside bookmaking figures from the black and grey markets.
It might well be a circle but virtuous it ain't...
Scudamore's agent is working overtime at the moment, for only last week The Murky One was informing us that: "Football can spill over and get ugly. We have a responsibility to deal with these excesses".
It is not known whether this represents a thinly veiled threat as to the degree of intent that unites 'the virtuous circle', or a manifesto to game the illusion.
The very reasons that English top flight football has become ugly is the input of 'the virtuous circle'. To claim that he is our saviour, come to deliver us from the quagmire generated by his own excesses and manipulations, is chutzpah of the very highest degree.
Do one, Scudamore...
Mark Clattenburg was fast-tracked into the Select Group of the PGMOB. His debut as a Football League referee, at the age of 25 in 2000 allowed him to set a post-war record at the time. In 2004, he was promoted to the Select Group.
As we posted earlier in the week, Stuart Attwell has been similarly fast-tracked and joins the Select Group for season 08/09 at the age of 25.
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Of course, none of this should suggest that either Clattenburg or Attwell are suspicious simply because they have been fast-tracked.
Attwell is an interesting case. Nothing more, at the moment...
Clattenburg is ##############.
A very common template in the world of corrupted sports betting markets is the #################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################
I am thinking of suing the Premier League under Italian law for "Existential Damage".
The Napoli fan who took Inter Milan to court claimed that such damage was caused by offensive chanting and banners when the teams met last October.
"The Sewer of Italy"; "Ciao cholera-suffererers"; "Neapolitans have got tuberculosis".
The Napoli fan was left feeling "indignant and deeply hurt".
The fan won his case.
The Economist provided a blinkered special report on Sports Business at the beginning of the month. One of my colleagues spoke with Patrick Lane, the reports compiler. Despite a shared knowledge of the corrupt links between sport and the betting industry, no mention is made of this link in the final report.
Indeed, the report concludes: "Music, theatre and film may provide much the same experience. But in sport there is no script. That, in the end, is why people watch sport and will keep on doing so. They want escape, excitement and suspense".
Unfortunately, in the English Premiership, there is most certainly a "script".
This kind of undermines the reasons for football being able to continue as a mass-spectator sport - there is no escape, no excitement, no suspense.
The markets are rigged.
The outcomes are pre-destined in the large majority of Premiership matches.
Football is greyhound racing.
Its like white noise, nothingness.
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