************FOOTBALL IS FIXED IS DAILY FOR OCTOBER************
In fifteen years of data on the primary leagues in Italy, Spain and Germany, there have been around 30 pre-match changes of referee in total - that averages out at around 0.7 matches per season where the league authorities change the senior match official.
The reasons for the alterations are public and obvious too - extreme flooding, illness, traffic pile-up's, in fact, exactly the types of occurrence that prevent most normal people from going about their daily lives.
But, English referees are not normal people.
This past weekend, the Premiership had THREE changes of referee in ONE round of matches.
But, this was not all.
Below are all the adjustments made by Keith Hackett and the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOB).
* Blackburn v Manchester United - Two sets of changes. New referee, Bennett, and two new assistants.
* West Brom v Fulham - Mark Halsey, still not forgiven for sending off the omnipotent John Terry, was due to be reintroduced to the Premiership for the first time since the infamous incident. Hackett obviously feels that the man has not been punished enough, as he was replaced by Dowd. There was a significant change of 4th Official in this game too, as Marriner was replaced by Walton.
* Wigan v 'Boro - The 4th Official was altered on two separate occasions in this match.
* Portsmouth v Stoke - Match referee, Mike Riley, replaced by Andre Marriner in a hot betting contest.
* Tottenham v Hull - Both assistant referees changed.
* Meanwhile, the PGMOB Select Group (sic) also had changes of referee in the games at Barnsley and Peterborough (Tanner and Probert), while Attwell was provided with a change of assistants at Wycombe.
So, in just one highly manipulated window of games, the PGMOB made FOURTEEN changes to the games involving the Select Group.
Fourteen???
Is the country under the ravages of Asiatic Bird Flu?
Are motorways and regional airports closed?
Has the rail system seized up?
Or, is Keith Hackett ##################################?
In the previous two seasons, there have been 16 and 11 changes, respectively, in match referee by the PGMOB in the Premiership (4.2% and 2.9% of overall matches).
This season, in the first 69 matches, there have been four adjustments in referee (5.8%) - so we are currently having disruption in twice as many events as last season.
Again, for comparison, while the Premiership has produced 31 ref changes in two-and-a-bit years, Italy has had just 2...
Why do Hackett's mob do this thing?
There are a range of reasons - ##############################################
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The events at the weekend covered several of these bases.
It is our estimation that the change from Wiley to Bennett at Blackburn was to ########################################################################
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The imposition of Marriner for Riley was more interesting. ####################
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The lowest turnover event was the ######### match at the Hawthorns - this match was a standard ################################################ - and, once again, this knowledge was the hyperreality being targeted by the PGMOB, in the view from our privileged position in the marketplace.
For further proof of the linkage between hot betting events (for whatever reason) and changes in referee, it is probably worthy of note that we backed only three teams in the Premiership this weekend - Manchester United, West Bromwich Albion and Portsmouth!!!
This season, the PGMOB have been trying a range of tactics to offset insider gambling by individuals associated with and/or linked to Premiership clubs.
Firstly, significant delays were imposed on the release of the following weekend's roster.
When this merely had the rather obvious market impact that professionals and insiders merely delayed the initiation of their trading strategies, the PGMOB moved it up an intellectual level.
They released the match officials even later.
And, guess what happened, the pro's delayed again.
Now, it is evident that such a short-sighted strategy was never going to work as, taken to an extreme, match officials could be kept entirely anonymous until Kick Off. On the one hand, this will reduce insider gambling, on the other it stops the betting industry from functioning on their favourite morsels of knowledge, that very self-same inside information.
So, now Hackett is trying something new.
The match officials were released earlier than usual this last week.
The fourteen changes were then sprinkled liberally across the week.
Once we realised what was going on, we shelved our early positions apart from those taken in private markets that allow reversibility of position.
Turnover plummeted to less than 40% of the seasonal average in the early-mid market phases.
Additionally, many of the referees are being placed with different teams of assistants, a further anti-corruption ploy as familiarity is known to breed criminality.
But, none of these reactive moves make any difference to the eventual market structure, they merely condense the trading of significance into a smaller and smaller window.
Additionally, the inside knowledge possessed by ###############################
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Indeed, we are able to clearly and repeatedly show that the liquidity that PRECEDES the public release of this change of match official information, is insider and British and marked.
Of the utmost importance on this matter is the following fact - these appointments of match officials are simply not made on merit.
The selection of the 20 members of the PGMOB Select Group is a secretive process, while the match selection itself is based on anything other than merit.
So Rob Styles, who made the highest profile blunder last weekend at Manchester United, was still given a game this weekend, to the ironic amusement of one of the PGMOB officials:
KH: "Hello Robert, it's Keith here"
RS: "Hi Keith. How are you?"
KH: "Fine Robert. Listen, this penalty you gave at the weekend ....."
RS: "What about it?"
KH: "It's caused a bit of a rumpus."
RS: "Has it? I didn't know."
KH: "Well it has, but I've got a proposition for you."
RS: "Don't like the sound of this Keith, but go on."
KH: "If I go public and say you've apologised, I reckon everything will be alright."
RS: "OK, Keith, but what's in it for me?"
KH: "Nothing ... well, apart from you being appointed to Spurs v Hull next Sunday."
RS: "Can I think about it Keith?"
KH: "Of course. The only other candidates for this game were the likes of Probert, Jones, Stroud and Tanner, so take as long as you want."
RS: "Thanks uncle ... I mean Keith!"
A further match official weighs in with the following:
"An absolute, complete and utter mockery, no other way to describe Styles appointment and, to a lesser extent, Foy's too.
"The idiots who make these appointments are nothing short of a bloody laughing stock... I despair, I really do..."
So, the PGMOB are continuing to face low morale within their ranks, while impacting upon the global betting markets on the larger stage. Both the standard and, particularly, the integrity of officiating is much lower in the Premiership than it is in the lesser leagues, as the PGMOB is proof of the old adage that the shit always rises to the top.
And that would include Hackett and Scudamore too.
The final word is given to yet another disaffected PGMOB official: "No-one on the Prem at the moment deserves that title [great ref]. A great referee is Joe Worrall, George Courtney, Neil Midgley, Ken Ridden or Arthur Ellis."
True.
But Mike Dean is better at ########.
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