Last night Manchester City were denied two penalty shouts by Peter "Grandad" Walton.
So what? Referees are paid to make decisions.
But what is it that influences the decisions that Grandad makes?
In 21 matches refereeing Manchester United over eight seasons, the Reds have won 15, drawn 6 and lost 0.
In the same period, Walton has officiated 13 Manchester City games with only 3 ending in victory for the Citizens with 6 defeats.
But the last four years of refereeing from Mr Walton are even more revealing.
Manchester United 11 wins, 4 draws and 0 defeats (15 matches 37 points)
Manchester City 0 wins, 3 draws and 4 defeats (7 matches 3 points).
In 22 matches over four seasons, Man Utd have NEVER LOST with Walton in charge while City have NEVER WON.
Or take the last three seasons where the cumulative points difference between United and City is 27 points - fully 18 of these points are due to the supposedly unconscious biases of an old man.
It is this sort of thing that determines titles.
The fact that this knickpoint in performance by Walton coincides with the introduction of Shinawatra's stolen largesse leading onto the petro-dollars that made football in Manchester truly competitive is only a further point that requires a response from PGMOB/Walton.
Either this is just another collection of Incredible Flukes or the PGMOB and Peter Walton have some explaining to do over the bias, and it is a statistically significant bias, and over the reason the old bastard gets, on average, six games a season to 'favour' the Ferguson Reds.
Also, after United being presented with Chris Foy and Walton for the two post-crisis matches, Foy was once again 4th Official to a junior referee for the Stoke game last night .
This means, The Racism Derby aside, Ferguson has been given dominant referees of Foy (a false sending off and two penalty decisions), Walton (a penalty), Webb with five bookings of Arsenal players (remember Ryan Babel's tweet) and Foy again (two penalties) since Newcastle/Blackburn.
And so we have a Title Race...
... although it is more akin to a Handicap Hurdle with City carrying top weight.
Farcical!
Thank goodness Football isn't Fixed...
... It's Fucked.
NB There are a couple of cup matches in this list but for ease of argument in the time allowed, we totalise.
© Football is Fixed 2006-2012
