"Hey, when did they add those flags in the corner?"
One would think that having a charge levelled at them by the FA over refereeing comments would be enough to at least shut one’s mouth; fortunately for bloggers everywhere, we don’t think like Sir Alex Ferguson. After Sunday’s 2-0 loss to Liverpool, Fergie had this to say:
“It is a very difficult atmosphere here. There was a wounded animal aspect to the game and it was something we did not overcome.
“I think it affected our players and it affected the referee. There were so many controversial things that happened we have to feel aggrieved at some of them.
“The Vidic booking was the worst decision. It is a foul, fine. But the player has played on, he won the second ball and knocked it for a throw in and got booked. It put Nemanja under pressure.
“The most controversial decision was Carragher bringing down Michael Owen. He was clear through. The laws of the game were altered to prevent professional fouls of that nature and if Carragher goes off, he is their best player and their captain. It would have been a different game. They would have been under pressure.
“The referee was only four or five yards from it – he cannot use a covering defender as an excuse. Michael was clean through. With Michael’s pace he is going to get away from him.”
That’s all well and good…except that the rules seem to indicate otherwise.
Now, to be fair to Ferguson, when I was watching this live I thought immediately that Carragher was getting an early bath. Fortunately for Liverpool, Andre Marriner actually knows the laws of the game and applied it exactly right. Per Graham Poll:
For a player to be dismissed for denying a scoring opportunity, the player fouled must be heading towards the goal, not just the goal line. So when Michael Owen was pulled down by Jamie Carragher in the 87th minute, Andre Marriner had an easy, routine decision: a direct free kick and a yellow card. It could not be a red card, whatever Sir Alex Ferguson and TV experts assert.
Fellow former official Jeff Winter agrees with Poll:
“Ferguson clearly doesn’t understand the law about the denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. The fouled player has to have full control of the ball and has to be moving towards the goal but Michael Owen did not fulfil either condition.
“[Sunday's match official] Andre Marriner was absolutely right to award a yellow card and a direct free-kick. It would have been totally wrong for him to have sent Jamie Carragher off. And Sir Alex should never have said that Andre Marriner was not an experienced referee when he is on the Fifa list and got all the important decisions right on Sunday.”
Owen was not headed towards the goal itself; he was heading at an angle that would’ve taken him…I don’t know, somewhere off to the side of the goal. I personally didn’t realize that it made a difference, but apparently it does.
Perhaps fairly, Ferguson took issue with the first Vidic booking. That was for a double foul on Fernando Torres (he knocked him over, then, as Torres was rising, knocked him over again); if that was Vidic’s only incident, than it might be seen as harsh. However, Vidic had been all over Torres the entire match, and fouling him was pretty much the only strategy Vidic had; I saw the card just as much for persistent fouling as I did for the incident itself (how Lucas didn’t get booked for the same I don’t know).
Later on, Ferguson also took issue with Carragher’s penalty on Carrick. Carragher probably dodged a bullet here; he comes in, nicks the ball, and then completely levels Carrick with his momentum (from another angle, Fletcher saw red for the same against Arsenal in the Champions League last year); however, Ferguson cleverly omits the penalty shout that Dirk Kuyt had against Dimitar Berbatov in the first half (where Berbatov tried to swap shirts with Kuyt in the box). If we’re officiating the perfect game in hindsight, that should’ve been a penalty as well.
The reality, though, is that Ferguson probably doesn’t care about the referees. He probably cares about the fact that his team has lost, and is using the referees to – again – deflect attention. Says Winter:
“I don’t know if Sir Alex Ferguson has got a problem with referees but he has got a problem when Manchester United don’t win and blaming the referee is the easy option. His statement about Carragher shows that either he doesn’t know the laws of the game or he’s resorting to mind games again.”
Now here’s the thing. When I was watching the game, I felt that the referee had made three major mistakes: I thought Carragher should’ve been sent off, that Carrick should’ve had a penalty, and that Kuyt should’ve had a penalty. I also thought that Marriner was much more hesitant to call fouls in the attacking thirds than he was in the middle of the pitch. And, really, can you blame him?
After two of the last three matches, Fergie’s had a go at the referee afterwards. Both of those matches were poor United results (the refs are his best friends when he’s winning). This was Andre Marriner’s first “big four” clash, so he’s already a little edgy, and he knows that no matter what he does he’s going to be vilified by someone after the match.
That’s a pretty shitty situation for a ref, frankly. Marriner didn’t have a perfect game, but he sure as hell didn’t have a terrible game; still, he has to deal with a Ferguson whine after the fact. This is why, when the FA finally gets around to hearing the charge against him, he needs to be given a stadium ban for persistent fouling. This is completely ridiculous and transparent; if Gary Megson or Phil Brown acted this way, the charge would’ve already been heard and the complaint resolve. Just because Ferguson’s been knighted doesn’t mean the rules don’t apply, and it’s time to make him accountable.
