Light week this week, and we’re seeing a couple of new referee faces. Or, at least, new to this season’s matches. It’s great to see Phil Dowd (above) in action again, and with a big one, too: Tottenham v. Liverpool. Dude’s what? 51? He’s the poster boy for eliminating refereeing age limits. (There are rumors that even FIFA plans to do away with
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I always love it when Phil Dowd (above) referees Spurs. Lots of potato jokes amongst my crowd. “Is it just me or does Phil Dowd look like a potato with a pack of cards?” “Don’t be silly! Potatoes have eyes.“ (I actually think Phil Dowd is terribly sexy in a weird way. Which I know I probably shouldn’t admit.) Anyhoo… Aside
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Poor Mike Dean. What a day he had at Stamford Bridge. First there was Ramires punching Seb Larsson in the face (which Dean actually missed, but has no doubt seen by now) and then this. Cesar Azpilicueta did his best, but got outfoxed by Jozy Altidore in the box. Dean correctly called the penalty, which Liverpool loanee Fabio Borini stepped
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We’re rapidly running out of daylight on the season, and the title is still undecided. This puts even more pressure on the referees than they usually face. Any mistake could impact who wins the title. Liverpool play at Norwich on Sunday, with Andre Marriner (above) in the middle. Poor Andre has not had the … steadiest of seasons. Let’s hope
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The big game this week is Manchester City v. Chelsea. Mike Dean will officiate that one. He’s near the top of the charts on yellow cards, and only Andre Marriner and Martin Atkinson have handed out more red cards. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles these two teams of prima donnas footballers. Elsewhere, Phil Dowd is managing the Anti-Mark
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In addition to all the usual appointment news and fun stuff, we had a couple of big stories this week on Play the Advantage. The Wall Street Journal published an article about FIFA’s referee selection process and how it basically screwed at least one referee over, but I had a slightly different perspective… In what may be a regular feature,
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Let’s state this right up front: ManU are collapsing. So there’s no reason to go over their calamitous 3-1 defeat at Chelsea. What is worth discussing are two calls Phil Dowd made in injury time, one to send Nemanja Vidic off with a straight red card and one to keep Rafael on with a yellow. Either way, ManU ends up with
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 