Ever wonder what (if any) thought goes into the Premier League referee appointments week in and week out? While it’s something of a trade secret, I’ve managed to dig up an old list that seems to still be relevant. While these may not be the only criteria PGMOL use, this list seems pretty comprehensive. The referee’s current form – We saw
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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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Here are the officials for this weekend’s TIM Cup second round of returns. Saturday LAZIO – JUVENTUS MASSA BARBIRATI – MARZALONI IV: DI LIBERATORE ADD1: BERGONZI ADD2: GERVASONI NAPOLI – CHIEVO IRRATI STALLONE – GHIANDAI IV: PETRELLA ADD1: GIACOMELLI ADD2: LA PENNA Sunday CAGLIARI – MILAN DOVERI DE PINTO – SCHENONE IV: GRILLI ADD1: RIZZOLI ADD2: DI BELLO FIORENTINA –
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Just for a bit of fun, here’s a cute video compilation that proves that refs have always done dumb things. Some dumber than others. (I’m looking at you, Graham Poll…)
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First of all, how cool is it to see a feature article about World Cup referees on Wall Street Journal? Really cool, I would say. The piece, by Gabriele Marcotti and published on January 19, is titled: Fine Line for World Cup Referees Byzantine Selection Process Will Leave Top Talent Missing in Brazil I think you can get a pretty
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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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There are Premier League games scheduled for mid-week next week, January 28-29. While the official appointments are not out on the refereeing site yet, Premier League did tweet a number of upcoming appointments. The biggest news is that Clatts is back! Mark Clattenburg was injured before the Stoke v. Crystal Palace game, and was unable to officiate. He’s also skipping
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Update, March 1: The referee for the Capital One Cup final on Sunday, March 2 between Manchester City and Sunderland is Martin Atkinson. It’s a Cup week, with the Capital One Cup semifinals on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the FA Cup fourth round on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Cups are always exciting, because we get to see some new faces along with the
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I tuned in late to the Crystal Palace v. Stoke game, expecting Mark Clattenburg to be refereeing, only to see a bald head running around the pitch in yellow Has he shaved his head? Clattenburg got paid way too much money for that hair to do that, I’d say. And I was unfortunately right. Lee Mason took over for Clattenburg
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 