Nicola Rizzoli has been named Italy’s top referee for the 858th year in a row. Okay, I exaggerate. It’s just 857. In all seriousness, this is at least the third year in a row that Rizzoli has walked onto the stage at Italy’s Gran Gala and accepted the trophy. And I think he’s worn the same suit every year. (For
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Mark Clattenburg is the Man to Watch this upcoming week. But then, when isn’t he? He’s got Everton (5th) at Spurs (6th) on Sunday, then takes a break and does Arsenal (1st) v. Man United (7th) on Wednesday. A single bad call from him this week could impact next year’s Champions League spots, and maybe even the title race. No
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So, apparently climate change is everywhere, because it’s been raining buckets in Rome for, like, six weeks. Or that must be how it feels to them. There’s so much rain that the Prime Minister has declared a state of emergency in the city. It rained for 24 hours before the Roma v. Parma match, and the teams walked out onto
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Chico Flores is a cheat and a swindler and a crybaby. Everyone knows that. But was Howard Webb really completely wrong to show West Ham’s Andy Carroll the red card after the big oaf tangled with Flores on Saturday? I’m not so certain. If you take a look at this video, Carroll doesn’t look as innocent as he’s been made
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A couple of caveats to today’s edition of ‘Red Card or Not?’ First, I’m a Tottenham supporter. Second, I’m an Andre Marriner supporter. So, these two sides of my particular coin clash badly when reviewing Marriner’s red card to Danny Rose against Manchester City at White Hart Lane. The setup: Rose, who was playing brilliantly to this point, slid across
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According to this exclusive in Daily Mail, the big kahunas of football were so aghast at Mike Jones’ horrendous day at Newcastle that they’re just throwing money at refereeing now. The highlights of the story: The amount of money spent on refs is due to nearly triple, to somewhere around 1 million pounds annually The goal is to both raise current
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The last time France did not have a referee in the World Cup was somewhere around 1357. Or 1974. Whatever. It’s been a while. But unfortunately, Stephane Lannoy gets that ignominious “honour”. Let’s get it out of the way right now: Lannoy is a good referee. Granted, his performance at the 2010 World Cup was hardly stellar. In the Ivory
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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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