Referees

[manpe 10,861]

I've never really cared about who referee matches, I just like to concentrate on football. But since recently we have been hit with many dubious refs and they influence directly our results, then I can't help but notice that most referees get stick on this forum.. rarely or never do I see any preference on who should ref the game and who fans actually like. In short words what I'd like to do is for the community to make some sort of list of refs who are in your opinion anti-Chelsea, pro-Chelsea, good neutral refs or just shit but honest refs (a la Foy maybe, he seems to fuck up all of his matches).

So, who do you think holds grudge against us, who do you think is a favourable ref for us? If you can, bring examples on why they are considered bad/good. And general discussion about refs can be here too, I don't mind. I'm just curious because I've never really taken interest in this subject and I can barely name referees... I only remember the bad ones

So I think it's safe to say that our blacklist contains Ovrebo, Foy and Webb for obvious reasons.. I'll let you more knowledgeable people fill me in with the rest.

[Kojo 4,676]

I hate referee's who change the game, it pisses me off so much. It's the lowest of the low from a referee, but there just not accurate enough, even though there would be no controversy i would rather have this game run by robots.

[The Big Drog 1,110]

I like Martin Atkinson, good ref, not too picky.

[manpe 10,861]

I like Martin Atkinson, good ref, not too picky.

would you consider him to be a favourable ref only for us or is he a competent referee in general? I've seen his name mentioned here a few times in a positive light... and googling him, I found a bunch of pictures showing him in a photoshopped Chelsea shirt I guess that goes to show something.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Foy, Dowd and Webb. What i'd do for these 3 to never referee a Chelsea game.

Atkinson does us favours from time to time

Mariner i think is a fair ref.

[The Big Drog 1,110]

would you consider him to be a favourable ref only for us or is he a competent referee in general? I've seen his name mentioned here a few times in a positive light... and googling him, I found a bunch of pictures showing him in a photoshopped Chelsea shirt I guess that goes to show something.

lol bit of both. I genuinely think he is probably the best ref in England and he is considered by Uefa to be an elite ref (which is why he refs Champions League games) and yes he might occasionally do Chelsea a small favour or two but nothing to rival Howard Webb's love affair with Man Utd.

[manpe 10,861]

Isn't Webb considered to be the best ref in England? Or at least I think he was. I think he refd the final in the WC or Euros... and wasn't he the one to give a player 3 yellow cards in a game?

[Amblève. 4,995]

I can see a lot "fuck you ref XY" comin'

BTT: Problem with good refs is that nobody remembers them when the game's over... I'll need to have a closer look on the last few years' refs...

I think Claus Bo Larsen did a good job in the CL Semi Finale first leg 2009 against Liverpool, he seems to be the only I can remember

[The Big Drog 1,110]

Isn't Webb considered to be the best ref in England? Or at least I think he was. I think he refd the final in the WC or Euros... and wasn't he the one to give a player 3 yellow cards in a game?

Isn't Webb considered to be the best ref in England? Or at least I think he was. I think he refd the final in the WC or Euros... and wasn't he the one to give a player 3 yellow cards in a game?

Yes he is considered England's top referee which is ridiculous, he refereed the Champions League final and the World Cup final, his World Cup final display was awful.

[termninja 5,290]

Cool thread.

Ovrebo.

Foy.

Webb.

God help them if some of them is a ref for a future Chelsea game.

[Kostas 1,468]

Dowd is unbelievably poor, quite worse than Webb even considering what happened today.

Mike Dean is annoying but when compared to other big-game refs I think he's marginally better than most of them.

Marriner is mostly ok.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

On the whole, most times, I kind of feel sorry for referees. In the last 2 seasons, especially, they've taken a lot of stick from everyone.. Media, managers, players etc. The problem is, there's no kind of adequate learning going on.

Yeah we know they have a mini-performance review kind of of a DVD where they review each decision. But certain referees get a reputation because they keep making the same mistakes and what we see is the FA bottling the calls to have them ref the lower league/bring through new referees who are more adapted to the modern game.

Rules also need to be clarified by the FA. Like the 'last man back', 'two-footed challenge' & 'violent conduct' rule. Because these interpretations seem to be changing week in, week out which doesn't help their cause any better than it should.

[Kez 2,727]

& who can forget Frisk of course? Retired quickly after the Barca match.

[EskWeston 696]

The way Webb was waiting for the Man Utd players reactions before giving fouls sometimes yesterday was quite shocking. He could not wait to blow for a pen, the first one was as soft as you like and the second was just plain ridiculous.

[teignman 441]

I understand that referees are human. They make mistakes, etc. However, I have absolutely no tolerance for sheer and utter incompetence (see Foy, Overbo) and favoritism (Webb). Howard Webb has awarded 54 penalties in the PL. 9 of them (a little under 17%) have been to Manure. At first glance that might not seem like favoritism, but consider the amount of games that this tosser has referreed, unfortunately, in the PL.

[teignman 441]

The way Webb was waiting for the Man Utd players reactions before giving fouls sometimes yesterday was quite shocking. He could not wait to blow for a pen, the first one was as soft as you like and the second was just plain ridiculous.

I rewatched the match, and was rather shocked at the lengthy delays making calls by him. He allowed himself to be bullied and coerced into decisions.

[francozola 2,040]

Most PL refs are ok. They are average and make mistakes but most of them do not seem to have any obvious bias and can at least get the majority of "simple" fouls right.

I like Clattenburg and Marriner the most. Atkinson is alright too.

The few that are really dreadful: Chris Foy, Howard Webb and Lee Mason. They are absolutely pathetic and tend to get everything wrong.

[Swedish House Mafia 508]

Fuck off and die:

Spider Webb

Chris Foy

Don't fuck off and die:

Mark Clattenburg

Mike Dean

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Webb didn't have a bad game in all honesty, but he made two mistakes - the first not to give a penalty for the Bosingwa shirt-pull, and the second to make up for that mistake when Welbeck fell over inside the box.

• Incident 1 - Bosingwa shirt-pull on Young - definite penalty, NOT GIVEN - wrong decision - you can see why Webb doesn't give it, as Young falls forward when Bosingwa is pulling him backwards, but this is a definite spot-kick, no doubt about it.
  
• Incident 2 - Cahill on Welbeck - never a penalty, NOT GIVEN - correct decision - never, ever, ever a penalty. Mainly because Cahill got the ball. Also because both the initial contact with the player and the follow-through contact came after the ball was won, and both moments of contact came outside the box. Not even a free-kick.
  
• Incident 3 - Sturridge on Evra - definite penalty, GIVEN - correct decision- obvious trip, blatant peno.
  
• Incident 4 - Ivanovic on Welbeck - never a penalty, GIVEN - wrong decision - never a penalty in a million years. Ivan withdraws his foot because he knows he is on a yellow card, so Welbeck drags his foot out and falls over Bran's leg, which is moving away from the player. Given because of a wrong decision earlier, but two wrongs don't make a right.
  

[capriccioso 2,545]

Isn't Webb considered to be the best ref in England? Or at least I think he was. I think he refd the final in the WC or Euros... and wasn't he the one to give a player 3 yellow cards in a game?

That was Graham Poll. We had to play Croatia back in the 06 World Cup with Josip Simunic getting 3 bookings.