This Wenger charge for calling into question the integrity of the referees

[Ash]

I take exception. Mr Riley was no cheat. He was simply a spineless, gutless, scum sucking little weasel who was frightened of Sir ****ex so he was, the hideous little ****stain.

You have given a possible explanation of his motives for cheating. It's still cheating.

[Luis Anaconda]

Out of curiosity, has a manager ever been charged for saying "you don't get the decisions at the big grounds"?

Because I think I must have heard that said 3 million times, and it is rather explicitly questioning the integrity, or certainly no less so than Wenger's comments.

Excellent point - never gets brought up

[redgunamo]

The whole business is complicated though, so I guess anyone can look at it any way they choose

It can also work the other way, where a ref who is thought to be biased in favour of a certain club will overcompensate by showing a slight bias against them in his decisions.

I also think this 'over-compensation' mentality can come into play in other situations too. For example, I reckon Anthony Taylor may have given Chelsea their pelanty because he feared if he didn't it would look like he'd been scared off by Wenger's comments after the West Brom game.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

I was a bit annoyed with Arsene wasting nearly a minute of added time arguing with Dean when we could have been trying to get the winner. Dean blew up exactly on 4 mins.

Despite having booked Courtois for time wasting - hideous little cheating ****.

[redgunamo]

Any abuse of power is a corruption in my book.

My word

[Sir C]

Conspiratorial, tin-foil hatted insanity to suggest that football could possibly be corrupt, I've been informed. To suggest that a ref, or even worse, the head of the refs might have bias against a team. Madness.



You might as well suggest that FIFA itself is corrupt.

Exactly. Riley cheated that day at Old Trafford. Whether because he was paid, intimidated, or simply doesn't like us is immaterial. It is clear that he was consciously biased against us. His gimp, Mike Dean, continues this tradition.

[Ash]

Out of curiosity, has a manager ever been charged for saying "you don't get the decisions at the big grounds"?

Because I think I must have heard that said 3 million times, and it is rather explicitly questioning the integrity, or certainly no less so than Wenger's comments.

Apologies for steering the thing in a different direction. On your point, didn't Sean Dyche say "we were never going to get that decision" or words to that effect about the late pen we got at Burnley?

[redgunamo]

Interesting I've read a couple of pieces slagging off Wenger of suggesting a conspiracy that have totally failed to mention the fact that he was on the end of one of the biggest examples of corruption in modern-day football. Clearly going to colour his view

That all happened in France though. Different matter entirely; everyone knows what they're like.

[redgunamo]

Apologies for steering the thing in a different direction. On your point, didn't Sean Dyche say "we were never going to get that decision" or words to that effect about the late pen we got at Burnley?

Yes, something like that. I recall his comments actually being rather even-handed, under the circumstances.

[redgunamo]

Despite having booked Courtois for time wasting - hideous little cheating ****.

Told you so, didn't I. Money has ruined the game. No-one cares what's right anymore, so long as they get paid enough.

The decision to lawfully financially reward officials was probably one of the worst ever.