How do we deal with the bias

[Londonblue1]

Didn't know where to put this but watching the arsenal game and saw a blatant elbow to the face from rvp,needless to say there was one replay during the game and wondered why there was not the same sort of reaction as to the balo stamp.surely a similar ban is on the cards?

[zuricity]

Well McLeish is calling for action .

Can't see anything happening as in the last paragraph from this report

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/16784620.stm

If it turns out referee Mike Jones witnessed the incident at the time, then no retrospective action can be taken by the disciplinary authorities.

I bet Mike Jones saw this one. 100%. Even if he wasn't watching, he will have seen this one.
(on the highlights he was looking in the direction of the malicious attack by Van Persie. Typically, shown during the
game but not discussed afterwards on the highlights).

[Yffi_88]

All this "top of the league" talk is great whilst we actually are.

However, i'm not so confident that we'll be at the top of the league much longer when decisions keep going like this. Lots of people are acting as though we're 11 points clear with 5 games remaining.

We're a draw and a loss away from being second. 4 points. 16 games left.

Im as happy as anyone to be top of the league, but if we cant complain about these things whilst we're top, we're sure as hell going to look like whingers if we drop to second.

[Rag_hater]

Well Mcgleish is calling for action .

Can't see anything happening as in the last paragraph from this report

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/16784620.stm

If it turns out referee Mike Jones witnessed the incident at the time, then no retrospective action can be taken by the disciplinary authorities.

I bet Mike Jones saw this one. 100%. Even if he wasn't watching, he will have seen this one.
(on the highlights he was looking in the direction of the malicious attack by Van Persie. Typically, shown diring the
gae but not discussed afterwards on the highlights).

I'm all for technology being used to make the refs life less prone to mistakes but the constant stream of people spotting mistakes that have been made during a game with the aid of replays etc is getting a bit extreme don't you think

[PALUS]

I did not want to open a new topic somewhere but I must ask, since we have City fans everywhere, at least on our channels in Bosnia have weekly reports and the British - your experts or former players to provide analysis and opinion(taken out of your channels and programs). What is unclear is why they are all so jealous of City and comment against diminishing his success, constantly repeating the buying players like no one before has not do something like that,and any errors (such as waving a cardboard) are exaggerate.Why no one(from the English football elite) wants a successful City?

[john@staustell]

I did not want to open a new topic somewhere but I must ask, since we have City fans everywhere, at least on our channels in Bosnia have weekly reports and the British are your experts or former players to provide analysis and opinion. What is unclear is why we here are all so jealous of City and comment against diminishing his success, constantly repeating the buying players like no one before has not do something like that,and any errors (such as waving a cardboard) are exaggerate.Why no one(from the English football elite) wants a successful City?

Unfortunately our lack of success in the last 30 years means that many very few 'experts' are ex-City players. Also, whilst older pundits like Hansen and Thompson may have fought with City, many of the younger ones do not remember us as a top club. It's hard for them to grasp it. So they see us as coming from nowhere to upset their party. They also conveniently forget the relatively vast amounts spent by United, Arsenal, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle,Chelsea and even Foerest and Everton if you go back far enough, over the years.

Remember that these people are not financial or political experts on a current affairs programme, but football players. Some of them are pretty stupid, and one or two verging on the idiotic.

I was particularly impressed by the lack of mention of the RVP elbow and a dreadful two-footed foul at Sunderland over the weekend. If either of those had been City players imagine the screaming headlines.

[Pretty Boy Lee]

I'm all for technology being used to make the refs life less prone to mistakes but the constant stream of people spotting mistakes that have been made during a game with the aid of replays etc is getting a bit extreme don't you think

I seriously await the day where any single topic city fans take exception with you agree with.

Just one and I'll die happy.

[PALUS]

We can have video evidence used against us, but when it might actually be of use to us it is thrown out and we get lengthy bans rushed through with unseemly haste. Balotelli - banned for four games based on video evidence. Kompany - banned for four games and video evidence ignored. This kind of kangaroo court belongs to a totalitarian dictatorship.

we could all send these gifs to the FA every day for a decade



The claim on one of the shows is the arm in an unnatural position (do not know where it should be a natural position in the pocket may be) in the same program said that this on Edin was not intentional and that the refere can decide whether a penalty should be given.Crazy stuf.

[mr_nool]

I did not want to open a new topic somewhere but I must ask, since we have City fans everywhere, at least on our channels in Bosnia have weekly reports and the British are your experts or former players to provide analysis and opinion. What is unclear is why we here are all so jealous of City and comment against diminishing his success, constantly repeating the buying players like no one before has not do something like that,and any errors (such as waving a cardboard) are exaggerate.Why no one(from the English football elite) wants a successful City?

Unfortunately our lack of success in the last 30 years means that many very few 'experts' are ex-City players. Also, whilst older pundits like Hansen and Thompson may have fought with City, many of the younger ones do not remember us as a top club. It's hard for them to grasp it. So they see us as coming from nowhere to upset their party. They also conveniently forget the relatively vast amounts spent by United, Arsenal, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle,Chelsea and even Foerest and Everton if you go back far enough, over the years.

Remember that these people are not financial or political experts on a current affairs programme, but football players. Some of them are pretty stupid, and one or two verging on the idiotic.

I was particularly impressed by the lack of mention of the RVP elbow and a dreadful two-footed foul at Sunderland over the weekend. If either of those had been City players imagine the screaming headlines.

For the FA Cup derby Dutch TV had invited Alfons Groenendijk as one of two studio pundits. He was biased as well, but to our advantage. Even after the first half when we were 3-0 down, he was talking about how we were the moral winner and how scum had only come to Eastlands to park the bus. He was livid about the Kompany send-off and the handball by Jones that wasn't given. It was quite refreshing.

[PALUS]

I did not want to open a new topic somewhere but I must ask, since we have City fans everywhere, at least on our channels in Bosnia have weekly reports and the British are your experts or former players to provide analysis and opinion. What is unclear is why we here are all so jealous of City and comment against diminishing his success, constantly repeating the buying players like no one before has not do something like that,and any errors (such as waving a cardboard) are exaggerate.Why no one(from the English football elite) wants a successful City?

Unfortunately our lack of success in the last 30 years means that many very few 'experts' are ex-City players. Also, whilst older pundits like Hansen and Thompson may have fought with City, many of the younger ones do not remember us as a top club. It's hard for them to grasp it. So they see us as coming from nowhere to upset their party. They also conveniently forget the relatively vast amounts spent by United, Arsenal, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle,Chelsea and even Foerest and Everton if you go back far enough, over the years.

Remember that these people are not financial or political experts on a current affairs programme, but football players. Some of them are pretty stupid, and one or two verging on the idiotic.

I was particularly impressed by the lack of mention of the RVP elbow and a dreadful two-footed foul at Sunderland over the weekend. If either of those had been City players imagine the screaming headlines.

So they are not here as a more independent analysts they openly support their clubs here because we sometimes really surprised when we hear what they say (for example, we could not believe that two of the show talking about Manchin waving cardboard about 5 minutes its like as the man came out and slapped refere and how it should be punished)

[zuricity]

Well McLeish is calling for action .

Can't see anything happening as in the last paragraph from this report

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/16784620.stm

If it turns out referee Mike Jones witnessed the incident at the time, then no retrospective action can be taken by the disciplinary authorities.

I bet Mike Jones saw this one. 100%. Even if he wasn't watching, he will have seen this one.
(on the highlights he was looking in the direction of the malicious attack by Van Persie. Typically, shown during the
game but not discussed afterwards on the highlights).

I'm all for technology being used to make the refs life less prone to mistakes but the constant stream of people spotting mistakes that have been made during a game with the aid of replays etc is getting a bit extreme don't you think

Well don't comment on it then ! And no I don't think so. The old 'big four' get away with everything, it's not just City that is being singled out. If you think it's ok to let Van Persie elbow somebody in the face, Nani to elbow Micah in the kneck,
Evra to slap Kun in the face, Crouch to stick his finger in somebody's eye and for nothing to happen, well that's fine, I don't.
We've seen bad refereeing take points of City enough times this year. Chelsea, Fulham, Sunderland, Blackburn to name four
games. It isn't the first time that Van Persie has done this kind of thing either. The FA Cup games over the weekend highlighted the massive inconsistency in refereeing this season , yet again !

I wonder what is in store for tomorrow night.

[Chinners]

Anyone got a clip of the Van Penis elbow incident?

[Ted Hughes]

I did not want to open a new topic somewhere but I must ask, since we have City fans everywhere, at least on our channels in Bosnia have weekly reports and the British are your experts or former players to provide analysis and opinion. What is unclear is why we here are all so jealous of City and comment against diminishing his success, constantly repeating the buying players like no one before has not do something like that,and any errors (such as waving a cardboard) are exaggerate.Why no one(from the English football elite) wants a successful City?

Unfortunately our lack of success in the last 30 years means that many very few 'experts' are ex-City players. Also, whilst older pundits like Hansen and Thompson may have fought with City, many of the younger ones do not remember us as a top club. It's hard for them to grasp it. So they see us as coming from nowhere to upset their party. They also conveniently forget the relatively vast amounts spent by United, Arsenal, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle,Chelsea and even Foerest and Everton if you go back far enough, over the years.

Remember that these people are not financial or political experts on a current affairs programme, but football players. Some of them are pretty stupid, and one or two verging on the idiotic.

I was particularly impressed by the lack of mention of the RVP elbow and a dreadful two-footed foul at Sunderland over the weekend. If either of those had been City players imagine the screaming headlines.

For the FA Cup derby Dutch TV had invited Alfons Groenendijk as one of two studio pundits. He was biased as well, but to our advantage. Even after the first half when we were 3-0 down, he was talking about how we were the moral winner and how scum had only come to Eastlands to park the bus. He was livid about the Kompany send-off and the handball by Jones that wasn't given. It was quite refreshing.

Hahaha.

Good ol 'give us an 'A' '

[john68]

Actually Rag hater, you do have a point. Quite a major one that emphasises the problem.

There is a constant stream of people spotting mistakes which would not be possible, but for the constant stream of mistakes and even with or without replays, it is getting extreme. We have an extreme problem with referees.
Thanks for spotting and quantifying it.

[Ted Hughes]

The other problem is, that if we have replays, the kind of people who hung Balotelli & Adebayor but choose to regularly let off Van Persie (who has never been English or played for England btw) are the same people who will get even more opportunity to sanction our players.

[mr_nool]

Anyone got a clip of the Van Penis elbow incident?

No video, I'm afraid. Just this still.

[Rag_hater]

If people think ref's did not make mistakes before and all games were played by players who adhered to the rules religously then they really need to get real.The only reason its such a big issue with us now is because of the ability to watch the incident over and over from allsorts of angles.If you think this kind of stuff did not happen before youre mad.It's always gone on and fuckall can be done to stop it happening.Mistakes will always be made.

[Yffi_88]

I dont think its the mistakes people are most annoyed about, but instead the inconsistency of decisions e.g Mario's retrospective red card, and the fact that there have been several incidents worse than that in the last few weeks which can be proven far more conclusively that nobody seems to have given a shit about looking back on.

If its happening to Mario, then why isnt it happening to anyone else? If Vinnie is being punished for a challenge like that, why isnt anyone else?

[john68]

If people think ref's did not make mistakes before and all games were played by players who adhered to the rules religously then they really need to get real.The only reason its such a big issue with us now is because of the ability to watch the incident over and over from allsorts of angles.If you think this kind of stuff did not happen before youre mad.It's always gone on and fuckall can be done to stop it happening.Mistakes will always be made.

I don't think anyone has suggested a golden, better behaved, error free era, nor does anybody really believe there ever was one. Most on here are not that crazy.
I agree that technology and increased media coverage allows us to analyse and scrutinise refereeing decision as never before. I also agree that mistakes will always be made but I disagree thatnothing can be done.

The very fact that we have such improved technology means that we not only have the means to identify mistakes but also the means to CORRECT them.....It is patently clear that those who administer our game are refusing to embrace this new technology, thus stopping this aspect of football progressing.

The World is able to see and assess the Kompany tackle, the Johnson tackle, the Micah handball, the RVP elbow but it is the FA's refusal to act and allow for consistancy that is the current problem.

[Yffi_88]

The World is able to see and assess the Kompany tackle, the Johnson tackle, the Micah handball, the RVP elbow but it is the FA's refusal to act and allow for consistancy that is the current problem.

Which, for me, makes it even more annoying/strange when they decide to go back and review Balotelli's stamp and let some of the other appalling decisions go unpunished.