I do not buy into the claims that our referees are corrupt. I just think they are incompetent. And their incompetence goes unchallenged by the equally incopometent Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL).

The PGMOL is essentialy an old boys club where a bunch of mates from Manchester support and promote each other. They control the refereeing of the game, and back each others incorrect decisions to ensure they remain in charge. Whenever an error is made, they batten down the hatches to ensure that they can not be questioned. It is not about getting a decision right or wrong, and all about keeping themselves and their mats in power.

People talk about the “Red Cartel” of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal being too influential in the game (note: this was coined by Everton fans who for whatever reason seem to back Manchester City and Chelsea purely because they are facing / have face financial charges). The truth is, the most influential group in football right now is the Manchester based Black Cartel.

I do believe that throughout time and space, poor decisions will even themselves out. Many teams have had poor decisions go their way which have won them games that led to lifting a trophy, and also had poor decisions go against them hat have cost them a shot of glory. It is sometimes easy to forget the poor decisions that go your way – especially when you are feeling raw about a recent decision going against you.

However, it does feel Arsenal are often on the bad end of the same sort of poor decisions.

Every season, the PGMOL decide to crack down on something. Clubs are told. And for a few weeks they referee incidents more strictly, before forgetting their briefing and going back to normal. It seems whenever this happens, it is Arsenal that ends up on the rough end.

Granit Xhaka v Swansea City – Back in 2016, referees were supposedly cracking down on fouls where an opponent was making no realistic attempt to win the ball. It was supposed to be a straight red. But only one red was given out to a player for failing to attempt to win the ball – to Granit Xhaka.

It was not a dangerous challenge, not was it reckless. Xhaka had just tripped his man making no attempt to win the ball. It happens all the time in football and Neville et al actually praise teams for what they call a “smart foul”.

To my memory, no other player was sent off for committing a foul without attempting to play for the ball and the “rule” was quickly scrapped.

Gabriel Martinelli v Wolves – In 2022, referees received instruction that they were to issue a two yellow cards if a player committed two yellow card worthy offences in the same phase of player. Only once did we see it happen. To Martinelli against Wolves.

I personally agree with this rule. It is a frustration of mine when a player commits a yellow card worthy challenge and a scuffle then ensues between the fouled and fouler. Both players then tend to get booked for the scuffle, but the original foul then goes unpunished. The fouler should be receiving a yellow card for a foul, and then a yellow card for the hand bags – or neither player should receive a card for the handbags and just one yellow dished out for the foul.

Martinelli received two yellows for two challenges one after the other. Every other time a player has committed two yellow card challenges before the ref has had a chance to blow the whistle (or waved play on), he has received just a single yellow. The double punishment has been dished out just once.

Takehiro Tomiyasu v Crystal Palace – Last season the instruction to referees was to crack down on time wasting. This consisted of the instruction of refs to be quicker to flash a yellow card for time wasting offences, and an increase in time added on.

The season started with most games going into their 100th minute. By the time we reached the second half of the season, the PGMOL had scrapped this and time added on was back to normal.

Referees failed to dish out quick yellow cards, continuing to allow goal keepers (Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope and others) to take an age over goal kicks (note: I always think if they got booked for the first offence, no matter how early in the game it was, it would speed up the game dramatically). Only once was a player sent off for time wasting.

Tomiyasu got a second yellow card against Crystal Palace early on in the season. His offence was taking a whole 8 seconds to take a throw in. After the decision was roundly condemned by everyone (except former officials), we saw no one else suffer Tomiyasu’s fate. Once again, a PGMOL experiment had failed with Arsenal being the victims.

Declan Rice v Brighton – In a repeated of something that happened in the 00s, referees have been instructed to crack down on players kicking the ball away and obstructing the kick taking of free kicks. The experiment failed in the 00s as teams would literally smash the ball into an opponent to get them booked, with refs giving no thought as to whether a player could physically get out of the way of the free kick, or was deliberately obstructing.

This weekend, we saw Joao Pedro kick the ball away and receive no punishment. the new Brighton managers defence of his man not receiving a card whilst also saying Rice’s was a “clear “red” was laughable. I look forward to his tears as the season goes on when Brighton get a player sent off due to a bad decision.

Also yesterday, a Bournemouth player booted the ball half the length of the pitch when a free kick went against them. No yellow card.

Declan Rice should never have received a yellow card. The Brighton defender threw the ball at him, and then attempted to kick a moving ball, missed it and kicked Rice. I sit right next to the incident and most fans were calling for a red for the Brighton lad (I defended him by saying it was not malicious and just an accident).

No Brighton player seemed to be calling for a second yellow card. In fact most were attempting to defend their forward. The exception was Danny Welbeck. And having seen the Manchester born forward influence the ref and call for a yellow card (which in itself is a yellow card offence), I am gutted that I clapped him off.

I doubt we will see another player sent off for the ball hitting them and it moving about a foot this season. Refs crack down on these things earlier in the season, then forget to do it. Once again we are the ones punished by the PGMOL trying something out.

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I do wonder sometimes if when the PGMOL try an initiative and decide to crack down on something, they pick a handful of games to do it in rather than apply that rule across all games. And Arsenal is always one of those games that they decide to do it in. This is the only way I can explain why Manchester born Chris Kavvangh “applied the letter of the law” against us, whilst countless similar incidents this weekend did not receive a booking.

Football is a tribal game, I get that. And we have seen online fans of opposing clubs support the decision to send Declan Rice off. But this shows a level of immaturity.

Instead of defending poor decisions because they went against a rival, we should be calling out poor, inconsistent refereeing regardless of who is victim.

If Rice’s was a yellow card, then why was no other player booked for kicking the ball away in a Premier League game on Saturday? And if the ref was officiating by the “exact letter of the law”, why did he not book Joao Pedro for kicking the ball away, or Danny Welbeck for demanding an opponent be booked?

And finally, if the ref was officiating by the exact letter of the law, then it he should not have booked Rice for delaying the start of the game. The ball was moving when the Brighton lad tried to kick it. It was never still. Therefore play was never in a legitimate place to restart.

Had the Brighton lad not missed the ball, and they gone on to score a goal, it would have been disallowed due to the ball moving. If play was not ready to be restarted, how could Rice be booked for delaying the restart?

It is all just a farce. The Black Cartel doing their own thing and making things up as they go along. Nothing will happen to Kavanagh , and in fact he will receive pats on the back and support from his colleagues who will celebrate his decision.

The best refs are those that do not make the game about themselves. Yesterday, for whatever reason, Kavanagh decided he wanted to influence the result of the game.

Keenos

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— Kick Off Merchants (@KOMerchants) August 30, 2024