The Barton fall out « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

By Walter Broeckx

The Barton fall out I call it. And the FA and the PGMOL should consider what they are doing. Because they are making life very difficult for the refs. And by the refs I don’t mean the refs in the EPL. They get paid a nice sum of money to make up for a difficult life. And if they think it is too difficult they can always stop with being an active ref. Hey, who knows they could even join our ref reviewers team. Imagine me having Dowd in our team. Would he pass the fit person test at Untold?

But back to Barton. We all have seen how Barton attacked Gervinho, grabbed him by his cloths and shook him.  Now I have checked my rule book and in the rules it is clearly said that a player who attacks another player in an aggressive way should be given a red card. It says :

A player is sent off if he commits any of the following seven offences:

• Serious foul play
• Violent conduct

Now it could be that in some parts of the world they have a different notion of things. But I think that if I should attack a person outside the Auld Triangle and grab him and shake him like Barton did with Gervinho before the game it could happen that I will not see one minute of the game. Oh, don’t worry I will not try it. But if an officer would see me doing this he surely would talk me with him and let me give a good explanation for this behaviour. I don’t think you can give a good explanation for such behaviour in fact.

Now I can accept that the 4 temporary blind man didn’t see what Barton did. It could be that they all had something in their eye at the same time. And so they missed the violent conduct from Barton and also missed the fact that the only possible restart of the game should have been a penalty. Well let us just accept this and neglect it.

But Barton got a yellow card so they should have seen him do something wrong. And then it is obvious that the ref made a mistake and doesn’t know the rules or did it deliberate to protect the player from further action from the FA. But as has been proven before (look at our Rooney against Wigan article last season) the FA has the right to punish players even when the ref has dealt with the situation on the field. This can happen if the ref admits that he didn’t see the event completely.

So we now could say that by not doing anything against Barton the FA actually has given a license not yet to kill but a license to grab, start a fight without getting punishment.  And what did we see this week? At the end of the game between Chelsea and WBA?

The Chelsea defender John Terry attacking Peter Odimwingie and grabbing him by the shirt. Odimwingie was a bit smarter than Gervinho and didn’t react and didn’t gave a slap on Terry. But what did our ref do? He gave Terry a yellow card. And this is again not correct. Because the rule book stipulates:

He is also guilty of violent conduct if he uses excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball. (Exactly what Barton and Terry did)

And the instructions go further  that the player must be sent off. And they also warn the ref that violent conduct usually leads to mass confrontation.

And yet we have two cases of violent conduct in two games with both times mass confrontations and the ref only gives a yellow card.  Now there is a certain license to grab players by their shirt, off the ball and act violent. You will not be sent off. Well, unless you are an Arsenal player maybe. It will be interesting to see if an Arsenal player does this he only will just get a yellow card.

But what is the worst part of this all is that most refs know about the “giving the good example”. And by this I mean that what you see in the EPL today and it happening without punishment, then you will see this in a few weeks in the lower ranks of football.

So I really feel sorry for the refs in the next weeks. They will be confronted with players starting a fight by grabbing an opponent and shacking him around a bit. And as a result they will have mass confrontations on their playing field. And as they mostly are on their own they will have a hard time sorting those things out.

And if this brave ref produces a red card for this he will be confronted with people who point at Barton and Terry to say that the ref is useless. And players will contest any suspension claiming that Barton and Terry got no punishment.

So because the refs in the EPL don’t know their rules the refs in the lower divisions will suffer.

And because the FA and the PGMOL seemingly not doing anything about it, the refs in the lower divisions will have a difficult time ahead. It is an unwritten rule for most refs that what they see in the EPL will come to their field a bit later. And this is the same in most countries. Following the bad given example is somewhat attractive for some players. So they can feel Barton or Terry for a minute or so.

And it is already not easy to be a ref. So how many refs will call it a day after being faced with yet another mass confrontation from yet another wannabe Barton or Terry? And then the FA and the PGMOL will start a new campaign to recruit refs. Wouldn’t it be better to take care of the rules and punish players who are guilty of violent conduct and punish them. Even if they have been given a yellow which isn’t the right punishment anyway.

But they clearly don’t want to act and as a result they will lose more refs. It is a bit like mopping the water but with the tap still open…

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