Arsenal News » The Porto free kick. The referee’s point of view.

By Walter Broeckx

Another Champions league game … and another controversial game by the ref.

I will not start over the not giving penalty for Arsenal for a blatant foul on Rosicky just before THE incident that over shadowed the game.

But I just did. Well we don’t get penalty’s this season from refs and this is getting a bit annoying I think. If the Uefa has decided Arsenal not to give penalty’s any more that they please just say it so everyone knows it and we don’t expect penalty’s given anymore.

So let’s get on to the most important decisions of the game.

The rulebook says:

An indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a goalkeeper, inside his own penalty area, commits any of the following four offences:

• takes more than six seconds while controlling the ball with his hands before releasing it from his possession

• touches the ball again with his hands after it has been released from his possession and has not touched any other player

• touches the ball with his hands after it has been deliberately kicked to him by a team-mate

• touches the ball with his hands after he has received it directly from a throw-in taken by a team-mate

I put the most important word in bold and underlined it. But this is a decision which is based on how the ref sees it. I think Campbell was trying to shield the ball and it hit his left foot without the intention to kick it. But the ref saw it as deliberate so we cannot do much about it.

But then starts the real mess up from the ref.

Fabianski is holding the ball in his hands to prevent that Porto try to play it quick. But the ref demands the ball from Fabianski and if Fabianski didn’t give the ball to the ref he would have got a yellow card.

Now if a ref takes the ball in his hands it is to place the ball on the right spot and to get everyone at the right distance. This was what all the Arsenal players were expecting. In fact when the Porto player takes the free kick Fabianski is walking back to his goal line with his back to the ball because he anticipated that the ref was going to take things in hand and to put all players in the right position.

But the ref gives the ball to Porto who take it quickly and scores.

Let me quote the rule and the instructions once again ( and I apologize if the English is not totally correct but the instructions from Fifa to refs I have are in Dutch)  :

In cases where a whistle is not required to restart a game, the referee GIVES A SIGNAL with one arm to get the game going. (except for a  goal kick and a throw).

So the ref has to give a signal with his arm to allow the game to restart. The ref does not give a signal. So the game could not be started again. I’ve seen it some 24 times now and nowhere and from no angle there is a sign that he makes to allow the game to restart.

So the next thing from the rule book about:

The Indirect Free Kick

Signal

The referee indicates an indirect free kick by raising his arm above his head. He maintains his arm in that position until the kick has been taken and the ball has touched another player or goes out of play.

This means the ref  has got to indicate BEFORE THE FREE KICK IS TAKEN that it is an indirect free kick. The ref only gives this signal when the ball reaches the other player. So again a mistake and a foul from the ref.

To make things worse he obstructesn Sol Campbell who tried to prevent things as he ran in Sol’s way. So he took the defender out. Very bad positioning from the ref.

The ref has made a total mess of this. If he had any common sense he would have blown and had the free kick retaken. But he didn’t and we can all feel very bad about this very poor decision from the ref.

And like 2 seasons ago when the Swedish ref Peter Frojdfeldt send us home after a bad penalty decision against us in Liverpool it is another Swedish ref that hands us defeat and gives Porto a goal on a silver plate.  Do the Swedes have something against The Arsenal ? Or is it instructions from higher places?

UNTOLD RUMOURS

(If we had a press, these stories would be hot off it).

Mohammed Bin Hammam, has tabled a motion for the next Fifa big boys meeting, which says that in future no one with seven letters in his name, starting with B and ending with R is allowed into any position of power in FIFA.

Blatter (at whom this is said to be aimed) is standing for an unprecedented 83rd term, under the slogan, “I haven’t alleged anything yet”.   Blatter wants to outdo  João Havelange who was in charge for 176 years and who oversaw the introduction of sheep slaughtering at half time, and the creation of McDonalds as the “restaurant of the world cup”, thus giving a bad name to restaurants everywhere.

Sir Stanley Rous, was in the chair for 196 years, but is not believed to have done anything except ensure that England won the world cup by playing every game at Wembley.

Blatter is allegedly 374 years old, and has the IQ of an alleged shrimp on heat, according to Alleged Corruption Newsletter, the key journal of Fifa.  His great grandmother is allegedly an unemployed painter and decorator with a pathological fear of crustaceans who lives in New York and serves on the FIFA financial committee in between running the Quick and Cheap Cleaning Co

Blatter has allegedly invested much of other people’s personal fortunes (plus the gross national product of South Africa) in the World Cup this year, and will allegedly take all credit and profit if it works well, and blame the Africans for not being able to cope if it goes badly.

Blatter recently ordered the Finance Committee (see above) to pay over to the Nigerian Football Association $30m to cover the total financial disaster that was formally known as the Under-17 World Cup held there in 2009.  (Not “allegedly” in that sentence!!!)  In an exclusive interview with allegedly Untold Arsenal Mr Allegedly blattered us to “stick your head in a pig.”

Untold Arsenal bids for international TV rights for the EPL

Untold has bid 25p for the rights to show EPL games on Albanian TV.   Untold chairman, Sir Tony Attwood said, “Our finance committee in New York, under the guidance of Quick and Cheap Cleaning Co has offered this substantial bid for the rights to show the game in South Georgia.   As South Georgia has no population and no one other than Norman Wisdom has ever come back from Albania in one piece we think that is fair and generous.  Sepp Blatter is allegedly said to be against the deal on the grounds that his personal commission is not high enough.   His mother is allegedly said to be on the way to Untold Towers.

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