How can we possibly be stronger than the refs? « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

By Walter Broeckx

Another day another ref article. And I had promised myself not to write one before next week. But thanks to one of our readers I had to do it.

People who have been following my ref reviews and my articles during the season in which I explained how and what can go wrong with the refs and their bias will know that I am convinced that some refs have a certain bias.

I also have said on many occasions that refs can be bribed.  I know some former refs and some former chairman of football clubs who have admitted to me that they have been bribed (former ref) or have bribed (chairman).

But I can understand people who are not that close or connected in the ref world that they are sceptical about such things. After all, who am I? Well I’m just a person at whom people sometimes say things which they shouldn’t say. Is it my trustworthy face? I just don’t know but it just happens on occasions.

I also have been saying that there are different ways in tilting a game. You can have the way younger and more inexperienced refs do the job. I could say the Arsenal-Aston Villa game was such an example.  Because it was blatant to see for most of us even without my ref review that the ref was taking on the big decisions to tilt the game.

More experienced refs do it in another way. They don’t do the important and eye catching decisions as this attracts too much attention. No they do the little fouls. They don’t give fouls to one team and punish the other for even running close to their opponents. A bit the way Halsey did it (he is very experienced) against Stoke with just giving one foul for Arsenal in the first half. Nobody notices it. Well apart from people like me of course.

But an article recently about an Argentine ref, Javier Ruiz, was very meaningful.  So this ref has (after stopping as a ref) said that teams pay money to the refs to get favours.  He also said he had proof of this.  And he named teams, championships and promotions in this.

Boca Juniors won the 2008 championship by bribing the refs he claims. And he claims he has proof. Well this is South America some might argue and such things are impossible in England. Yeah right. Let’s just believe it as we have no proof like this ref claims to have proof.

But some lines struck me a bit. I have been saying over here and told the people who come on this site and saying: “Now sure a ref can’t stop a team completely”  or “We should be stronger than that”.

On the other hand I have been saying that you can give me any game between the first and the last of a division and I can make sure that the team who is first in the league will not win. I have claimed on a few occasions that I could do this.  Which again had the result that people didn’t believe me.

And again I could say that this is fair because why should you believe me? I’m just that biased guy from Untold who happens to be a ref.

But then I want to give you the words this former Argentine ref said about the troubles River Plate have for the moment as they are fighting relegation and I quote from the article: “Why do you think River is fighting the drop?” he told Libre.  “If you don’t pay (the referees) they are capable of stopping you pass the halfway line.” The 43-year-old Ruiz, who said he left the job voluntarily, nominated “four or five” referees currently in action as having fixed games”.

And now I will repeat the main thing in this as this is such an important line told by a former Argentine ref who did games in the highest league in Argentina. : “If you don’t pay (the referees) they are capable of stopping you going past the halfway line.”

As I said before you don’t have to believe me on my word when I say a good and experienced ref can change the outcome of a game. But why don’t you just listen to a former Argentine top ref who now comes out with the message that a ref can stop a team completely if he wants to do this for any reason. This reason could be not being paid what was promised but this reason could also be bias, some instructions from a higher level,….

So you can ignore my message. You can brush it under the carpet. But do take a minute and think about what a former Argentine ref said… : They (refs) are capable of stopping you going past the halfway line.

Most experienced refs know they have that power. And thank God most of them will not use it. But you can be sure that there are refs out there who not only know this power but they will use it for whatever reason they think is good enough for them. Dowd anyone?

So next time when you say: ‘We should be stronger than the refs’ do think twice. Because the most powerful person on the pitch is the ref. And if you don’t believe me you can believe Javier Ruiz.

So we can only dream of having our own Javier Ruiz one day to tell what is going on. Maybe one day some retiring ref has enough of and will speak about it.  Well one can hope…

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