Referees and locality, 3. What did Mr Wenger mean when he said “We know what we expect here in London” « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

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By Walter Broeckx

In this new series about the refs I have so far published two articles:

London people are unfit to referee according to the referees’ association

The refs’ association has closed its web site, and made a change.

And those two articles covered quite a bit of ground.  But maybe there is still something else.

If we have another look at the refs and where they come from (and you may also want to look at the comments made after “London people” article as there were some notes about the origins of refs and where they live) there are some further interesting pointers.

So I take the table I used in the article before and I include once again the head of the refs our dear friend Mike Riley.

North:

North East England	Clattenburg	Moss	Oliver
North West England	Dean	Foy	Jones	Halsey	Mason	Swarbrick	Taylor
Yorkshire	Riley (head)	Webb	Atkinson	Marrinner

Midlands:

East Midlands	Friend	Walton
West Midlands	Dowd	Atwell

South/London:

London
South East England
South West England	Probert

And we see first of all that the head of the refs is from Yorkshire. As was the former head of the refs in fact. Because Mr. Hackett also was from Yorkshire.  Apparently only people from Yorkshire are fit enough to become head of the refs!  And as Yorkshire is well in the North we see that most of the refs in the EPL are from the North also. If we count the Midlands and the North together as one big area it would mean that only 1 (one) ref is not from the North in fact. And as said before: no ref from London itself.

Also take note that the new refs (Moss and Swarbrick) are once again from the North so once again no Southern ref is judged good enough to become a ref in the EPL.

If we take in account that Riley (and his predecessor Hackett) are Northern boys it looks as if they have installed a regime with all the comrades from nearby. A bit of the “us knows us” in ref land.  And didn’t I mention that in my earlier articles about bias and refs? Yeah I did. And at that time I didn’t know these numbers.

Do you want more evidence about us knowing us? Why don’t we look at the names I put in bold.

Because those names in bold are the refs who have a Fifa badge. And in this we see that ALL the refs from Yorkshire have received a Fifa badge.  Given to them by the fellow Yorkshire boy Riley.  Now what a coincidence is this?  Or is a bit of “helping our countrymen”.  “All us Yorkshire lads together”?

Now I don’t want refs from London just for the sake of it. I don’t want refs from London because they could be more favourable for the London teams. But when people say to me that there is some kind of anti-Southern bias in the refs and when I look at where the refs come from this could be a possibility.

And I will say it again: I don’t want refs to help Arsenal in any way. NO, I only want refs who do their games in a fair way. And I really don’t have the impression that this is happening for the moment. Too many things go wrong against not just Arsenal but also against other London teams I have noticed the last few weeks.  With Riley at the helm at the PGMO there is nothing that brings hope to me to see any change soon. No he still keeps on pushing Northern refs in the EPL.

And Riley keeps on handing Fifa badges to his Northern refs as if no one else is competent. If you are from Yorkshire you will get your Fifa badge. Don’t worry.

So one of the tasks we will take on next in our numbers is seeing if there is a difference in the refs’ performances if there is a Northern/Southern team involved and try to see if the refs do things differently in those games compared to games between Northern and Southern teams only. Not sure what we will find but if there is something to be found, we will try to find it.

Now if you go back a few days and think of the words Mr. Wenger said in his interview with the BBC about the refs and those words were: “I never speak about the performance of the Referee, WE KNOW WHAT WE EXPECT HERE IN LONDON”.

As usual Arsène Wenger had those numbers already on his desk I think. And maybe this was what he was saying about the refs and their situation. And the situation not only Arsenal has to deal with but other clubs in the Southern area. Wasn’t it a few years ago when Chelsea lost the title because MU was getting a string of favourable decisions going their way. Even last season at the end of the season in MOTD they showed a big number of games where the most strange decisions brought points to United to secure the title.

Now, not just Arsène knows what we expect here in London. Now we all know what we have to expect from the refs here in London.

Referee Home Town Map

EPL Team Location Map

Corruption in the Premier League: Poor-Bert – the next head of PGMO
Incompetent or bent?  Certainly one or the other.   Fulham v Arsenal – the ref review
The Great Conspiracy – when they tried to shut Arsenal down
Ref Watch – Fulham v Arsenal