3550: Premiership: The case of the h

by : Sam Cullen

Poor Pedro Mendes must now really dread any trips up to Manchester.

In January 2005, he had the memorable last minute goal that never was, at Old Trafford, spotted by everyone aside from the linesman while he was playing for Spurs.

Now, while playing for Portsmouth, he found himself pole-axed by Ben Thatcher and was taken to hospital, while having seizures and fits.

The Thatcher incident in itself has thrown up many “issues” which surely need rectifying in the Premiership, and has rightly incensed the majority of those who witnessed the “tackle”.

Firstly, it has yet again showed weaknesses in the standards of refereeing. Graham Poll may have been bad with his three yellow cards, but that seemingly pales into comparison by seeing Dermot Gallagher deem the challenge worthy of only a yellow card.

To put it into perspective, Thatcher was penalised by the laws of the game to the same degree that Didier Drogba was for simply entering the field of play early, it really is beggars belief.

Surely even Uriah Rennie with an eye infection could have noticed Thatcher’s tackle justified a red card?

Just when the situation seemed like it couldn’t become any more infuriating, in stepped a FIFA official to provide a usual hypocritical opinion.

The spokesman uttered “"It is one of the fundamental rules of the game that the referee's decision is final.”

Now in theory, people would have no qualms with FIFA giving backing to the usually beleaguered referees.

Except they don’t, not in the slightest. Thanks to the myriad of Blatter “innovative” ideas, referees have had to cope with ever changing rules and petty stipulations, such as being booked for lifting your shirt while celebrating.

And if the referees don’t enforce these rules?

We have all seen how Blatter and FIFA react, with Blatter publicly slating the referees during the world cup in Germany and their insistence of marking referees down for any decisions they miss, regardless of if they are acting with common sense.

So when, for once, it is totally suitable for the refereeing decision to be over ruled, it seems typical of FIFA to come out in support of the refereeing decision.

It could well be left for the police to deal with Thatcher.

Incidents like these prove our governing bodies are spineless to police themselves.

Sam Cullen
24 August 2006