I personally am so sick and tired of English referees screwing up the domestic league here in England. This year has seen the biggest number of ridiculous decisions in the Premier League and the Cup competitions. Are they getting worse or is it just me?

Berbatov: £30million cheat

Going back to the recent FA Cup game, the deciding goal coming from a blatant dive by Dimitar Berbatov. Did Howard Webb get a good view of it? No. But seeing anyone wearing a Man U shirt tumbling over in the box as if he’s rollerskating during an earthquake, referees 99% of the time will ASSUME that there’s contact and that it’s a penalty. But the worrying thing was that is that the linesman did not flag for the penalty and it was right front of him. Now seeing that the “incident” was in plain sight of the linesman surely any “professional” referee would confer with his assistant? No. Howard Webb is a debacle of officiating and should not be allowed to handle any more big matches. TV replays have suggested that if there was any contact it was of the nanometre variety. The plain simple fact is that Berbatov cheated. Now you can argue that the fault is with that Bulgarian charlatan but seriously Webby, use some common sense!?! If there was any justice in football, Berbatov would have been booked for simulation and that would be that. He’s been booked for diving/cheating before, I seem to recall a Champions League game against CSKA Moscow whereby he took a huge tumble.

In the same weekend there were dubious penalties in the Arsenal vs Leeds match there was another dive from Theo Walcott. Now I’m a fan of Theo Walcott and I do admire that fact that he admitted to diving but still he’s admitted to cheating. This is just stupid and getting out of hand and I for one am getting rather pissed off. Arsenal get a dodgy penalty that keeps them in the FA Cup, can the FA think that’s alright?

Diving is obviously taught in the MU school of excellence

But referees are always getting it wrong and they never admit they’re wrong which if you ask me is the worst factor in all of this. In rugby the referee has a microphone on him so we at home can listen to all his decisions. The admirable thing about this is that we can see how the referee controls the game. In football, they outright refuse to do so masking the fact that most referees are weak and cannot control big games, and first and foremost are terrified of being shouted at by Alex Ferguson. I know “Mad” Rafa Benitez got some stick from the FA for saying that Ferguson can say what he wants. But the fact of the matter is it’s true. Look how much Man Utd get away with. Man Utdhave been cheating to get decisions since the formation of premier league and while they mourned the loss of Ronaldo, they were always going to get a good 20 goals a season out of the like of Mike Riley, Steve Bennett and Howard Webb. Old Trafford has seen the opposition had so many red cards and penalties in the last few years, all these jokes on the internet are becoming a stark reality. Everyone has said that Man Utd are top and they’re not playing well, but you look at how many decisions have gone in their favour. I read a statistic that Rafael’s red card last week was the first in the Premiership since Nani was sent off last february. Is it because they’re more disiciplined? No! It’s because referees are scared to send off Man Utd players because of Ferguson’s iron grip on the FA’s testicles.

And who could forget this…

So in summation, refereeing standards are bad. Very bad. But the constant fear of Man Utd has made the state of refereeing a laughing stock and quite frankly it makes me sick. I realise now I’m going to be blasted by Man Utd fans everywhere but it doesn’t take away the fact that they get a lot of ridiculous decisions. A lot.