Welcome Back English Football. We’ve Missed the Controversy and Complaining

By: Daryl | August 10th, 2009

English football is back. How do we know? Well, there was the Community Shield yesterday, where Chelsea beat Man Utd on penalties after drawing 2-2 in a very watchable game. But that’s not how we know English football is back.

We know it’s back because the smell of controversy and complaining fills the air once more. Specifically around Chelsea’s second goal (above).

Here’s the predictably angry reaction from Sir Alex of Ferguson:

“If the referee sees it properly, it’s a red card,” Ferguson said of Ballack’s body-check. “He’s elbowed him clearly. The referee’s in line and had a clear view so Ballack’s lucky. But he’s made a rod for his own back. He’d stopped the game twice already: when Nani was down and on a second occasion when Ballack went down. We’ve seen that before with him. I spoke to the referee [about that previous incident] and he said it was serious and Ballack needed treatment, though he was up straight away.”

So there you have it. Fergie ranting about a refereeing decision. English football is back.

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Category: English Premier League

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Darren_V

Should have had a foul called... but it serves Evra right for rolling around on the ground like a diva and getting scored on for it. Evra is a prat, therefore I am happy to see it happen to him. Poor referee judgement all the same.
Drabik

Ignore the result, ignore the Rooney incident, ignore the Barca-Chelsea game (why are you idiots mentioning that). Any one decision should not be justified by another. The saying 'two wrongs dont make a right' comes in to my mind.

And JC, as I said above, Manchester United had ADVANTAGE, so why should they stop play. If they had a one on one with Cech, but Ben Foster was poked in the eye by Ballack, there is no reason to stop the play immediately, as the team that would get a freekick ALREADY HAS THE BALL. And obviously, if Cech then saved the ball and and hoofed the ball up field, the play should be stopped to deal with the offence. The ref SHOULD NOT wait for the ball to go out of play, he should WAIT UNTIL THE ATTACK HAS STOPPED.

I still dont understand how Chelsea fans can support Ballack and Drogba. Many blamed Drogba for their CL final loss to United (he might have taken that penalty instead of tiny tears). And as for the CL semi vs Barca, I think both were disgraceful in how they handled the situation with the ref.
Sarit

Ballack basically admitted to doing it on purpose, and Rooney's goal wasn't offside, pure camera angle. If you look at the video's you can see Cole playing him on. If it was offside it was like Rooney's head was offside and his legs were on.

I know the ABU brigade loves to take advantage of these things and sure United fans like me don't like losing, but you have to admit, sometimes we are right.
Finnegan

Everyone knows Michael Ballack is a physical player. I mean come on, he's the captain of Germany. It does look in the video like he had his arm out a little bit, but other than that it just looks like good positioning of his body, and putting Evra on the ground instead of going to ground himself. Fergie is only pissed because it lead to a goal.
elle

JC...but wouldn't that be Chelsea having their cake and eating it too? they got the foul and the advantage when Evra was down...United got neither when Ballack went down.
JC

There is a saying. You can't have the cake and eat it too.
which means, Man U can't expect to take advantage and at the same time expect a foul on loosing possession!!!
this match was rigged IMO. It was an advert to spice things up for the coming season.
morpheus11

My complaint comes from the ref stopping the game when Ballack was "injured". It didn't matter that the play was away from him and there was attacking play happening. But, when Evra went down (foul or not) the ref didn't stop play at all. This is what bothers me about most games. As a ref, if you do something once you must do it EVERYTIME! Stop play for one injury you must stop it for another injury of equal severity.

People want to say that Evra took a dive on that play, which is their opinion, but no one is saying that Ballack took a dive that the referee stopped play for. The teams should be treated equally!
sauro

Fergie and the Man U trolls have no argument here at all, especially if you consider Rooney was clearly offside on the equaliser.
OhYes

Has Chelsea ever legitimately won a game?
pfelds

maybe it was a foul, but, chelsea got screwed in CL by that ref when pique clearly handled in the box, as did multiple barca players in those closing minutes, but, no call was made then, cosmic justice? not totally, but it goes to show, refs are fallible, and you cant rant and rave your way to a call. besides, rooney was offside when he equalized late on, so the staff sort of made up for the miss-call. as for a red card? not in any way, evra and ballack had been goin at it ever since ballack came on, you cant kick him off and not do the same for evra's many challenges, and evra's yellow could of easily been red, he got ball yes, but in a wholly recless and dangerous manner, suchs plays can be interpreted in many ways..... complain all you want, the refs will go both ways for everyone as the season goes on, so deal with it, they r the ones with the control, remember, all rules can be stretched and twisted in the name of fair play, thats the officials job.
Drabik

Yes, United had the opportunity to kick the ball out, but maybe they thought the ref was 'playing advantage'. We were on an attack, and one of our players were fouled, why should our attack stop. Once that attack was stopped by Chelsea, the play should have been stopped to see to the Evra.

But no, play goes on, and Lampard scores a goal in a position that, you guessed it, Evra would have, and should have, been.

I actually think it was arm to the chest, but the force also led Ballack's shoulder in to Evra's face (they're not exactly the same height). Either way, its a foul.
tom

Sorry United fans but your team had the opprotunity to kick the ball out of bounds before CFC took it and played on.

Not to mention Evra took the impact on the chest / arm and he goes down grabbing his face; only to get up and run after the referee after the ball crosses the goal line.

Club alligances aside, that was a foul, it wasnt called, it was irresponsible of the United players to expect biased treatment and even more irresponsible of them to not play to the wistle.

If this was Wigan or some team nobody cared about then there would be zero discussion here.
Joel

I agree, Thomas & Ben, though I am a Utd. Fan. What makes me angry is that after the match Ballack admitted he purposefully blocked him off. All in all, I'm glad that English football is back, even if it means Daryl hating on Fergie again.
Thomas

First of all, any and all united fans have a legitimate complaint. I agree with Fergie, hat was a straight red card situation. Jon, about the "rolling around on the pitch like a girl" comment, is this the first football match you've ever watched in your life? Because there has been at least one instance that could be described as such in nearly every game i have seen. Just my two cents.
Ben

I think the complaint was the referee had stopped a United attack a few minutes before when Ballack flopped on the ground. United should have played to the whistle, but I don't think anyone can honestly say that Ballack didn't take Evra out deliberately (he stepped into him, it wasn't an accidental collision). The referee seemed to go a little squirrely in the second half (Evra's tackle that got him booked, he got the ball, he just went in hard). Rooney's goal canceled out whatever injustice that goal caused (for the most part). The penalties were awful. Giggs, wasn't THAT bad but Evra's was about the quality of a Saturday morning kids game.
jon

It would seem from the replay, if its ANYTHING, its a forearm to the chest, not an elbow to the face. Since Evra wanted to roll around on the pitch like a girl, they got what was coming to them.
star_bury

Has Fergie ever said "They were the better team and we lost fair and square"? That's not rhetorical, I'm genuinely curious....We just tend to hear the complaints about the refereeing from managers more often than not....