Conspiracy Alert: The Referees are out to get the Big Clubs

By: Bob | November 5th, 2007

Let’s all take a moment to extend our sympathies to Real Madrid, AC Milan and Manchester United. It is not easy being one of the world’s richest clubs with years of rich tradition and loads of silverware in the trophy case. Sure, they might have their pick of the best players in the world and it might seem like things are always stacked in their favor, but in reality everyone is out to get them, especially the referees.

There must be something in the air this time of year that is causing managers of big clubs to cry foul about refereeing because cry they did this past weekend. Let’s start with AC Milan whose struggles this season in Serie A have had nothing to do with an aging backline and a lack of motivation, but rather the fact that they are always have to play against three extra men – the referees. At least that is according to a press release the club put out.

“Enough is enough,” read the statement.

“Siena-Milan (1-1), Palermo-Milan (2-1), Milan-Catania (1-1), Milan-Empoli (0-1) and Milan-Torino (0-0): there are five matches of the 11 played so far in which Milan was clearly let down by refereeing decisions.”

“They say in these cases, that over the course of a championship that errors and favours balance out. But at Milan, as always, it is not the favours that interest us, but the fair decisions.”

Let’s see how interested they are in fair decisions when the breaks go their way.

Real Madrid boss Bernd Schuster might be German, but he knows all about Spanish whinging. Following his team’s 2-0 loss at Sevilla, he played the whole divided nation card we were robbed by a Barcelona referee card.

“Do you know where the referee is from?” he asked. “He is Catalan? Well, there is nothing more to say then.”

Indeed, there should be no mention that the same referee was accused as favoring Real Madrid in their win against Almeria in September.

Finally, we have Sir Alex Ferguson, who is no stranger to refereeing controversies. The Manchester United boss is being investigated for claiming the referee favored Arsenal during their 2-2 draw on Saturday.

It is tough out their for the big boys.