Manchester United Does Get Favortism, Apparently.

By: chris | September 22nd, 2009

If you’re someone who’s suspected that the set of rules which apply to a certain home team at Old Trafford aren’t quite congruent with the rules applied to everyone else, you’re not alone. Fortunately, those in your camp include those with the time, resources and desire to ponder this theory through pocket protectors and finely polished magnifying glasses. Their assessment?

‘Tis no longer a ‘theory’.

The Guardian did some calculations and unleashed their research on the world today.

After the controversy over Michael Owen’s winning goal in Sunday’s Manchester derby, the Guardian has looked at all of United’s league matches at Old Trafford since the start of the 2006-07 season and discovered that, on average, there has been over a minute extra added by referees when United do not have the lead after 90 minutes, compared to when they are in front. In 48 games when United were ahead, the average amount of stoppage time was 191.35 seconds. In 12 matches when United were drawing or losing there was an average of 257.17sec.

The average stoppage time added at Old Trafford in the period in question is below that given at Anfield, the Emirates Stadium and Stamford Bridge. United’s is 205 seconds, compared to Liverpool’s 210sec, Arsenal’s 224sec and Chelsea’s 229sec. But there is also evidence to support the suspicions of many managers, players and supporters that United get preferential treatment at home. When Owen made it 4-3 on Sunday the game was five minutes and 26 seconds into stoppage time. In total, the referee, Martin Atkinson, allowed almost seven minutes, even though the fourth official had signalled a minimum of four. Mark Hughes, the City manager, spoke of feeling “robbed”. His sense of grievance will not be helped if he analyses the last three seasons.

‘Unsurprising’ would be the word of choice here, and it might be worth probing the granting of penalties, too. Lord knows how many times the phrase “you don’t get that call at Old Trafford” has been uttered.

It will also be interesting to see how Sir Alex reacts to this revelation. Perhaps with the same bullying tactics that he’s been accused of using to squeak a little more time onto the clock.

And expect Rafa to be hurriedly rushing together a press conference somewhere.

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Category: English Premier League, World Football

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OBIERO

The World is never fair. I think for the Man City's of this world to make a difference they just have to thwack the Man Untds of this world even with the additional time then they will be noticed otherwise even if they spend billions on Kolo Toure's and Tevezs and they lose Sir Alex will continue swaying the public opinion to his side. Just beat them clean shoot from far if you think twil be an offside call and you will be noticed then they will shut up.
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Dave Trotter

It happens to all the big clubs. They get favorable treatment. Even Eric Wynalda said Monday that when he was in Germany, Bayern Munich got all the calls. This one is just so obvious it makes me sick!
Dustin

You keep rattling on about Transparency, nobody cares. Also quoting FIFA referees doesn't have as much impact on someone who was trained by FIFA referees, KTHXBYE.
Steve, Malta

Sour grapes seems to be the food of choice 'round here.
Until the referee blows the whistle, you carry on playing.
Whatever you guys think about the referees/match officials; that they're all bent, or feel under some kind of pressure at Old Trafford to add more time if United are behind, due to some lack of backbone/fear of SAF/whatever, then you are delusional.
There isn't even a story here! Too many people let the meeja do their thinking for them and it's not just in football...
sscouser

Dustin? Anyway, “no need to show it”? Then why does the fourth official hold up a luminous panel to indicate how many minutes are to be added on to each half to make up for the time lost by deliberate time-wasting and other stoppages? Transparency?

“The new system makes the referee more credible and also enables everyone else to see that he is adding on a minute for each of a couple of injuries plus four substitutions for a further two minutes, making a minimum total additional time of four minutes, which is rarely contested” - MICHEL VAUTROT (FIFA Referee)
http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/...
Dustin

sscouser this isn't the Pentagon Papers, this isn't about a secret escalation in a War that we don't know about. This is about Refs and Time keeping. Even if we had transparency the refs still decide how long, it's their discretion, so there's no need to show it.

It's a game, refs are the arbiters of said game, let them decide when it is fair to add more time or not.
martin

People can find statistics to justify absolutely anything.
sandrahn

It is also a statistical fact that at OT, Utd players are allowed a huge number of fouls until the ref finally decides to take out a yellow card while opponents are not allowed the same generosity for fouls per booking. Everyone who's followed the English top flight for the last couple of decades knows there's favoritism towards Utd esp. at OT, it's just a fact. Count the number of times the ref has awarded a penalty AGAINST Utd at OT as compared to penalties awarded against the home team on other grounds. The numbers are pretty extraordinary.
sscouser

“Correlation does not imply causation” is not even an issue here because the allowance for time lost is at the discretion of the referee. The ref can choose to add or not add time for substitution, injuries, etc. That’s why sometimes the ref blows the final whistle at the end of 90 minutes even though there were substitutions and injuries.

Again, those who say the fourth goal could have theoretically gone either way may be wrong or right. If it’s true that the ref wanted to Man U not to lose the game then he would have blown the final whistle had City had a scoring chance before Owen scored. Again, sometime back I had witnessed a ref blowing the final whistle seconds before a team he hated took a penalty kick. Remember, added time is at the discretion of the ref.

So, as long as added time is at the discretion of the ref this won’t stop. Let’s look for the way forward. I think added time should not be a secret. Let there be transparency and consistency.
http://www.theoffside.com/worl...
Ben

So, their point is that @ Old Trafford, the referees add on more time? Because when visiting teams are leading United at Old Trafford they don't waste time? There's a 30s spread between the big 4 teams @ home. There legitimate issues in the English game at the moment, but this one is pretty ridiculous. The reality is the officials set the time and at the end of the day, both teams have to play the to the final whistle. This is about as stupid as one team's manager blaming the pitch for a loss.
k

The fact that there is, on average, less added time when United are ahead means little if they don't take into account the score of the game. If they are only ahead by a goal, it would be unfair. But when a team is ahead be 2-4 goals, it seems almost ridiculous to add on 4 minutes of extra time and I have seen refs regularly blow their whistle on 90 on the dot without complaints because the game was already over.

Any game that United is winning 3-0 or 4-0 or something like that, it would be ridiculous for the ref to put in 4 or even 3 minutes of added time. So the ref will obviously blow the whistle, pretty much at 90 on the dot. That brings down the average... In fact, the fact that the big four has a lower average of added time when ahead could simply be pointed to the fact that they are more likely to have more games that they are winning 3-0 or higher hence causing the ref to blow it at 90 and bringing their average down.
I wish Fletcher was Irish

What a load of sh*t! I bet it's the same for every home team in the world. This theory is just fueled by miserable United hating football "fans" who are jealous of the club's recent success.
Ian

The question is, does the data have the statistical power to make the point? I admit that I jumped on this without reading all the details, because neutral watching of matches over the past five or so years have led me to believe that there is something to this. But I think if you did a power analysis on these 60 matches of extra time data, we'd have a better idea for what the data CAN say.
Adam

There is a lot of time wasting that goes on against teams like United, Arsenal, etc. when a win or tie seems possible. I think statistics would be tilted this way for every top team in the world. The whole affair concerning Sunday's game is sour grapes. It was by the book.
Jeff Spicoli

I don't know, my old man had a statistics class once and he said he had the ultimate set of toold and could "fix" anything.
karl

united and fa have always been corrupted. Fa give everything to united. Can you give us a penalty in the second half oh yes you can have it thanks riley or webb.
Give us som ekstra time to score a goal after the 90min ok, sure mr sir alex.
I am sick of how much they get from the fa.
Elliott

I agree that the stats need some tweaking and that added team means the opposition can grab a winner/late equaliser. In sum, this reminds me of the infamous marca-barca-conspiracy article, where every March they show a correlation between fouls awarded, Barca winning, and claim Barca gets preferential treatment.
Yergen

Exactly Rob. I have statistics in my degree and can say with some certainty that there is more to investigate before you can make a statement like the article suggests.

For one thing, most teams are happy to get a draw from OT. If the score is even in the late parts of the match they will try to run down the clock. Sometimes they will try to stall throw ins, free kicks etc. This behaviour translates into more added time at OT.

I'm not saying this is true, but it is plausible and also an example of how you need to research this properly.

Brgds
Y
mike s

Ian - I understand that and it is a good point and it would be unfair.

These statistics are unfair though, comparing just 12 games where they were behind to 48 where they were ahead, the only way you can properly compare the two is taking the same number of games into account and the number of games being taken into account would have to be a larger number of games than just 12. The average of 12 numbers could be skewed easily by one or two games.
Rob

In fact, I think I'll do a post about it. Seems to be the talking point.
Rob

Correlation though, is not always the same as causation. There could be reasons why when Man United are losing there is more added time, like, those games genuinely requiring more by cosmic coincidence, or say, Man United throwing on subs one by one instead of double/triple subs when they're down.
Ian

Mike - I think the point is whether the ref would have added the time if United was winning. The statistics suggest that he might have added less, and yes, that is unfair.
mike s

Regardless of how it works out statistically over the last three years.... On sunday the game was tied 3-3, the referee allowed the game to go long leaving time for EITHER team to score. Is it United's fault that they were the ones who scored and not Manchester City? The goal could have theoretically gone the other way. Only because it hurt Man City they're complaining but I don't think there is any one with a real claim of partiality by the ref.