Steve Bennett Scandal Shows Refs Need to Speak Up More

By: Daryl | February 9th, 2009

You’ve probably read about the Steve Bennett scandal in the News of the World by now.

Basically an undercover NotW (for non-UK readers, that’s the Sunday version of The Sun) reporter recorded English Premier League ref Steve Bennett spilling some secret beans about how certain players deliberately get themselves booked in order to miss games they don’t fancy playing in.

Here are some edited highlights of the conversation:

REPORTER: And players do that?

BENNETT: And they go straight through a bloke, to get a yellow card so that they don’t have to play over Christmas.

REPORTER: But as a fan . . .

BENNETT: I know and if they knew that, you’d be absolutely gutted, trust me. XXXXXX certainly said it to me, ‘I ain’t, I don’t want to play against f****** XXXXXX’. And what about XXXXXX’s tackle at XXXXXX?

REPORTER: Did he want Christmas off?

BENNETT: When you watch that. He comes in and you think what the f*****g hell are you making a tackle like that for?

REPORTER: But, as a fan.

BENNETT: He did. It’s Christmas, that’s three games. Absolutely. You don’t realise that. When you think about it now. You watch. Every year.

REPORTER: Cos they want Christmas off with their families.

BENNETT: They want a rest. What p***** off XXXXXX, I know for a fact, so does everybody else, he had a family holiday booked to go to XXXXXX for Christmas, right?

REPORTER: And he didn’t get booked?

BENNETT: Yep, he got sent off against XXXXXX. That’s why he made that tackle right? Right? But the manager says, ‘You ain’t going f*****g walkies. You are staying with the team and you will turn it in, f*****g good job. I was at XXXXXX on XXXXXX and XXXXXX sat in the box. He did not look happy. Between you me and the gatepost.

REPORTER: Mate, I can’t, like, look, as a fan, right, if if anyone . . .

BENNETT: As a fan, they f*****g rip you off. You don’t know half the things that go on. You don’t know half the things that go on.

…

BENNETT: All I’m saying is the foreigner players probably do it more because they are never used to playing games over the Christmas period, because all over Europe there is a three- week, four-week gap.

…

BENNETT: He (unclear) the ball, takes one step, two steps, turns his body and just f*****g launches himself. I mean two XXXXXX players go like that. But they are nowhere near him. If are in the wrong position, you’ve a penalty. So I got into a position and thought, ‘You cheating bastard’. That’s what you say to yourself.”

I’ve got a certain amount of sympathy for players who get booked in order to miss games. It’s not exactly ethical, but there are definitely worse things than making sure you spend Christmas with your family.

The really depressing thing here is the ref’s collusion by silence. Steve Bennett shouldn’t have to be tricked into saying this stuff by an undercover reporter. If he’s so annoyed about it, he should have gone public and let everyone know what was going on.

There’s nothing to stop refs reporting players they believe had gotten themselves deliberately booked, which could then lead to a longer ban (10 games maybe?) Because players telling referees to book them is shows what a joke players think refs are.

So if referees want somme respect – from fans as well as players – they need to start growing some balls and speaking out deliberately. Not just when the tabloids trick you into it.