Has Platini given the refs a briefing and told them they are not allowed to book French players? This is getting a bit silly now...
Ok scrap that its not even just bookings - hes giving them everything. every 50 50 and most 60 40 englands. its totally corrupt
Cabaye should have gotten a yellow quite early. If you don't give them, they just carry on fouling. Poor ref.
Shame the same leniancy couldnt be afforded to england's players........ Sorry I dont usually scream foul - but that was downright corrupt - the goal kicks that should have been corners/freekicks, the england players taking the ball and having a foul gven, the ambush on gerrard that wasnt given as a foul, i could go on. Its not just coincidence when a referee is taht consistent with giving innocuous decisions one way. I spent the last 10 minutes waiting for the penalty. Fortunately on this occasion the opportunity doesnt arise, but anybody who honestly believes that a penalty wouldnt have been given if a french player had hit the ground in the last few minutes in the area, irrespective of the circumstance, was simply watching a different game to me.
Difficult to disagree with this assessment. Gerrard and Roy classily avoided putting any blame on the referee, but the decisions given and not given speak for themselves.
Agreed - although the cynic in me thinks they would have found such class very hard to come by had france cored a winner. Its weird because there were no game changers - no red cards, dodgy goals, dubious penalties that would get the pundits and managers up in arms. Just an endless string of little decisions all going one way - sorry Ill stop ranting now. I still at all times try to retain a sense of belief in the system - after all if you genuinely believe refs are corrupt then whats the point in playing? But I really do think refs should be held accountable for performances such as that one today. Nobody, and I mean nobody, could watch that game through even semi neutral eyes and say that there wasnt something very dodgy about the decisions being made and not made.
Was that the best the French could do? Yea, real world beaters. *Sniggers* We made them look ordinary.
I think Gerrard and Roy probably didnt want to upset the apple cart upstairs and get themselves lengthy bans... Also - because there were no major decisions they probably werent too fussed about the fact that the ref was giving blatant goal kicks/corner kicks incorrectly and probably werent aware of the proportion of free kicks decisions that were sketchy. Warm Pouch - I totally agree - I hate moaning about refs also. But by the 80th minute of that game I must confess I was laughing at the total bias being shown by the ref. He didnt even try and disguise it...
