" Ugly Truth "

" Ugly Truth"

      There have been a lot of talks going around the English football about the recent accusation made by Chelsea FC towards the match referee for using “Inappropriate language” in the high profile league match between the two premier league heavy weights. The matches between Chelsea and Manchester United in the past have been the perfect indicators of the kind of threat they pose to each other in the pursuit to claim supremacy in the Premier League. And the match on Sunday could not have been poised any better to live up to its high expectations until ... the 68^th minute.

      The players, spectators, audiences throughout the globe have high expectations from the officials and match referees in the game, especially in one of the topmost leagues in the world. Most of the times they stand up to them successfully, and many a times they don’t. Understandably they are only humans and are bound to make mistakes, which in the game of football means getting some decisions wrong. But it is hard to ignore the intensity of impact it makes on the quality or the final outcome of the match. Obviously most of these mistake can be eliminated by adopting new technologies like goal line technology, etc. But that’s not the topic to discuss today. Referees should be protected from the agitated fans and players for sure, after they have one of those nightmare games they officiate. But eventually what you want is a game of football where the outcome of the match should be decided by the 22 players on the turf (plus the subs and the coaches ofcourse) not by anyone else.

     Man United scored 2 early goals on Sunday and looked to cruise through the rest of the match but Chelsea had other plans. A great free kick from Juan Mata and a goal from Ramires in the second half saw Chelsea claw back to equal terms and increasingly looking to breach Man U defense until the 68^th minute...

    Often referees get their decisions wrong, some crucial, some not so much. Similarly some such decisions change the outcome of the game, some not so much. It is true all the teams through the period of a season see decisions go in their favour while some against them and eventually at the end of the season equal each other out, well more or less.

     Let’s take an example where in scene 1 Chelsea saw some wrong decisions (say 2) go against them while facing a team like Man United (ref having a bad game) which arguably led to their defeat & in scene 2 they got 2 wrong decisions in their favour (another ref having a bad day) against let’s say a team like West Ham United. So, the question stands is, is it really the same?  Certainly not.  Similarly, wrong decisions in Champions League Semi Finals are not equal to wrong decisions in Champions’ league group stages or similarly in any other Cup competition. So the point is not only to look at the quantity but also the quality and other factors before forming an opinion.

     Chelsea players have been criticized for being tough on the referees, well how can we forget the famous “F***ing Disgrace” from Didier Drogba. Well the frustration is understandable because it’s the Semi-final of the world’s most prestigious trophy; the emotions are running high, its a home game, against one of the best team in the business, the sheer physicality involved in such a high intensity game. And you get not 1, not 2 but 3 huge decisions against yourself. And afterwards, I did not see the referee once come out and apologize or accept his mistakes with a straight face. Sure the sort of aggression against him by some fans was unnecessary, but the referees need to understand that they are important decision makers during the match and if they have a bad one, they should openly acknowledge their wrong decisions afterwards and thus help move on.

     The match against Manchester United was similar in magnitude. The ref got is wrong and possibly cost Chelsea the match and hopefully the consequences wont influence the league title overall at the end of the season; otherwise it would be a real shame.