Sabre wrote:Interesting article Bob, but it rises a question in my mind.
If the reputation of that ref was so well known, what the fúck was he doing refereeing one of the most difficult matches in the premiership?
In Spain there was a lot of controversy about which ref got which match, at the end a Salomonic decission was taken, it would be picked randomly by a computer -- the controversy didn't stop, people said the program that picked the refs was not fair nor random.
If the refs are chosen by the FA, and the reputation of the ref is well known, I don't know how they pick a ref like that for that match. In finals of international competitions, the best are chosen. So it should be in a Manchester United - Liverpool.
That is the key question, mate. How the feck did Bennett get assigned this match at all? Hopefully those questions will be asked of the FA but somehow I doubt it. From my other posts you might get the impression that I believe Steve Bennett was completely in the right over the incident. That's certainly not the case, though--I think it's quite clear he had an agenda yesterday and Mascherano provided him with exactly the kind of ammunition he needed. What frustrates me is that Mascherano should have seen the writing in the wall and kept well out of it. Of course, we know that's not his style but hopefully he'll have learned a big lesson from this incident about when to walk away. It kind of reminds me of Stevie's sending off early in the derby a couple of years back. That incident has helped make him a much more mature player and a much more cagey customer (in a good way) when dealing with referees, IMO. I expect we'll see something similar from our Masch.
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