Watching the QPR v Stoke game today (second half only, I have got a life you know), I was staggered by the leeway offered by referee Martin Atkinson to players defending corners. Ryan Shawcross was picked out by the commentary team as the worst offender, but everyone was guilty.
I've seen drunks being bundled into police vans on a Saturday night under less physical restraint than was being applied to the attacking team. Shawcross was certainly guilty of the worst example. Had the player he was marking scored, the Stoke defender was so firmly attached, he'd have got a piggy back round the ground for the goal celebration. Referees need to apply the rules wherever an incident occurs on the pitch. Right now a shirt tug on the halfway line can be a yellow card, in the box it's ignored. Am I missing something?
For those who say, if you gave a penalty for it, there'd be dozens every week, that would only happen in week one, after that, even footballers would cotton on.
Also a word of advice for Sam Allardyce, apart from congratulations on three points of course. It's the suit Sam, why bother? Even if you wear a three thousand pound Armani job, it still looks like you are wearing a tracksuit. Why not save yourself the cash and pop down to JD Sports?
It used to to be the Beautiful Game. Now it's all about snarling overpaid prima donnas on the pitch, managers who are going to be "sacked in the morning", billionaires who never saw a game before they bought the club and referees who picked up a whistle because they never got in the team when they were at school. I love the game but it drives me crazy. This blog is my way of getting all the frustrations off my chest and to see if there is anyone else out there who thinks football has gone nuts.
The author
Matt Carrell is the highly acclaimed author of three novels and several short stories. His latest book is A Matter of Life and Death, set in a fictional seaside town where the local team is struggling for Premier League survival. Please check out the links to his 5 star rated works on Amazon.