Can of worms?

[Peter Grove]

Is this a can of worms opened up, or what?

According to this article, "Former Premier League ref Mark Halsey has claimed he was told by the refereeing body to say he had not seen incidents in matches."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/former-premier-league-referee-mark-8760242

 

[SM]

Worse than that, he implies that referees were under orders to help spot fixing??????

Oh dear

 

[Padfoot]

Why is that such a big surprise?

Anybody with a half a brain can see that the PGMOL exists for the benefit of the Premier League so why is it such a leap that they might use their employees to generate greater publicity for their paymaster?

 

[SM]

Have to see how this one pans out. If there is any truth in spot fixing allegation - which can only really be for the benefit of betting syndicates, people are going to jail.

 

[jofusref]

if i believe mr halsey, and after reading his autobiography, its a big if, anything to get talked about. it needs investigating

 

[RustyRef]

If it is true, and that strikes me as being a big if, and if Mark or any other current or ex referee can provide evidence of having been told this, then I would completely agree with Gary Neville in that it would constitute corruption. What strikes me as odd though is he says it was PGMOL giving out this "advice", but the disciplinary reports go to the FA, not PGMOL. Likewise if a decision needs to be taken to charge a player for an incident that the referee has missed this is 100% in the realm of the FA, PGMOL have nothing to do with it.

This just highlights again the complete folly of having a separate refereeing organisation that is effectively funded by the clubs and the league. I don't believe this is the case anywhere else in the World, and many people believe that the PGMOL should be collapsed and re-formed as a department within the FA.