cl semi's

[bw@bw]

Posters on website forums and even groups on Facebook threatened reprisals against the 42-year-old. In Mr Ovrebo's home city of Oslo police said they were investigating threats made on the internet, which has seen a flood of messages including the referee's home address and warnings that fans will 'hunt him' and 'kill him'. Groups such as Kill Tom Henning Ovrebo and We Wanna Kill Tom Henning Ovrebo began to appear on Facebook.

Haven't Chelsea fans got previous for this ?

The guy had a poor, poor game, but to suggest it was bent is ridiculous. If he'd been tipped an envelope then he wouln't have sent a Barca player off ... & he wouldn't have waited to the 93rd minute to see if they could score.

It was simply inept ... which is why it's different to the Barry Knight episode.

Yes - a Swedish or Swiss ref - was threatened and had his shop smashed up.

[William the White]

All this really shows is what a farce the away goal rule is. To go all that way and the expense and effort of it and lose by effectively getting a draw makes no sense. Same for both sides I agree, but that's just compounding the felony for me. Barca are a goal down, get one back and it's a win? Nah, just makes no sense. Time they scrubbed it in favour of extra-time.

Without the away goal European knockouts would be very boring. No one would try to score away from home. Chelsea/Barca knew last night that Barca only needed one goal whether Chelsea scored 0 or 1. It put the game into life and death in the later minutes, rather than having the saving grace of extra time to fall back on (which players and fans hate the agony of) Chelsea have to defend otherwise they are out. But the pressure is too great for Essien (IRC) who fluffs the ball and the coolness of Iniesta pays off.

I think the away goal brings a lot of excitement. The play-off games against Ipswich were a lot more memorable due to the away goals.

They should have away goals in the Carling Cup (seeded big teams always at home, still as 1 leg, away goals = 2 goals) to spice it up more.

Away goals only counted in the play-off games against Ipswich under Todd.

The next season when we played them in the play-offs under Allardyce Sheepshanks had convieniently managed to get away goals in the play-offs scrapped. Not sure you can argue that the games in the play-offs under Todd were more exciting than the ones the year after without away goals for neutrals, though undoubtedly better for us!

I'm not exactly sure about this, but i think the away goals change was that they would only count aet... and i think that's what happened... we would have gone through under the previous year's rules... but then, in et, they scored enough to beat us on aggregate... if we'd been level we would have gone through... maybe he'd had a premonition, but sheepshanks certainly had a celebration...

anyway... both away games were totally, totally fantastic football experiences, that will remain memorable to me for ever (and maybe a day)... and we didn't get promotion from either - the first because we had given everything to get to the final and had nothing left...

[H. Pedersen]

As said above, if you or I reacted like that to our boss or a customer or client when something went wrong it would not be tollerated. Nor should it be in football. Toleration of this will simply perpetuate it and next time it happens this would be quoted. The circle has to be broken.

I agree.

That's why Ovrebo should be fined, fired, and a method for red card appeals should be introduced. If UEFA doesn't hold him accountable for his incompetence we'll never see any improvement.

[BWFC_Insane]

All this really shows is what a farce the away goal rule is. To go all that way and the expense and effort of it and lose by effectively getting a draw makes no sense. Same for both sides I agree, but that's just compounding the felony for me. Barca are a goal down, get one back and it's a win? Nah, just makes no sense. Time they scrubbed it in favour of extra-time.

Without the away goal European knockouts would be very boring. No one would try to score away from home. Chelsea/Barca knew last night that Barca only needed one goal whether Chelsea scored 0 or 1. It put the game into life and death in the later minutes, rather than having the saving grace of extra time to fall back on (which players and fans hate the agony of) Chelsea have to defend otherwise they are out. But the pressure is too great for Essien (IRC) who fluffs the ball and the coolness of Iniesta pays off.

I think the away goal brings a lot of excitement. The play-off games against Ipswich were a lot more memorable due to the away goals.

They should have away goals in the Carling Cup (seeded big teams always at home, still as 1 leg, away goals = 2 goals) to spice it up more.

Away goals only counted in the play-off games against Ipswich under Todd.

The next season when we played them in the play-offs under Allardyce Sheepshanks had convieniently managed to get away goals in the play-offs scrapped. Not sure you can argue that the games in the play-offs under Todd were more exciting than the ones the year after without away goals for neutrals, though undoubtedly better for us!

I'm not exactly sure about this, but i think the away goals change was that they would only count aet... and i think that's what happened... we would have gone through under the previous year's rules... but then, in et, they scored enough to beat us on aggregate... if we'd been level we would have gone through... maybe he'd had a premonition, but sheepshanks certainly had a celebration...

anyway... both away games were totally, totally fantastic football experiences, that will remain memorable to me for ever (and maybe a day)... and we didn't get promotion from either - the first because we had given everything to get to the final and had nothing left...

WTW I think that away goals only ever counted aet in the play offs.

Think the Allardyce season they stopped counting full stop!

[FaninOz]

Just watched the Chelsea v Barca game and must say that both scored a similar spectacular goal and 1-1 was a fair score, mainly because Chelsea didn't take advantage of their other chances. Drogba missed a sitter and was lucky to be still on the pitch at the time as he should have been carded after diving in the penalty area earlier. My view on the controversial decisions are :-

Penalty claim 1 :- foul outside penalty area, ref played advantage and when Chelsea didn't get any he gave the freekick for the original foul outside the penalty area. Correct decision in my view;
Penalty claim 2 :- Yes there was a slight shirt pull but not enough to stop Drogba but then he dives. Correct decision not to give a penalty but Drogba should have been carded for diving.
Barca sending off :- no tackle made, Anleka ran across the defender who tried to get out of the way and Anleka fell over his own feet. No foul, Ref was wrong to give foul and to send defender off.
Penalty claim 3 :- Clean tackle by Toure on Drogba as he played ball, no penalty. Correct decision.
Penalty claim 4 :- Clear hand ball, poor decision, should have been penalty.
Penalty claim 5 :- Ball hits defender in his arm pit with his back to the ball, not a hand ball in my view. Correct decision, but we had one given against us when similar thing happened to Steinsson, but two wrongs wouldn't have made a right for me.

Ballack should have been sent of for his chasing of the ref as he seemed to pull the Ref's shirt. Also Drogba should have been given a red card for his complaining after the match not a yellow. And, finally Chesea should be taken to task and fined for not controlling their players in the way that they harrassed the Ref after the game. An emotional game but there was no excuse in my view for the way Chelsea players reacted.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

As said above, if you or I reacted like that to our boss or a customer or client when something went wrong it would not be tollerated. Nor should it be in football. Toleration of this will simply perpetuate it and next time it happens this would be quoted. The circle has to be broken.

I agree.

That's why Ovrebo should be fined, fired, and a method for red card appeals should be introduced. If UEFA doesn't hold him accountable for his incompetence we'll never see any improvement.

Bollocks.

I see the point about appeals for red cards - that will probably start on Monday, when the dirty red c*nts bend UEFA's ear over poor little Fletcher's red card, presumably without giving Barcelona a chance to appeal against the suspensions of Abidal and Alves. Careful what you wish for.

As for fining and firing the ref, f*ck that. Berbatov missed a penalty in another semi-final, does he get fined and fired? There's a shortage of referees as it is, without vilification of the ones who have made it to the top level. That veers dangerously close to encouraging the constant castigation of referees, and Christ knows we don't need any more of that.

[bw@bw]

All this really shows is what a farce the away goal rule is. To go all that way and the expense and effort of it and lose by effectively getting a draw makes no sense. Same for both sides I agree, but that's just compounding the felony for me. Barca are a goal down, get one back and it's a win? Nah, just makes no sense. Time they scrubbed it in favour of extra-time.

Without the away goal European knockouts would be very boring. No one would try to score away from home. Chelsea/Barca knew last night that Barca only needed one goal whether Chelsea scored 0 or 1. It put the game into life and death in the later minutes, rather than having the saving grace of extra time to fall back on (which players and fans hate the agony of) Chelsea have to defend otherwise they are out. But the pressure is too great for Essien (IRC) who fluffs the ball and the coolness of Iniesta pays off.

I think the away goal brings a lot of excitement. re.

Some of us have memories long enough to remember European games before the away goals rule was brought in.

And it WAS a recipe for drab boring games.
Greatest exponents?
Italians esp Herrera's Inter, and Shankly's Liverpool

[FaninOz]

As said above, if you or I reacted like that to our boss or a customer or client when something went wrong it would not be tollerated. Nor should it be in football. Toleration of this will simply perpetuate it and next time it happens this would be quoted. The circle has to be broken.

I agree.

That's why Ovrebo should be fined, fired, and a method for red card appeals should be introduced. If UEFA doesn't hold him accountable for his incompetence we'll never see any improvement.

Why, in my view see post above he only made major two mistakes. One in sending Baraca player off when he'd done nothing wrong and one when he missed one hand ball. One bad decision for each side. The others he got right in my view so why castigate him?? Chelsea and many in the media are looking for a scapegoat just because Chelsea lost.

Chelsea only had themsleves to blame for missing a sitter (Drogba) and defending a 1-0 lead even when they had an extra man, they lost to a sucker punch at the end when Essien did a bit of Bolton like defending right at the death which help to create a fantastic strike and great goal. They gambled and lost, end of strory, except for the disgraceful way that the Chelsea players acted, I hope that Chelsea get fined and barred from next season's Champion's League. Now that would be a story to write about!!!!!!

[H. Pedersen]

As said above, if you or I reacted like that to our boss or a customer or client when something went wrong it would not be tollerated. Nor should it be in football. Toleration of this will simply perpetuate it and next time it happens this would be quoted. The circle has to be broken.

I agree.

That's why Ovrebo should be fined, fired, and a method for red card appeals should be introduced. If UEFA doesn't hold him accountable for his incompetence we'll never see any improvement.

Bollocks.

I see the point about appeals for red cards - that will probably start on Monday, when the dirty red c*nts bend UEFA's ear over poor little Fletcher's red card, presumably without giving Barcelona a chance to appeal against the suspensions of Abidal and Alves. Careful what you wish for.

As for fining and firing the ref, f*ck that. Berbatov missed a penalty in another semi-final, does he get fined and fired? There's a shortage of referees as it is, without vilification of the ones who have made it to the top level. That veers dangerously close to encouraging the constant castigation of referees, and Christ knows we don't need any more of that.

That's not to say players don't get punished for dumb errors though. A relevant example would be Joey Barton's recent red card; he was late and reckless with the tackle and now he's out for three games, which I imagine would have carried some sort of financial penalty even if he hadn't shot his mouth off to Shearer.

As for being fired, I don't think that's out of line as Ovrebo appears to be unfit to do his job. Yes, you can look at the blatant Barcelona handballs - Eto'o and Pique should not have had their hands up that high (especially Eto'o). But look at the Abidal sending off. First off, it's not a foul. Second, Abidal's not the last man as Toure had a chance to cover. Does Ovrebo even understand the rules? Or was he just determined to make himself the star of the show?

[seanworth]

As said above, if you or I reacted like that to our boss or a customer or client when something went wrong it would not be tollerated. Nor should it be in football. Toleration of this will simply perpetuate it and next time it happens this would be quoted. The circle has to be broken.

I agree.

That's why Ovrebo should be fined, fired, and a method for red card appeals should be introduced. If UEFA doesn't hold him accountable for his incompetence we'll never see any improvement.

Bollocks.

I see the point about appeals for red cards - that will probably start on Monday, when the dirty red c*nts bend UEFA's ear over poor little Fletcher's red card, presumably without giving Barcelona a chance to appeal against the suspensions of Abidal and Alves. Careful what you wish for.

As for fining and firing the ref, f*ck that. Berbatov missed a penalty in another semi-final, does he get fined and fired? There's a shortage of referees as it is, without vilification of the ones who have made it to the top level. That veers dangerously close to encouraging the constant castigation of referees, and Christ knows we don't need any more of that.

That's not to say players don't get punished for dumb errors though. A relevant example would be Joey Barton's recent red card; he was late and reckless with the tackle and now he's out for three games, which I imagine would have carried some sort of financial penalty even if he hadn't shot his mouth off to Shearer.

As for being fired, I don't think that's out of line as Ovrebo appears to be unfit to do his job. Yes, you can look at the blatant Barcelona handballs - Eto'o and Pique should not have had their hands up that high (especially Eto'o). But look at the Abidal sending off. First off, it's not a foul. Second, Abidal's not the last man as Toure had a chance to cover. Does Ovrebo even understand the rules? Or was he just determined to make himself the star of the show?

I don't think he should be fired, but I think they should think long and hard before he is allowed to officiate another qf or semi final match. I think he was over his head, and did not have enough experience running a hugely important match between two of the best teams in the world. It was almost like he was determined to not allow the match to be decided by a controversial penalty, but as a result a match was possibly decided because of not calling 2-3 controversial penalties.

Now I would have been more upset regarding the result if it wasn't for Drogba's performance, and I don't mean his post game antics as I missed them, and was off to bed to have a nice sound sleep.

[H. Pedersen]

I don't think he should be fired, but I think they should think long and hard before he is allowed to officiate another qf or semi final match. I think he was over his head, and did not have enough experience running a hugely important match between two of the best teams in the world. It was almost like he was determined to not allow the match to be decided by a controversial penalty, but as a result a match was possibly decided because of not calling 2-3 controversial penalties.

There are certainly cases where a referee is in over his head - the infamous Portugal/Holland bloodbath at the 2006 World Cup comes to mind - but that's really not one of these. I'm sorry, if you make that many horrendous errors, you don't deserve to referee a Sunday League game. I just don't understand the way referees are being handled. Players and managers are fined for criticizing horrendous refereeing errors, while the referees who make the errors suffer no penalties. Graham Poll had his international refereeing career immediately ended for the stupid three-yellows incident which didn't affect the game, but we're hearing nothing from UEFA regarding Ovrebo's future, despite the fact that his mistakes were more numerous and more critical. It's a "f--king disgrace."

[seanworth]

I don't think he should be fired, but I think they should think long and hard before he is allowed to officiate another qf or semi final match. I think he was over his head, and did not have enough experience running a hugely important match between two of the best teams in the world. It was almost like he was determined to not allow the match to be decided by a controversial penalty, but as a result a match was possibly decided because of not calling 2-3 controversial penalties.

There are certainly cases where a referee is in over his head - the infamous Portugal/Holland bloodbath at the 2006 World Cup comes to mind - but that's really not one of these. I'm sorry, if you make that many horrendous errors, you don't deserve to referee a Sunday League game. I just don't understand the way referees are being handled. Players and managers are fined for criticizing horrendous refereeing errors, while the referees who make the errors suffer no penalties. Graham Poll had his international refereeing career immediately ended for the stupid three-yellows incident which didn't affect the game, but we're hearing nothing from UEFA regarding Ovrebo's future, despite the fact that his mistakes were more numerous and more critical. It's a "f--king disgrace."

Point well taken but in his case I am not going to recommend firing for one simple fact. What has his history been? Is he always making these kind of mistakes? I don't know. Do you? I somehow feel you are passing judgment on his entire career based upon one game. You have made no reference to his previous reputation that I recall. I agree with much of your post, especially regarding the handling of referees, but you are making huge generalizations about this referee without really knowing much about him (or so I believe), and it is too late to start googling now. Now if it was Styles or Riley you were referring to well . . .

[Prufrock]

Ha Ha Ha Ha. It's *still* funny.

[jaffka]

If anyone thinks that its that easy for a referee to get to FIFA status then crack on and lets wach your progress.

[Tombwfc]

If anyone thinks that its that easy for a referee to get to FIFA status then crack on and lets wach your progress.

Bit of a shit arguement the whole 'you couldn't do any better' one. I don't think it's unresonable to expect professionals to be better at something than I am.

Anybody think it's easy to play 499 games of professional football, get your pro badges and eventually become the current (excluding newly promoted sides) 7th longest serving Premiership manager? No? Well no-one can ever argue with Megson then. Or indeed anyone outside of their own specific skill set.

[jaffka]

If anyone thinks that its that easy for a referee to get to FIFA status then crack on and lets wach your progress.

Bit of a shit arguement the whole 'you couldn't do any better' one. I don't think it's unresonable to expect professionals to be better at something than I am.

Anybody think it's easy to play 499 games of professional football, get your pro badges and eventually become the current (excluding newly promoted sides) 7th longest serving Premiership manager? No? Well no-one can ever argue with Megson then. Or indeed anyone outside of their own specific skill set.

So you admit that a referee is better than you!

Still at least you possibly acknowledge that a referee will know the laws of association football far better then you.

I do think that the ’if you think that you can do better’ argument is valid to those who criticise those who do, won’t apply to you as you have said you couldn’t do any better.

I am struggling to understand why you have decided to bring Megson into this, maybe your cut and paste has been put in the wrong area…

[Tombwfc]

If anyone thinks that its that easy for a referee to get to FIFA status then crack on and lets wach your progress.

Bit of a shit arguement the whole 'you couldn't do any better' one. I don't think it's unresonable to expect professionals to be better at something than I am.

Anybody think it's easy to play 499 games of professional football, get your pro badges and eventually become the current (excluding newly promoted sides) 7th longest serving Premiership manager? No? Well no-one can ever argue with Megson then. Or indeed anyone outside of their own specific skill set.

So you admit that a referee is better than you!

Still at least you possibly acknowledge that a referee will know the laws of association football far better then you.

I do think that the ’if you think that you can do better’ argument is valid to those who criticise those who do, won’t apply to you as you have said you couldn’t do any better.

I am struggling to understand why you have decided to bring Megson into this, maybe your cut and paste has been put in the wrong area…

I couldn't be a professional referee (well actually, i've never tried. For the purposes of this thread though we'll say I couldn't), but this has no bearing on my opinion that Ovrebo was diabolically bad last week and cost Chelsea a chance at the Champions League. The same for everyone else in this thread, I don't believe anyone has seriously commented that they could referee a Champions League semi-final, but that doesn't restrict them from being unhappy with the performance of this particular ref.

The Megson comparison is there because it's the same principle. No-one on here has the ability that Megson has, but that doesn't mean that people aren't allowed to expect better from him or slag him off for things he does. It's the same for anything.

[jaffka]

If anyone thinks that its that easy for a referee to get to FIFA status then crack on and lets wach your progress.

Bit of a shit arguement the whole 'you couldn't do any better' one. I don't think it's unresonable to expect professionals to be better at something than I am.

Anybody think it's easy to play 499 games of professional football, get your pro badges and eventually become the current (excluding newly promoted sides) 7th longest serving Premiership manager? No? Well no-one can ever argue with Megson then. Or indeed anyone outside of their own specific skill set.

So you admit that a referee is better than you!

Still at least you possibly acknowledge that a referee will know the laws of association football far better then you.

I do think that the ’if you think that you can do better’ argument is valid to those who criticise those who do, won’t apply to you as you have said you couldn’t do any better.

I am struggling to understand why you have decided to bring Megson into this, maybe your cut and paste has been put in the wrong area…

I couldn't be a professional referee (well actually, i've never tried. For the purposes of this thread though we'll say I couldn't), but this has no bearing on my opinion that Ovrebo was diabolically bad last week and cost Chelsea a chance at the Champions League. The same for everyone else in this thread, I don't believe anyone has seriously commented that they could referee a Champions League semi-final, but that doesn't restrict them from being unhappy with the performance of this particular ref.

The Megson comparison is there because it's the same principle. No-one on here has the ability that Megson has, but that doesn't mean that people aren't allowed to expect better from him or slag him off for things he does. It's the same for anything.

So using that logic, referee's are fair game but the manager of bwfc is like some medieval monarch whose rule and decision are above law and not subject to debate or opinion...

[Tombwfc]

Seriously? Do you read what I post, or just make it up in your own mind?

Let's try reading.....

No-one on here has the ability that Megson has, but that doesn't mean that people aren't allowed to expect better from him or slag him off for things he does.

Now, which part of that makes out that Megson is above questioning? Am I missing something?

[jaffka]

Seriously? Do you read what I post, or just make it up in your own mind?

Let's try reading.....

No-one on here has the ability that Megson has, but that doesn't mean that people aren't allowed to expect better from him or slag him off for things he does.

Now, which part of that makes out that Megson is above questioning?

Lets look back at you qualifying Megson then shall we...