Referee Dropped By Premier League

Poor old Rob Styles.

Bet he’s not smiling now!

The man who obviously couldn’t stop a herd of elephants from 5 yards has been dropped by the Premier League.

Style has also apologised to Liverpool and admitted he was wrong [no! really?] to award a penalty to Chelsea during the 1-1 draw at Anfield yesterday.

He accepted he made a mistake in penalising Liverpool defender Steve Finnan for allowing Florent Malouda, the Chelsea midfielder, to dive. As a result, Styles will not be given a match to referee this weekend. I doubt he’ll be going back to Anfield for a while too!

Styles was quoted as saying yesterday, “All referees enter into matches hoping not to make any mistakes but understanding that they may happen, what none of us want is for any mistake to potentially affect the result of the match. Yesterday, in mistakenly awarding a penalty, I accept that I may have affected the result of the match and for that I apologise.” Hmm, you think?!

What I want to know is, who is going to punish Malouda? He dived, conned the referee and won a penalty that saved his team from defeat, all by deception. I thought this type of behaviour was supposed to be stamped out from the game, and the sooner the better. Styles has had the courage to stand up, admit he was wrong and apologise, where is Malouda in all this? Styles has been punished after the game, why can’t Malouda now be yellow or red carded after the fact. The technology is there. We all saw it. If the authorities do not do something about it, this mentality that cheating is acceptable will continue to ruin our game.

Anyway, the penalty, which enabled Jose Mourinho’s side to equalise, followed an excellent first Anfield goal for Fernando Torres. Torres ran onto a perfectly weighted through ball from Gerrard, rounded the defender on the outside with some ease and coolly slotted the ball into the far corner past Cech.

Unfortunately for Styles, the penalty award was not the only mistake he seemed to make on Sunday. He caused confusion by issuing a yellow card to Michael Essien - who had already been booked - he wasn’t sent off and then later Styles insisted that it was John Terry being booked. Memories of Graham Poll came flooding back! Styles just had one of those days didn’t he?!

Anyway, Keith Hackett, general manager of Professional Game Match Officials Limited, said: “Accountability exists and we, [the PGMOL], do expect referees to get big decisions correct. On this occasion it was wrong and therefore Rob will not be officiating next weekend.”

Hackett added: “I spoke to Rob this morning and obviously he is extremely disappointed with the decision and admitted he got it wrong. I have left a message with Rafael Benítez to apologise.

“Having looked at a video and seen a better angle and a better view, clearly he [Styles] now recognises that he got it wrong and he’s deeply apologetic for that. I think, in fact, he too will be making contact with Liverpool in order to offer his apologies.” At least the man has a conscience and the manners to apologies. He should be lauded for that. He’s more of a man than all the cheats that dive. They are trying to deceive, the referee can only go on what he sees and does not try to cheat. He just got it wrong.

Asked about the confusion when Essien appeared to be booked for a second time, Hackett said: “I’m informed by both the fourth official and Rob he retained the card shown to John Terry then held the card to indicate a direct free-kick, and failed to put the card away. So it was a basic, if you like, admin error as against an error in application of law. [Oh right, that's clear then!]

“We’ll look at the video to ensure we don’t get a repeat of that.”

Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, was, I suppose understandably in the heat of the moment, furious with Styles’ decision. “I want to have a lot of respect for referees, but sometimes I cannot understand why they give some decisions.

“I think he will watch the video of the match and admit that his penalty decision was a mistake.” And he did!

Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool captain, went as far as suggesting that Styles had “cracked” and called for the referee to apologise for his penalty decision. “I don’t want to say too much because I will get into trouble, but the referee didn’t play well,” he said.

“Whether it was because the Chelsea players were talking I don’t know, but in the end he’s cracked and made a bad decision. “It wasn’t a penalty and I hope he comes out and says sorry now.”

It was certainly a bad day at the office for Styles, but I am glad he has apologised, that takes courage and shows he at least has some class. I’m sure Liverpool will accept he apology with equal good grace. And let’s be honest, all teams will get good and bad decisions over the course of a season. The important thing now for Liverpool is how they react against Sunderland at the weekend.

The Soccer Blogger