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Posts Tagged ‘referee’

• Striker may face FA charge over incident after 1-0 defeat
• Dalglish criticises Fulham fans for calling Suárez a ‘cheat’

The Liverpool striker Luis Suárez could face a misconduct charge after appearing to make an offensive gesture towards Fulham fans at the end of his team’s 1-0 defeat here on Monday night.

Suárez, who has been charged by the Football Association over allegations that he racially abused Manchester United’s Patrice Evra in October, which he denies, was pictured apparently responding to supporters as he walked towards the tunnel after the match.

The Uruguay international was subjected to chants of “cheat” after the referee, Kevin Friend, turned down a penalty appeal when he went over after a challenge by Brede Hangeland in the second half. The FA will wait for the official’s match report before deciding whether to act.

Kenny Dalglish, the Liverpool manager, admitted he could be forced to talk to Suárez about his conduct following the latest controversy but angrily hit back over the fans’ abuse. “I haven’t seen the picture and I’m not taking anybody’s word for it,” said Dalglish. “If you show me the picture and I’m convinced that what you’re saying is true, then I’ve got a decision to make. But until you have proved it is true to me, I won’t comment.”

In response to Fulham supporters branding Suárez a “cheat”, Dalglish said: “That’s scandalous. I would like to see you write that in the paper because you would be in a bit of trouble as well. You write what you want to write. At the end of the day, we will look after Luis the best we can and I think it is about time he got a wee bit of protection from some people.”

Ironically, Fulham’s Chris Baird was charged by the FA with using an abusive gesture towards a match official in the corresponding fixture last season after he showed the referee Lee Mason a V-sign. The defender was given a two-match ban. Wayne Rooney was famously banned for two games last season for swearing into a television camera after celebrating a goal at West Ham United.

Liverpool may appeal against Jay Spearing’s red card after the midfielder was sent off for a two-footed challenge on Moussa Dembélé after 72 minutes. The match was goalless at the time, with Clint Dempsey’s winner coming in the 85th minute.

Luis SuárezLiverpoolFulhamKevin McCarraguardian.co.uk

• Villas-Boas insists Torres is performing well for Chelsea
• ‘He’s one of our best suppliers of assists,’ says manager

André Villas-Boas has insisted that Fernando Torres has been worth the British-record £50m fee paid to Liverpool to secure his services last January and believes he can still rediscover the goalscoring form of his early days in the Premier League.

Torres is expected to start Sunday’s game against his former club at Stamford Bridge having shown only flashes of form during his spell at the London club. Villas-Boas pointed to the 27-year-old’s recent all-round contribution as cause for optimism, and a burst of four goals in as many games in the autumn as evidence of improvement, though the Spaniard has still to justify the size of the fee required to prise him from Anfield at the turn of the year.

Yet, when asked if Torres was worth that amount, and if he would pay a similar sized fee now to sign him, Villas-Boas replied: “Of course. Of course I would. In a career or a person’s life, you have better moments and worse moments. At the moment, Fernando’s best moments in terms of goalscoring were the Liverpool days. That does not mean those days won’t arrive in this club, and that does not mean that, at the moment, he is not performing for the team, because he is.

“Isolate the last four months with the goals he’s scored [four in seven games in all competitions] and it isn’t bad. A striker is not just there to put the ball in the back of the net. He’s there to perform and create. We create enough opportunities if we’re winning or losing games and, at the moment, our best goalscorers are our two midfielders [Frank Lampard and Ramires]. But for them to finish, someone is creating. The team is creating, so I’m happy at the moment.

“Fernando helped create our goal in Genk – that was a one-two [with Ramires] – so it’s not just a question of numbers and goals scored. It’s about how you make your team perform around you. He’s one of the best suppliers of assists at the club, with four or five this season. He’s assisting people and the team and getting wins out of that. I think Fernando has picked up from last season, not only with his form but physically and also with his availability and movement for the team. He’s been back to his old sharpness, and goalscoring, and we’re pretty happy with the way he’s performed.”

Raul Meireles, another player plucked from Liverpool, is also expected to start Sunday’s game as Chelsea plunge into a seven-match run, culminating in the visit of the leaders Manchester City to south-west London in mid-December, that will go some way towards shaping their Premier League challenge, as well as their continued participation in the Carling Cup and Champions League. “Bearing in mind the calendar, it’s important the team returns to the good standard we set in the beginning,” said Villas-Boas. “It could be an ideal time to do that because we play teams like Liverpool, Newcastle and City.”

The Portuguese has denied a Football Association charge over his post-match criticisms of the referee Chris Foy after Chelsea’s defeat to Queens Park Rangers on 23 October but has opted against seeking a personal hearing with the governing body. “I have other things to do,” he added. “I’m not worried. I understand that a charge cannot be taken lightly. This is the maximum body of English football and I respect that, but it doesn’t mean I agree with it and it doesn’t mean I have to defend it to death. The charge implies that I was calling the referee biased or questioning his integrity. I was not.”

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• Phil Jones remarks ‘too inflammatory’ for MUTV to show
• Liverpool’s Charlie Adam accused over free-kick

Charlie Adam’s involvement in Liverpool’s goal during Saturday’s 1-1 draw prompted so much anger among Sir Alex Ferguson’s players that Manchester United had to censor a television interview with Phil Jones.

Jones accused the Scottish midfielder of deliberately diving to win the free-kick from which Steven Gerrard scored. The former Blackburn Rovers player did not hold back in his criticisms and MUTV, United’s in-house television channel, took instructions from senior Old Trafford officials before deciding Jones’s comments were too inflammatory to be shown.

Although Rio Ferdinand admitted he had made “the slightest contact” on Adam, United were incensed about the way the player went to ground, believing it to be a deliberate attempt to dupe the referee, Andre Marriner.

Ferguson, who later accused Luis Suárez of “diving all over the place”, described it as “a very soft award”, but Jones went even further with his own criticisms, telling MUTV that Adams had been guilty of a blatant dive.

However, MUTV, who infamously once pulled a show involving Roy Keane because he had been so outspoken against his own team-mates, had edited out the relevant section when Jones’s interview was shown on Saturday night.

Adam, informed of United’s complaints, denied he had made the most of the challenge. “Well, everyone has an opinion,” the former Blackpool player said. “I felt a touch and if I hadn’t gone down I would have been clear through on goal so there must have been contact. That’s the way I look at it. I felt contact when I went past Rio and that’s the way it goes.”

He added: “I’m not that type of player. I’m not just going to go down easily. It was a foul and that is why the referee gave it.”

Ferdinand had already been booked and was fortunate once the free-kick was awarded that Marriner did not show a second yellow card. The defender said: “There was the slightest contact but I don’t think enough to make a fella who is 12, 13 stone fall on the floor like that, but that’s the way the game is today.”

Manchester UnitedLiverpoolDaniel Taylorguardian.co.uk