Liverpool FC Forum

[JoeTerp]

Are there people even arguing in here about whether or not that game was decided on that beachball? This is an LFC forum? Or have I mistakingly logged into a Sunderland or Evertonian board?

haven't you heard? its a Citeh forum now

[JoeTerp]

Oh and Baloongate even got airtime over here in the mainstream sports news. An entire minutes discussion about how surprised they were to hear that this story came out of England the "supposed" best league in the world.

[bunglemark2]

Did I hear right that the ref from Saturday has been axed from this weekend's fixtures ?
If that's a case of the FA acknowledging their indecision, then it's a pretty sad token effort. Precedents have been set in the past for this kind of thing - the match should be replayed. But they haven't got the nads to do it....

[Sir Roger]

Did I hear right that the ref from Saturday has been axed from this weekend's fixtures ?
If that's a case of the FA acknowledging their indecision, then it's a pretty sad token effort. Precedents have been set in the past for this kind of thing - the match should be replayed. But they haven't got the nads to do it....

As I said earlier...

"Football itself is full of such incidents which, although having a dramatic effect on the outcome of the match and eventually the standing in the league table, are just accepted as being part of the game. It seems there is neither the will nor the ability to stop such things happening. Disgraceful and embarrassing really"

[Reg]

Thats right, the ref will NOT be reffing a PL game this weekend, he´s been dropped at least one league.

Shame they cant compensate us the points.

[Roger Red Hat]

when it gets to the last day of this league season and we're joint top with Mancs but 2nd on goal difference, we'll look at this game and it suddenly becomes important.  I'd take a replay but I dont think Brucie is man enough to ask for one. He knows Rafa would field the same 11  for the first 5 minutes then make a triple sub, bringing on Torres and gerrard. Then we'd fk 'em.

[heimdall]

Thats right, the ref will NOT be reffing a PL game this weekend, he´s been dropped at least one league.

Shame they cant compensate us the points.

Would perhaps make more sense if we actually threatened their goal at some point over the 97 minutes.

[bunglemark2]

Thats right, the ref will NOT be reffing a PL game this weekend, he´s been dropped at least one league.

Shame they cant compensate us the points.

Would perhaps make more sense if we actually threatened their goal at some point over the 97 minutes.

Look who's leaving his gaff on the way to Anfield.........

http://i515.photobucket.com/albums....ons.jpg

[NANNY RED]

See how fecking classy our manager is , handling this with dignaty, The drunk would of had himself up on an attempted murder charge if it was him.

Rafael Benitez offers his support for demoted official Mike Jones over beach ball goal
From The Times
October 20, 2009

Tony Barrett

Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, has again passed up the opportunity to criticise Mike Jones, the referee who failed to rule out Sunderland’s winning goal against the Merseyside club on Saturday. Darren Bent’s shot found the net via a deflection off a beach ball that had been thrown onto the pitch.

Jones was yesterday demoted from Barclays Premier League duties for the forthcoming weekend after his failure to implement the Fifa law which stipulates that games should be stopped in the event of any outside interference. The official will take charge of the Coca-Cola Championship fixture at London Road between Peterborough United and Scunthorpe United.

Jones has been heavily criticised by Graham Poll, Dermot Gallagher and Jeff Winter, his former colleagues, but Benítez, although still surprised at the error, has taken a different tack, choosing to offer the referee his support. The Spaniard also ruled out any possibility of Liverpool asking for the match to be replayed.

“The situation is that we cannot change this,” Benítez said. “I think that the rule is very clear. Everybody knows and all the experts agree that the goal had to be disallowed but we cannot do anything now so we have to move forward.

“I don’t know if he didn’t know about the rule, maybe he couldn’t see. Anyway I think that it is better to move on. I think the referees and Keith Hackett [the general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd] know that a mistake has been made, but I do not want to criticise. He is a young referee and there are not too many referees around the world, so if you have someone who has a passion and wants to be a good referee, then the best thing to do is to just move on.

“I said after the game that we did not play well because I did not want to use the incident as an excuse. It was an important situation because, with the problems that we had, to start the game by going a goal behind was not the best situation for us.

“But still it is something that you have to forget and to think only about what you can influence now, like this Champions League game [against Lyons at Anfield this evening]. A lot of people are saying that the game should be replayed but we will not be asking for this.”

[maypaxvobiscum]

yeah sure go on and neglect the importance of that point dropped come the end of the season if we lose the title by a point or goal difference.

glory glory rafa

[bigmick]

In fairness to the manager I agree with Nan in that he responded with a good deal of dignity over the incident. I never like it when managers act without class, some of Fergusons carry ons are a disgrace, and I wasn't appreciative of Rafa's glasses thing after the Tottenham game. On this occasion nobody could possibly say he didn't act in a manner befitting of the Liverpool Football Club manager, although as I've said I think he would have been justified in going off on one because we were robbed IMHO.

[Owzat]

See how fecking classy our manager is , handling this with dignaty, The drunk would of had himself up on an attempted murder charge if it was him.

Yeah fergie would just have given the ref a hard time, made sure he never reffed them again, hinted or pushed for a replay and in all probability we wouldn't be debating this 'injustice' at all because the manc xi, fergie, the backroom staff and probably a few pitch-invaders would have surrounded the referee making him all too aware that he was making a mistake.

I don't like it to watch, but they do everything by fair means or foul to gain any and every advantage, to make sure they don't end up on the receiving end of poor decisions and make sure the 'play until the mancs win' policy is enforced. Just picture Rafa and fergie tapping their watch when they think there should be more/less stoppage time and we all know which one gets his way. Would we be such a pushover with fergie in charge? I doubt it. fergie fields weakened sides, but has key players on the bench and the nous to use those as subs effectively. The players have a winning mentality, the will to win at any cost.

I think the subs debate probably overlooks the aspect that some of our players may not worry too much about playing poorly because they know they'll probably get 65 mins without having to play well, that the LM will probably be the first to go off and with so few serious contenders to replace them, plenty can afford half a dozen poor games ie Carra, Skrtel etc. I doubt fergie would tolerate consistent underperforming so the players have to perform or be dropped

[Yossi_Benaloon]

Just another one of the many reasons to ban under 16's from ends of football grounds IMO. Stick them all in family sections along the sides.

[stmichael]

The Bent goal has just been included in the goal of the week on Sky. F#cking Sky. You couldn't make it up. 

[NANNY RED]

Liverpool FC ban all inflatables from Anfield
by Mark Lawless. Published Fri 23 Oct 2009 14:35, Last updated: 2009-10-23

Liverpool FC have issued a ban on inflatables at Anfield ahead of Sunday's clash with Manchester United.

The Reds have taken the step following word that United fans were aiming to make fun of the freak goal which condemned Rafael Benitez's side to a third consecutive defeat last weekend at Sunderland.

A youngster in the Liverpool enclosure punched the inflatable onto the pitch during the game at the Stadium of Light where it was placed in the net by goalkeeper Pepe Reina.

However the ball floated out and deflected into the path of Darren Bent's goal-bound shot, deflecting it away from the arms of the Spanish stopper and into the net to gift the Black Cats all three points.

The beach ball, which was sold as part of a £10 gift set, has gained in popularity since the incident last Saturday and bids on internet auction site eBay have exceeded £40 for the ball alone.

Red Devils supporters who have tickets for Sunday's crunch Barclays Premier League tie have been warned by club officials not to bring inflatables of any kind to Anfield as they will be confiscated by stewards.

Several United websites had urged fans to bring beach balls to taunt Kopites and have bought up the entire stock of beach balls from the club's official website which has since removed the product.

Liverpool responded to these reports by revealing that all visiting supporters will be searched on their way into Anfield on Sunday.

Birmingham-born official Andre Marriner will oversee the match between the fierce rivals but referees' chief Keith Hackett has ruled out any possibility of beach ball-influenced goals being allowed.

He said: "Just as Liverpool will take care of security at the ground, so vigilance by the match officials is likely to go up after what happened.

"I haven't told Andre to keep an eye open for any balloons on the pitch because there is no need to. He is a very experienced, capable referee. He is mindful of last week's incident and is absolutely clear that any outside object interfering with play results in an immediate stoppage and a dropped ball being awarded.

"Games like Sunday's are a challenge but I am confident Andre will maintain his good form and that there will be no problems."

No one from Liverpool FC was available for comment at time of going to press.

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