If anyone saw the Manchester United v Spurs game on Saturday they’ll have witnessed possibly the worst refereeing decision in the history of football. With Tottenham leading 2-0 away to United, and the second half underway, referee Howard Webb awarded Manchester United the sort of penalty that only United get at Old Trafford.
Even the United fans could see it wasn’t a penalty. Ronaldo scored it, and Man U went on to win 5-2. Up until that point they didn’t look like even troubling Gomez, the Spurs keeper.
The significance of this of course is that should United have lost, which they were doing handsomely, Liverpool would have remained top and United couldn’t have afforded any more slip-ups, with Man City and Arsenal still to come.
Howard Webb, in his infinite incompetency, has probably awarded United the title.
Now, this naturally outraged Liverpool and Tottenham alike, with Spurs’ midfielder Jermaine Jenas stating:
One thing which struck me about it was that he [Webb] didn’t even think. It was like he’d already made his mind up when he came out for the second half that he was going to give something. I think it was a case of a referee crumbling under the pressure at Old Trafford really.
The atmosphere, the occasion, the importance of the match, a lot of factors take their toll when making decisions.
Quite an eloquent statement for a footballer, and spot on. No team would have got a decision like that anywhere else in world football. Those types of penalties only happen at Old Trafford, for Manchester United.
The FA apparently want Jenas to explain his words, giving him seven days to respond. However, I believe Jenas’ words are fairly self explanatory. If the FA is reading this, I think what Jenas was trying to say was this:
Howard Webb is a cheating bastard and cost us the game.
Simple.
Darren Jamieson, aka MrDaz, is the Technical Director and co-founder of Engage Web and has been working online in a career spanning two decades. His first website was built in 1998 and is still live today.
