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Jim Smith

Mark Halsey's autobiography extracts

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/mark-halsey-alex-ferguson-text-2276667

Must say although I think Halsey was (for understandable reasons) not able to keep up with play and therefore made a lot of mistakes towards the end of his top flight refereeing days I always thought he came across as one of the more decent ones but some of the extracts coming out from his book suggest a serious ego and level of self importance. I guess though that maybe you don''t make it to the top level of refereeing without those personality traits.

The most worrying comments though are the revelations about his relationship with Ferguson and there is also a passage elsewhere where he admits Mourinho paid for him and his wife to go on holiday to the Algarve. I am guessing the latter was after Mourinho had moved abroad but even so is a strange one. The Ferguson comments reveal a worrying need to gain Sir Alex''s respect and make out the two were pals.

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[quote user="can u sit down please"]I remember hearing at the time that Jose did that. It was when Halsey had been diagnosed or was in remission. Nice touch of you ask me.[/quote]

Maybe it was a nice touch but not sure it was appropriate for Halsey to accept it given his intention to return to refereeing.

The Mourinho holiday though is a bit of a side issue. The main point is the revelation that he used to text/call Ferguson. Even with the best will in the world it must be hard to retain impartiality if you are matey with the manager of one of the teams. Would be interesting to see the stats of Man United games Halsey refereed.

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There was an excellent piece in the Times on this on Tuesday I think.

 

This is actually the biggest scandal of the moment and I can''t believe it is not getting more attention. At a time when we need referees to be aloof and independent, to be able to see the incident but not the team or the player, it is outrageous that Halsey should admit and even be proud of his relationships with top managers.

 

His apparent need to ingratiate himself with Fergie and others is completely unprofessional. 

 

We wonder why we get bad decisions and why referees favour the big teams (Arsenal last season anyone?) and here is the answer.  How many times do we say at the end of a game that the referee could not have been more biased if he had been paid?   In Halsey''s case and others (the unnamed referee mentioned in the Times who wants and gets signed shirts) it seems that there is at least moral corruption.

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I do think it''s a good thing for refs to have some form of relationship with managers. Although I respect Halsey, these comments are kind of disturbing.

What do Mourinho and Ferguson owe Halsey? And what for?!

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[quote user="CambridgeCanary"]

There was an excellent piece in the Times on this on Tuesday I think.

 

This is actually the biggest scandal of the moment and I can''t believe it is not getting more attention. At a time when we need referees to be aloof and independent, to be able to see the incident but not the team or the player, it is outrageous that Halsey should admit and even be proud of his relationships with top managers.

 

His apparent need to ingratiate himself with Fergie and others is completely unprofessional. 

 

We wonder why we get bad decisions and why referees favour the big teams (Arsenal last season anyone?) and here is the answer.  How many times do we say at the end of a game that the referee could not have been more biased if he had been paid?   In Halsey''s case and others (the unnamed referee mentioned in the Times who wants and gets signed shirts) it seems that there is at least moral corruption.

[/quote]

 

There is a broader point than Halsey and managers. I remember a year or two back a player from a promoted team said that the referee was going round calling everyone from the big club by their name or nickname, and having a joke, as if they were best buddies. But the players on the promoted side were called by their number. Obviously this was because the referee didn''t know the majority of the promoted players. But it raised the question - is a referee more likely to award a penalty against someone he is on friendly terms with or someone he doesn''t know from Adam?

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Think it was James Harper who complained about that. The ref was calling United players by their nicknames and he complained about it,

Whilst some of the young refs may come across as jumped up little ****s at times i have to say that they reassuringly do not seem to be so pally with the players/managers and also seem pleasingly prepared to upset them. Clattenburg does my head in at times but to be fair to him he was quite prepared to stand up to Chelsea.

It seems to me that its by the time these refs get towards the end of their career that they perhaps start to see themselves as part of the football celeb culture. Poll is another example. To this end i''m not sure that opening up opportunities for them to become tv pundits is a great development.

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Craig Fleming said something similar. Again, when playing United in 04/05. He said refs would call United players by their nicknames or first names. Fleming said Norwich players were spoken to like this: "Oi, 5, over here".

I''ve thought it for a long time. Refs like to be pally with the more famous players and managers but seem as if they feel superior when dealing with a lesser team with no household names.

Refs like to make out like this doesn''t happen, but let''s all be honest, it does.

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