Premier League 2022/23

[FestiveJack]

Hopefully twitter will shut up about him now. I've got his name muted about 6 different ways and he still ends up on my feed.

[Lineker]

Quote

Mike Riley will step down as English referees chief at the end of the coming season. Riley has been managing director of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) for 13 years, but will bring his tenure to a close at the end of the 2022-23 campaign.

“I am proud of the contribution our match officials have made to the professional game and have enjoyed working with a such a dedicated, professional and high-quality group at all of the levels that PGMOL manages,” said Riley.

“As the elite referee development plan begins to take shape, now is the right time to plan for the future and allow the new leadership team to build on the strong foundations that we have in place. I look forward to working with the new team over the next season and giving them my support before I step down.”

The PGMOL will now look to appoint a chief refereeing officer to oversee development of officials, and a chief operating officer to manage organisational administration.

“On behalf of the Premier League, I would like to thank Mike for his valuable contribution and significant commitment to PGMOL over the last 13 years as well as his considerable service to the game as an elite referee for 20 years,” said the Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters.

“During his time at PGMOL, he has worked hard to deliver and develop high-quality match officials across the professional game and led on the implementation of VAR into the Premier League three seasons ago.”

 

[FestiveJack]

Feels like a quiet revolution is going on at PGMOL - the retirement of Dean as an active ref along with Martin Atkinson, Jonathan Moss and Kevin Friend leave just two refs over the age of 50 (Andre Marriner and Graham Scott), and the average age of the select group in around the mid to late 30s for the first time in about a decade.

Riley stepping down as head of referees will hopefully bring some good things too, like how to address the lack of referees from certain demographics (both ethnic and locality based - the lack of any refs hailing from the south east is weird and can only be due to structural problems in the way referees are assessed and promoted) making their way up the ladder.

[Lineker]

Quote

Chelsea have confirmed Petr Cech will leave his role as technical and performance advisor at Chelsea this week.

The former goalkeeper will become the latest to leave the club following Todd Boehly’s takeover following the departures of chairman Bruce Buck and director Marina Granovskaia last week.

Cech said: “It has been a huge privilege to perform this role at Chelsea for the past three years. With the club under new ownership, I feel now is the right time for me to step aside. I am pleased that the club is now in an excellent position with the new owners, and I am confident of its future success both on and off the pitch.”

Boehly, chairman and co-controlling owner, added: “Petr is an important member of the Chelsea family. We understand his decision to step away and thank him for his contributions as an advisor and his commitment to the club and to our community. We wish him the best.”

Cech, who made 333 appearances for Chelsea, was appointed in 2019.

 

[DavidMarrio]

On 16/06/2022 at 09:28, MadJack said:

Hope doesn't exist currently, so for the new season I just want everyone except Man City and Newcastle to have a nice time.

 

Man City 2.0 begins!

 

[FestiveJack]

B-b-but the Premier League had legally binding guarantees about distance and non-interference from the Saudi state.

[lanky316]

They had a bigger lorry full of money turn up which overrode that.

[Gazz]

16 hours ago, MadJack said:

B-b-but the Premier League had legally binding guarantees about distance and non-interference from the Saudi state.

They're a privately owned company based in the UAE who PIF have a minority stake in. If anything, they're further away from the Saudi state than the club is.

[Hobo]

 

[gunnar hendershow]

I truly thought he'd ride out his contract but I guess the pressure of letting Mo Salah leave on a free worked. Good for both sides, as important as Mane has been (as well as some others) it's very much a club built around Salah. 

[METALMAN]

He was never going to go. They just teased it for the social media likes.

[Tigerstyle]

So did he sign a new contract, or?

I can't wait to see Salah Stays though, had a Ferris Bueller vibe.

[Szumi]

 

Some early contract info for the numbers

[Lineker]

 

[Lineker]

Quote

Fans will be allowed to stand at the new Wembley for the first time from next season, after the government approved safe-standing areas at football grounds.

The sports minister, Nigel Huddleston, has confirmed that clubs are now able to apply for permanent safe-standing licences, and the national stadium is among those grounds where licences have been granted after successful trials. Huddleston said he hoped the new technology would help to prevent further disorder of the kind that has disrupted matches over the last year.

“We’re very pleased that we will be expanding safe standing,” Huddleston said. “It’s a big day for football, it’s a big day for fans, because this is not the old terraces, this is a very different world and safety is at the heart of it. It’s one space per person, with a seat should people wish to sit down, but with those barriers behind and in front of them.

“The vast majority of football fans behave very well and this is about about fan choice; being able to experience the game in the way that you want to.”

Queens Park Rangers, Wolves and Brentford will join Wembley in introducing safe-standing areas in 2022-23, alongside the clubs who participated in trials: Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Cardiff City. Eight grounds across England’s top two divisions and Wembley will have licences, although the Sports Ground Safety Authority expects that number to grow quickly.

Wembley’s safe-standing area will initially incorporate two areas of 1,000 seats each, behind both goals. The nature of the licence – which extends only to domestic games – means that although the seating will be in place for England’s match against Germany in September, it will not be used until February’s Carabao Cup final.

Huddleston said that developments in safe standing go hand in hand with a greater focus on disorder in grounds. The Football Association and England’s domestic leagues are expected to announce crackdowns on pitch invasions and the use of pyrotechnics before the season, and are also understood to be asking broadcasters to stop using footage of fans letting off flares. The sports minister said the structure of safe standing would act as a possible deterrent to anti-social behaviour.

“There’s a lot of people who are wary about going into grounds because of behaviour that is, quite frankly, despicable”, he said. “But we’ve got evolution in stadia and technology. Safe standing will actually enhance CCTV footage: we’ll know exactly who’s at every single seat, every single area. The physical infrastructure makes it quite difficult to move backwards and forwards or climb over a seat. Technology is improving all the time, but I want to see more aggressive implementation of banning orders as well.”

 

[DavidMarrio]

1 hour ago, Lineker said:

understood to be asking broadcasters to stop using footage of fans letting off flares

Gonna be hard to not film our end when we score during a cup final next season 

[Hobo]

32 minutes ago, DavidMarrio said:

Gonna be hard to not film our end when we score during a cup final next season 

they can just crop it out in post

[METALMAN]

1 hour ago, Lineker said:

 

Lineker please explain why this is in the Premier League thread. There are no Premier League games played at Wembley.

[Lineker]

50 minutes ago, METALMAN said:

Lineker please explain why this is in the Premier League thread. There are no Premier League games played at Wembley.

Paragraph five.

[METALMAN]

Bit tangential. If that was really the case you should have edited out the parts that don't relate to the premier league : /