Champions League Final

[Lord Nibbler]

Henry was slagging off the ref, which is all well and good, but he was acting like all the bad decisions went against Arsenal. What a prick.

[fineintent]

I wouldn't have minded Arsenal winning, until Sol Campbell scored. That brought it all back for me.

Ronaldinho had an awful match, while Henry was outstanding, so I feel bad for him. Still, I won 15 quid.

[Dan]

Henry wasn't that good, really.

And he should of buried one of his chances, at his high standards.

[Guest Kliq Masterson]

The whole sending off/no goal deal was fine. It was mainly the letting dives go unpunished, ignoring offsides, punishing soft tackles and not doing anything when the tackles were yellow worthy. It was completely pathetic. IMO, they should suspend the referees for bad performance like they did in Spain and Holland not too long ago.

[therockbox]

It's a shame that they don't, but that would be admitting they got a decision wrong in appointing him for a match and that their officials aren't up to scratch.

[Guest Jules]

Probably the worst showcase of refeering ever, IMO.

Now I'm not an Arsenal fan, and I don't hate Barcelona. It would of been justified to award Barcelona the first goal, allowing play to go on. Yes it was a foul - but there was no need to send him off, especially given the occasion.

It's no wonder that referee got banished from the World Cup.

[Liam]

Bollocks cunt shit fuck wank.

Oh well....

I wouldn't have minded Arsenal winning, until Sol Campbell scored. That brought it all back for me.

Ronaldinho had an awful match, while Henry was outstanding, so I feel bad for him. Still, I won 15 quid.

I won 23 quid.

[therockbox]

Can I have some?

[Guest Kliq Masterson]

I won 3 bottles of absynth and 15 hash lollies

[Liam]

No.

I just got lucky. I did a quid on Arsenal half time, Barcelona full time, and the other way around at 22/1

[Dan]

Probably the worst showcase of refeering ever, IMO.

Now I'm not an Arsenal fan, and I don't hate Barcelona. It would of been justified to award Barcelona the first goal, allowing play to go on. Yes it was a foul - but there was no need to send him off, especially given the occasion.

It's no wonder that referee got banished from the World Cup.

What the fuck does the occasion got to do with it?

He delibrately tried to stop him certainly scoring, which is a sending off.

I don't care what people saying about common sense, and neither do the FA, UEFA or FIFA.

If a player is clean through and brought down, the reff blows, then they score, he can't just reverse the decision as Arsenal would say that they stopped as he'd blown.

[Liam]

Probably the worst showcase of refeering ever, IMO.

Now I'm not an Arsenal fan, and I don't hate Barcelona. It would of been justified to award Barcelona the first goal, allowing play to go on. Yes it was a foul - but there was no need to send him off, especially given the occasion.

It's no wonder that referee got banished from the World Cup.

What the fuck does the occasion got to do with it?

He delibrately tried to stop him certainly scoring, which is a sending off.

I don't care what people saying about common sense, and neither do the FA, UEFA or FIFA.

If a player is clean through and brought down, the reff blows, then they score, he can't just reverse the decision as Arsenal would say that they stopped as he'd blown.

The point is that realistically the play should have gone on, nullifying the foul and the red card.

And the ref was shocking at times in general.

[Summers]

He blew his whistle as he saw the foul.

Play had stopped, the ball should have NEVER gone into the net, because play was stopped.

[Guest Kliq Masterson]

The rules are simple. If the ref blows the foul, the gameplay stops. If he doesn't, it carries on. He did, so they had to stop.

Ultimately, he was well within his rights to blow the foul. It's really on in England where the ref may not have blown it.

[Dan]

He blew his whistle as he saw the foul.

Play had stopped, the ball should have NEVER gone into the net, because play was stopped.

At least someone is talking sense.

[Liam]

I'm not saying he shouldn't have blown. Or that Lehmann shouldn't have been sent off.

The point was that he went by the letter of the law, rather than the fact that Deco (IIRC?) had the ball at his feet with an open girl.

I'm sure at the time, Barca would have taken the goal as much as anything.

And I'm more going for the ref being shit in general. That decision was neither here nor there in me deciding he had a poor game.

[TMM]

People don't seem to remember the Liverpool/Chelsea game last season where Cech clattered the Liverpool player (I forget who) and the referee gave play on and Liverpool went on and scored. That one was worse because it was in the penalty area, and Cech could've been sent off and Liverpool would've had a penalty. My problem is that the referee was to whistle happy; he should've let the game gone on a little longer, and if Giuly missed, send Lehmann off and give the free-kick, I would've had absolutely no problems if that had happened. It's just that the referee was in over his head and just out of his depth. How on Earth he was given the game to referee, I have no idea.

Other than that, Barcelona really weren't that special. Sure they had most of the possession, but prior to scoring, they didn't really do much with it at all, in fact, after the sending off, both teams had about the same amount of clear-cut chances. In a fair game with a good referee, I honestly think we would've won that game.

[Dan]

No bias their TMM?

[therockbox]

It's no wonder that referee got banished from the World Cup.

[Summers]

Oh fuck, Liverpool/Chelsea has nothing to do with this. The referee - on this single occasion, the sending off - did EVERYTHING right. He blew when he saw a sending off offence. Yes, he was shit overall, but that decision was RIGHT.