If, as it seems, his wife is a Liverpool fan, he is apparently a life-long Liverpool fan, and he went on their Asia pre-season tour with them (Why?) that is Conflict of Interest as clear as day. He should not be allowed toi ref ANY Premier League games, minimum. The FA's tolerance of this shambolic nonsense is disgraceful. Worse, it is patently corrupt.

So Mark Clattenburg has been dealt a ban on a Premier League game this weekend...I really feel for him. It won't do us any good - doesn't bring back the point or points we should have had but at least it will be the talk of the media tonight .. Sky Sports etc. and proves we were right and stabbed in the back.

Thank you for the hilarious text messages following the recent Derby match. It is a real shame you were not there, but then again you never are. It is so strange that I have not heard from you for some time, and not even after last years 3 - 0 Thrashing at Goodison or the recent Champions league final defeat. However, I email to give you some fantastic news
Seeing as you are such a fantastic Red, I thought it only right to highlight some sites on the web where you can EASILY obtain tickets for Liverpool Matches, seeing as you are always bleating that you cannot (or is that "don’t want to") get one.

www.ebay.co.uk just type in liverpool fc tickets - simple
www.topticketshop.com You will find tickets to every Liverpool Game here - Freely available
www.thefootballticketshop.com Again every Liverpool match on the calendar at competitive prices
www.liverpoolfc.tv/tickets/a_howtoapply This is actually your own club site - Selling General sale tickets - Believe it or not -
thats what u want to send to all your kopite mates x

Kevin go back to the kop if you honestly believe what you posted take up some other past time Gerrard went down in the box because he DIVED the second pen inthe move leading to it they handled the ball and please show me the rule where a player can change a yellow card to red .we did not play well but the fact is we were CHEATED if you cant see that then I am gobsmacked

Mark Clattenberg has not got a one match ban, he always planned to take a holiday this weekend.

Check the BBC website.

FA have done FA about this incident. Brian Barwick the Kopite will be laughing his c**k off at our indignity.

I do feel, however, that we should not let this lie, and campaign vigorously for something to be done, and finally break the ’Big 4’ cartel of refereeing decisions.

Clattenberg may actually have done us a favour in that Moyes should now be forced to play Jagielka at right back, because he is a little boy lost in the middle.

Yakubu showed a lot more promise too, whereas Joleon was IMMENSE.

Kevin, Not sure which game your referring to. I’ve watched the Hibbert/Gerrard penalty award countless times and although the tabloids and some of the media pundits continually refer to a tackle by Hibbert. I am at a loss to understand this. At no time does Hibbert actually attempt to tackle Gerrard.

The first infringement of the rules is when Gerrard throws an arm across the chest of Hibbert momentarily tugging at his shirt Hibbert does respond by grabbing hold of Gerrards shirt. I guess we could call that one a draw. However, Gerrard quite cleverly stuck a leg out impeding the run of Hibbert and throwing himself to the ground rather dramatically in the process. A better referee may even have booked him for the dive. In fact his actions on this occasion were not too dissimilar to the way he engineered a free kick against Villa earlier in the season when he threw himself over Petrov to earn a free kick from which he scored leaving Martin O’ Neill furious with the officials. However, I’m not going to get caught up in the detail of one incident. It was a catalogue of incidents which quite frankly must raise serious concerns as to the integrity of this official. I do have to say there is huge support for EFC on this issue with the fans of many clubs adding their condemnation of the way this game was officiated. The subsequent rumours now circulating if true would warrant serious investigation.

The fact that a Liverpool player can request that a member of the opposing team be red- carded is highly disturbing and surely brings the game into dis-repute. I do accept your points that our performance wasn’t great but these are entirely separate issues and I would gladly comment on these should you choose to post your views on this separately in order to give those issues the attention they deserve.

Just beginning to recover from watching the game on Saturday - and reliving it via the TW mailbag!

This may be a naive point but...

I have been an Everton fan for over 40 years and were I to have the training (and the fitness!) I don’t think I should be allowed to referee an Everton game; so much takes place at a subconscious level that bias would be too easy.

Given we all know it’s impossible to stop supporting a club, why don’t all referees simply register their life long club affiliation and then not be chosen to referee games involving that club? In any other walk of life this would be regarded as normal practice in avoiding conflict of interest.

Doesn’t get around big 4 bias I accept...

Keith H,

Agree with every word of your post; great one mate!

A bit of a dilemma for me about how we approach this. I’ve never held much respect for moaning, I wish I could just walk away from this one good-humouredly (probably not a word!), but I can’t. This loss to those fucks is different. This, honestly, is a cheat. A dignified silence might not serve, hey?

Aw hell. Just felt compelled to reply to concur with your assessment of Joleon. He was superb, and obviously had a rocket. He was awesome, and his getting the bulk of Goose Hiddinks’ misplaced mockery earlier in the week can only serve us.

Rob stopposting shite will ya.

Just watched the highlights of the game .... how Lescott didn’t get the penalty awarded to him in the last minute is absolutely shocking........and to the idiot(s) who said Lescott dived...BACKWARDS.....open your eyes and watch it again! PK..no question!

As to Neville’s red card and PK....can’t argue with that one.

As to Hibbert’s red card........no way! I watched it several times...I’m still undecided that it was a clear cut PK (both a foul and in the Penalty box) but it shouldn’t have been a red card...my understanding for that offense to be a red card he had to be the last man...he wasn’t (Howard was there)....I could be wrong (I’m bias yes but if I’m wrong then fair enough).

Either fucking way....the ref should be banned from reffing for the rest of the season. He was that bad!

So Mark Clattenburg has been dealt a ban on a Premier League game this weekend...I really feel for him. It won't do us any good - doesn't bring back the point or points we should have had but at least it will be the talk of the media tonight .. Sky Sports etc. and proves we were right and stabbed in the back.

Patty, we are requiring proper names for all our posters, so please figure out what last name you are going to use, and use it. Thanks! Ed

A one match ban??? Who are they kidding? It doesn't say which of the MANY mistakes the ref got wrong he actaully being punished for. Just goes to prove those at the FA know FA.

Martin, in Hibbert’s case, Clattenburg awarded him the red card because it was deemed that Gerrard was denied a clear goal scoring opportunity. When the term ’last man’ is mentioned in regards to offside, redcard offences, etc, it refers to the 2nd last defender (goalkeeper deemed as the last defender). As a referee myself, it was clear that both Gerrard and Hibbo were guilty of shirt tugging as they entered the penalty area. Gerrard then outstretched his right leg to initiate the contact from Hibbert. Clattenburg was conned.

MARK CLATTENBURG IS A NEWCASTLE UNITED FAN NOT A LIVERPOOL FAN AS SUGGESTED BY THE EDITOR.

He does not refree Newcastle matches as a result of this.

He just seriously f**ked up on sat but it wasnt down to bias.

Gerry Western - greta post - well said. I thought both teams were poor on saturday. From my seat in the top balcony, I thought the ref had a bad game. Having seen the replays, I’ve changed my view on that completely.

Having just seen MOTD with its 20 camera angles the following is obvious - even Hansen and Shearer agreed.
Kuyt should have been red carded. Apparently refs have been instructed to issue straight reds to two footed aerial challenges. Kuyt off. Why wasn’t he?
Hibbert’s challenge on Gerrard was outside the box - absolutely clear on replay. The ref was not level - he didn’t even consult his linesmen - standard practise in rugby. Convenient that.
Having produced a yellow card - SG walked passed him, had a quiet word in his ear without stopping walking and the ref put the yellow away and pulled out a red. Also totally shown up on replay and again heavily criticised by Shearer and Hansen. Will there be questions asked about that? - of course not!!
Lescott should have had two penalties. Also absolutely clear on replay and a referree with excellent views of both incidents. Shearer and Lineker described the second one in extra time as quote "Assault" and then laughed about it!!! No discussion that it was the wrong result. Scandal even.
Looking at the cumulative effects of that.
Both sides down to 10 men. No argument with Hibbert going off - he was the last man.
Kuyt should have gone off. Everton are one up.
Gerrard might have scored from the free kick. Lets say he did. 1-1.
Two Everton penalties 3-1. Even if we missed one of them - 2-1.
I don’t know what presure referrees feel under or what influence is brought to bear on them, but I do know this. We should have won that game. How and why that official made the decisions he did we will never know, but I do know this, his decisions secured a winning scoreline for the RS. Video analysis like in rugby would not have allowed that to happen. What I find suspicious is that the whole world of football seems happy to describe an inexplicable level of incompetence week in week out as "poor decisions", and to tolerate the possibility of influencing a game when it could be solved tomorrow.

There seems to be an acceptance that "bad decisions" can influence a result because "that’s football" and it "evens out over a season". I’m sorry but that’s just hollow rhetoric. Multi angle replays show us week after week that:
the rules are not applied consistently and that
referrees "get it wrong".
There needs to be a culture shift in football and video evidence would create it.
I wouldn’t blame people for giving up on football after saturday and thinking that it’s corrupt. personally I’m staying with it because if there is corruption and we turn our backs on EFC then they’ve won.

Message to MIchael Kenrick, OK the Ref had a stinker, but where IS the proof his wife or himself was a lifelong Liverpool fan?

For God’s sake let’s don’t go down that route of ’I heard from a good source close to the club’....also it’s common practice for British refs to accompany British teams on pre-season tours when overseas, it’s been going on for decades.

Let’s keep the debate sensible without the need for hysterics.

Steve

He isnt a Liverpool fan he is a Newcastle fan. He has declared this and does not ref their matches as a result!

i think you’ll also find hibbert was doing what all defenders should do in that situation, put the attacker off, he was leaning into gerrard when he collapsed and then claimed he was about to shoot, he was taking another touch saw howard ready to run out, and panicked. gerrard is a total waster and a cheat.
I also would like to thank Neville for trying to stop a goal going in, i know that many people will say everyone would do that but they don’t, he has risked his place in the team (favouritism aside) and if you saw Larissa second goal against Blackburn you’ll see not everyone will handball to stop a goal.
As for only Lescott and Osman playing well, i agree they were our better players, but i would like to note that Yakubu was looking a lot leaner and put in more effort than he has been doing