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Rafa was right... the sight of Sir Alex ranting at THREE officials on the touchline laid waste to the feeble Respect campaign
By DES KELLY
PUBLISHED: 19:24 EST, 28 December 2012 | UPDATED: 19:47 EST, 28 December 2012
Every 12 months we make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, drink less, exercise more often and be an all-round better person.
We see some previously chubby ‘celebrity’ selling the tale of how they transformed themselves from a fridge-bothering munter into an amazingly svelte, ‘have it all’ picture of perfection thanks to an amazing diet regime (plus a gastric band and a considerable amount of plastic surgery, although they usually neglect to mention this).
Duly inspired, you decide to drag yourself off the sofa, squeeze into gym gear suddenly stretched to the limit of its molecular structure and do something about it. Yes, it’s time to jog to the home of that D-list celebrity and club them to death with a copy of their bogus diet book.
Scroll down to watch the video Rafa's rant from 2009
Speaking out: Rafa Benitez (left) criticised Sir Alex Ferguson during his 'facts' speech in 2009
BREAKING NEWS:
According to reports, Rafa Benitez is in line to become Chelsea’s permanent manager. BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: At Stamford Bridge, there is no such thing as a ‘permanent manager’.
If you are feeling inadequate or lacking in willpower, console yourself with the idea that at least your resolutions last longer than the average ‘disciplinary crackdown’ in football.
Football is forever threatening to ‘get tough’ on managers and players who set a bad example. It generates a few useful headlines, yet like a New Year’s vow to cut out the sauvignon blanc, it usually lasts less than a week.
But I have a resolution for the Football Association and the Premier League in 2013. Find some resolve. Show some resolution.
The game becomes a laughing stock when it is too timid to control itself and the sight of Sir Alex Ferguson ranting at not one, not two, but three officials on the touchline laid waste to the feeble ‘Respect’ campaign. And what happened? Nothing much.
Elsewhere Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini grumbled the referee at his match might have eaten too much turkey at Christmas and Harry Redknapp advised the assistant to take a trip to Specsavers. They were immediately told to account for their critical remarks.
So there we have it. The FA is prepared to get tough on sarcasm. But angry, spittle-flecking displays of fury and dissent? That passes without a word of official condemnation.
Mancini and Redknapp should write back saying: ‘Dear FA, I didn’t do anything that was even half as bad as Ferguson. So get stuffed. Yours sincerely, etc.’
The FA hid behind procedure. They claimed it was impossible to initiate action against
Ferguson because referee Mike Dean had bottled out . . . sorry . . . neglected to mention the incidents in his report.
So what? Even if Dean ducked any hassle, the whole unedifying scene was caught on camera. It was obviously aggressive in its intent. It was certainly designed to intimidate officials and it absolutely falls within any definition of the term ‘bringing the game into disrepute’. So do something, FA.
Managers snipe at officials because they believe they can influence them, bully them into submission and they assume they will get away with it, too, with plenty of justification.
But far from engendering Respect, the game’s governing body actively undermines referees by shying away from tackling managers at moments such as this.
Eight months ago, Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore announced all the top- flight clubs had decided it was ‘time to raise the bar’ on standards of behaviour in English football.
Ref rant: United manager Sir Alex Ferguson makes his point to Mike Dean
Miscreants would be tackled with a ‘zero tolerance’ approach, we were told. So how’s that going?
More from Des Kelly...
Across at the FA, they have trumpeted so many crackdowns in recent years I’ve lost count. But just 12 weeks ago chairman David Bernstein was banging on about how football would ‘draw on the sporting spirit of the Olympic Games’, offer ‘moral leadership’ and take the ‘high ground’.
Looking at how things are panning out, I don’t think the high ground is going to be at the kind of altitude where we’ll need oxygen.
It’s quite simple. When a knight of the realm, a statesman of football and an occasional lecturer at Harvard starts shouting the odds like a white van driver abusing a traffic warden, the authorities have a duty to deal with him, or anyone else for that matter.
Not so long ago managers were told they would be fined for even daring to mention a referee before a match. Now, contests are engulfed in all-too-familiar squalls of complaint, recrimination and bitterness. Significantly, assaults on referees at the grassroots level are increasing.
So is Ferguson treated as a special case? I know a manager who thinks so. Back in January 2009, when he was at Liverpool, the current Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez said this: ‘During the Respect campaign — and this is a fact — Mr Ferguson was charged by the FA for improper conduct after comments made about Martin Atkinson and Keith Hackett. He was not punished. He is the only manager in the league that cannot be punished for these things.
‘We know what happens every time we go to Old Trafford and the United staff are always going man to man with the referees, especially at half-time when they walk close to the referees and they are talking and talking.
‘You can see every single week how they put (referees) under pressure. We had a meeting in Manchester with managers and FA about the Respect campaign — and I was very clear.
And that's a fact: Benitez during his rant about Sir Alex Ferguson while Liverpool manager in 2009
‘Forget the campaign because Mr Ferguson is killing the referees but he is not punished. How can you talk about the Respect campaign and criticise the referee every single week? You can analyse the facts and come to your own decision and ideas.’
Four years on, I think we can. We will also wait and see what happens to Mancini and Redknapp with some interest. In 2013, surely it is time the Respect campaign was shown some respect.
VIDEO: Rafa Benitez's 'Fact' rant from 2009
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/art...#ixzz2GRxk8NQL
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PUBLISHED: 19:24 EST, 28 December 2012 | UPDATED: 19:47 EST, 28 December 2012
Every 12 months we make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, drink less, exercise more often and be an all-round better person.
We see some previously chubby ‘celebrity’ selling the tale of how they transformed themselves from a fridge-bothering munter into an amazingly svelte, ‘have it all’ picture of perfection thanks to an amazing diet regime (plus a gastric band and a considerable amount of plastic surgery, although they usually neglect to mention this).
Duly inspired, you decide to drag yourself off the sofa, squeeze into gym gear suddenly stretched to the limit of its molecular structure and do something about it. Yes, it’s time to jog to the home of that D-list celebrity and club them to death with a copy of their bogus diet book.
Scroll down to watch the video Rafa's rant from 2009
Speaking out: Rafa Benitez (left) criticised Sir Alex Ferguson during his 'facts' speech in 2009BREAKING NEWS:
According to reports, Rafa Benitez is in line to become Chelsea’s permanent manager. BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: At Stamford Bridge, there is no such thing as a ‘permanent manager’.
If you are feeling inadequate or lacking in willpower, console yourself with the idea that at least your resolutions last longer than the average ‘disciplinary crackdown’ in football.
Football is forever threatening to ‘get tough’ on managers and players who set a bad example. It generates a few useful headlines, yet like a New Year’s vow to cut out the sauvignon blanc, it usually lasts less than a week.
- Loading tweets...
But I have a resolution for the Football Association and the Premier League in 2013. Find some resolve. Show some resolution.
The game becomes a laughing stock when it is too timid to control itself and the sight of Sir Alex Ferguson ranting at not one, not two, but three officials on the touchline laid waste to the feeble ‘Respect’ campaign. And what happened? Nothing much.
Elsewhere Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini grumbled the referee at his match might have eaten too much turkey at Christmas and Harry Redknapp advised the assistant to take a trip to Specsavers. They were immediately told to account for their critical remarks.
So there we have it. The FA is prepared to get tough on sarcasm. But angry, spittle-flecking displays of fury and dissent? That passes without a word of official condemnation.
Mancini and Redknapp should write back saying: ‘Dear FA, I didn’t do anything that was even half as bad as Ferguson. So get stuffed. Yours sincerely, etc.’
The FA hid behind procedure. They claimed it was impossible to initiate action against
Ferguson because referee Mike Dean had bottled out . . . sorry . . . neglected to mention the incidents in his report.
So what? Even if Dean ducked any hassle, the whole unedifying scene was caught on camera. It was obviously aggressive in its intent. It was certainly designed to intimidate officials and it absolutely falls within any definition of the term ‘bringing the game into disrepute’. So do something, FA.
Managers snipe at officials because they believe they can influence them, bully them into submission and they assume they will get away with it, too, with plenty of justification.
But far from engendering Respect, the game’s governing body actively undermines referees by shying away from tackling managers at moments such as this.
Eight months ago, Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore announced all the top- flight clubs had decided it was ‘time to raise the bar’ on standards of behaviour in English football.
Ref rant: United manager Sir Alex Ferguson makes his point to Mike DeanMiscreants would be tackled with a ‘zero tolerance’ approach, we were told. So how’s that going?
More from Des Kelly...
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- VIEW FULL ARCHIVE
Across at the FA, they have trumpeted so many crackdowns in recent years I’ve lost count. But just 12 weeks ago chairman David Bernstein was banging on about how football would ‘draw on the sporting spirit of the Olympic Games’, offer ‘moral leadership’ and take the ‘high ground’.
Looking at how things are panning out, I don’t think the high ground is going to be at the kind of altitude where we’ll need oxygen.
It’s quite simple. When a knight of the realm, a statesman of football and an occasional lecturer at Harvard starts shouting the odds like a white van driver abusing a traffic warden, the authorities have a duty to deal with him, or anyone else for that matter.
Not so long ago managers were told they would be fined for even daring to mention a referee before a match. Now, contests are engulfed in all-too-familiar squalls of complaint, recrimination and bitterness. Significantly, assaults on referees at the grassroots level are increasing.
So is Ferguson treated as a special case? I know a manager who thinks so. Back in January 2009, when he was at Liverpool, the current Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez said this: ‘During the Respect campaign — and this is a fact — Mr Ferguson was charged by the FA for improper conduct after comments made about Martin Atkinson and Keith Hackett. He was not punished. He is the only manager in the league that cannot be punished for these things.
‘We know what happens every time we go to Old Trafford and the United staff are always going man to man with the referees, especially at half-time when they walk close to the referees and they are talking and talking.
‘You can see every single week how they put (referees) under pressure. We had a meeting in Manchester with managers and FA about the Respect campaign — and I was very clear.
And that's a fact: Benitez during his rant about Sir Alex Ferguson while Liverpool manager in 2009‘Forget the campaign because Mr Ferguson is killing the referees but he is not punished. How can you talk about the Respect campaign and criticise the referee every single week? You can analyse the facts and come to your own decision and ideas.’
Four years on, I think we can. We will also wait and see what happens to Mancini and Redknapp with some interest. In 2013, surely it is time the Respect campaign was shown some respect.
VIDEO: Rafa Benitez's 'Fact' rant from 2009
This item’s a Zlatan...
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/art...#ixzz2GRxk8NQL
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
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