Teams that don't just come to make up the numbers against Wigan - OTT [R]

Doubt he needs help with it.

Was it a call or card that affected the score line? Nope, so not really the same.

I haven't seen it, but the fact that some of you are saying it was a penalty tells me there was a case for giving it.

In support of this theory, when RVP was sent off for kicking the ball away, it was pretty much universally condemned here IIRC.

Those crying foul are doing so for the same reasons other fans do about United: a half-baked conspiracy theory about one team getting favourable treatment.

The bigger issue is that it is impossible to referee a game with 100% accuracy, yet everybody not involved in the game has access to technology that better equips them to determine what happens. It speaks volumes about the difficulties referees face that even in that case, we can't always come to a consensus.

Well technically, until you prove it's not just an extravagant gift...yes.

nice. Where did you read that one? Not shocked.

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I have to say, Im glad Mexes turned us down all that time ago. He's shite, with a shite attitude, and he's lazy.

Yup. lol...

Thats interesting.

But what do you speculate the payments were for?

There was a link on that blog originally to Juca Kfouri's blog. The page no longer exists.

I'm not saying corruption isn't happening. Merely throwing up questions.

If Rosell has indeed brided FIFA and/or UEFA to get decisions swayed in their favour, why did the ref send off Eric Abidal against Chelsea? Why didn't he give Drogba a yellow card each time he complained vehemently, thus redressing the balance? He must have been crapping himself right up to Iniesta getting that late away goal.

And then there was that Inter match where ref handed Barca a numeric advantage by giving that red card in the Busquets incident. People spent much of the game declaring that Barca were corrupt, favoured etc, etc, then the ref completely dropped the ball by accidentally ruling out a tie-winning goal, sending Inter to the final, leading to the Sprinkler Incident.

See: refs ARE useless. They can't even hand Barca an advantage without screwing it up.

Ahead of the RVP debacle, didn't Barca have one, maybe two penalty claims waived away in the first leg? This "tilting" thing is harder than it looks...

True. At the end of the day: Milan 1 shot on target and Barca 2 good goals, probably 3. That's on top of Milan getting outshot 17-5 at home in the first-leg. That's just not getting the job done if you're Milan. Not even doing enough to earn the right to whine about the referee.

0-0 at home isnt bad. Getting out shot also isnt bad. Most teams that beat Barca, im sure they were out possessed and out shot.

There was a hint of tongue-in-cheek to my posts: I know how the Calciopoli scandal worked.

This however, is about UEFA trying to assist Barca.

Two events are constantly referenced; the Busquets dive and the multiple penalty claims vs Chelsea.

In both games, the referee also gave highly questionable decisions against Barca.

Surely, if the ref's aim is to help them, there's no way he sends off one of their players or rules out a goal if he can at all help it.

So without those examples, we're left with RVP as the only Champions League incident of note. One incident could as easily be a bad decision as anything else.

Barcelona were denied two clear penalties in the first leg of that tie against Arsenal barrol.

Well we're going in the right direction tbh, and considering the halcyon days of Leonardo, Ronaldinho and the 4-2-Crazy formation that isn't a bad thing in itself. Will take some more time before we are truly competitive in Europe but if we actually stay on the same path and avoid any vanity signings, which tends to be what ****s us right up, we'll get there.

TBH when Binho misses the chance in the first leg and Mexes decides to put an entry in for craziest backpass of the season which led to the first pen, you know you ain't going to go through.

If there's a chance I'm being facaetious, you're probably best to take it as such. That was the case here.

Technically if you haven't proven something, then it does remain a theory. That's all I was saying.

I agree that I don't want football fixed. I'm simply not convinced that the cited incidents point to UEFA or specific ref's favouring Barca in Europe.

A big reason for this is that I don't recall one claim of EPL refs favouring United til the start of the 1993-94 season, after which it became rife.

The claims of corruption came hot on the heels of the rise of the ABU. It was also a matter of little consequence that I was a United supporter raised in East Anglia until they became champs in the 92-93 season.

£1m?

That's it?