Apologies in advance to the mods if this sort of post/thread goes against the Forum's principles. So by all means close it if you feel it appropriate. At least, however, by posting it I've managed to relieve myself of some of the outrage I'm feeling for the man who merely postures as a referee when he's officiating our games.
So we were forced to endure last night at Leicester yet another brazen example of officialdom mauling from Lee Mason. This time it didn't cost us in terms of points dropped. It could easily have done though. That, however, is scarcely the point. The point is officials are meant to be fair and, in Mason, Liverpool have one who simply isn’t fair in how he officiates the matches in which we are involved.
Last season when he assisted Man City in our 2-1 defeat at the Etihad I wrote amongst a plethora of enraged outpourings the following:
Initial post: The overriding concern, however, has to be the refereeeing/officials.
Down at Tottenham [the 0-5 game] for the first time in many years in such a high profile game I felt we had officials who were competant and fair. Which is precisely what officials are meant to be and years ago most were. If anything at White hart lane we got the rub of the green with the decisions. I'm thinking of the times when we were harrying them and winnining possession and many officials in recent years would have penalised us - incorrectly - but penalised us nonetheless.
At the Etihad, the officials were a fucking disgrace. They were so inclined to rule decisions in favour of the home side the game was actually a fuckin farce. The Sterling offside is the obvious one but amidst a litany of smaller decisions awarded against us, Mason favoured City with at least five important decisions all of which he got wrong. One of these led very quickly to City's equaliser and two should have seen us at least one penalty [the shirt tug on Suarez] and an indirect free kick or even penalty in the box [the Kolorov body check on Johnson].
In such a high profile game all's you can ask is the sort of fairness/neutrality we saw at Spurs a few weeks earlier. As it was, what we saw was the sort of blatant biased officialdom we have suffered against United throughout the majority of the Ferguson reign. People can point to Mignolet's mistake or the Sterling miss as reasons why we didn’t win. And they have a point. But the sort of biased decision making that continually favours one team which we witnessed last night is something no side should have to endure and is in four words – an absolute fuckin disgrace.
Second post: I don't think anybody actually thinks he's biased - in that he's pro City or anti-LFC [though some might make a case a la his previous record against us in the sendings off at Stoke and Masch's dismissal] but only someone who slept through the game could doubt for a moment that he favoured City in so many decisions. Not that I believe he could help it in that they were perpetrated in any premeditative way. I think what he did was purely instinctive. In much the same way that the instincts of so many officials - Riley and Webb most notably - have leaned towards United during the Ferguson era, particularly at Old Trafford. Or maybe they weren’t. Who the hell knows other than the heinous twat himself?
And please don't ask me to list all them because it would take a book.
As it is for the most part over my lifetime of watching football, f it doesn't happen the way it happened last night ie a blatant favouring of one side, I personally say fuck all. I don’t whinge at the odd rogue incorrect decision. If bias hasn’t happened then it hasn't happened. When it does happens - like it did last night - I'll cite it. And there's no way on god's earth last night can be dismissed as mere incompetance. Sure a dollop of that is involved but the repeated favouring of City cannot simply be incompetance. It has to be something more institutionalised. As I say, I believe it to be an instinctive thing as it used to be with the likes of Riley and, later, Webb at Old Trafford.
I'm not into conspiracy theories for one minute but the instinct to give decisions which favour one side as we saw last night in full view of any discerning eyes simply has to be more than the mere incompetance you cite. Totally naive to view it otherwise IMHO.
Hint - re-run the Kolorov/Johnson incident again and tell me how the fuck that could be interpreted as a free kick for City unless the referee's instincts were compelling him to interpret the incident in City's favour? It was as blatant an example of obstruction as you can get. Likewise the Suarez shirt tug. Likewise the Lucas/Zabaletta coming together which led to their corner/likewise the Lescott taking out of Suarez; likewise the booking of Suarez when he pulled out the challenge.
As for the Skrtel/Kompany shite. In essence it's currently seen in the game as 50/50 even if Skrtel does appear to be the guilty party. Mason wasn't favouring us or not favouring City. It's just the way such ridiculous liaisons are interpreted at the moment. Mason is not going to be the one to suddenly break new territory over it. The Suarez shirt pull was, of course, an altogether different animal.
Still enraged at the treatment from Mason at the Etihad we then had to endure a week or so later the further refereeing aberrations of Howard Webb at Stamford bridge. It compelled me to post a thread entitled Do we let the officiating of the Etihad, Emirates and Stamford Bridge simply pass? .
My opening post on the matter read as follows:
I’m not one for conspiracy theories but I tend to agree with the principle behind the opening post in the other thread regarding Liverpool FC speaking up to defend themselves, though I feel more important principles are involved.
My own problem is no longer so much with the media and the bilge it peddles whether it be against my club or my city. The fact is over many years as a Liverpudlian you have little option but to develop some sort of extra skin against the anti-Liverpool prejudices within certain sections of it.
So regarding the media's most recent nonsense such as the Mourinho invoked lies and hypocrisy regarding Luis Suarez I am largely unperturbed.
Where I do have a massive problem is with what transpired in respect of the match officiating in the two recent consecutive huge and pivotal games we played against the very clubs who alone stand as the obscene wealth-polluted unacceptable face of the game as it exists today.
The fact is, what we witnessed in those two games was unprecedented.
Intriguingly, it stood in stark contrast to what had taken place a few weeks earlier in an equally pivotal game at White Hart Lane. On that occasion against a club which, whilst retaining an ownership many Liverpudlians might deem heinous, are nevertheless not of the ilk of Manchester City and Chelsea.
Away to Tottenham we had seen what I regard as an exemplary performance by the match officials. Their impartiality had shone like a beacon. As we watched, I'd commented on it several times before we'd even taken the lead. It was so refreshing to actually see such competence and such neutrality, so much did it jar with the usual fare on offer from the usual incumbents we are compelled to endure. Startling as it seemed, the officials were simply being fair in a domestic high profile match involving Liverpool Football Club. It was as if unpolluted European officials had been imported just for that one particular game.
What took place last week at Manchester and Stamford Bridge stood stark in contrast. In both those games what we saw from the match officials was an overall control of the match which in no way, shape or form could be said to be impartial. A plethora of inexplicable decisions – some crucial most minor – but the overwhelming majority of which happened to favour the home side punctuated each of the games.
It was to such an extent there can be no doubt the match officials were intent on favouring one side. What we had were incidents big or small, real or perceived being viewed by the match officials through a lens which so happened to be inclined in favour of the home side.
As stated above we as Liverpool supporters can rattle off many instances where we have perceived such favouritism against top domestic opposition. I dare say most clubs can do so. And a large proportion of it as we all know so painfully has taken place at Old Trafford under the tenure of Alex Ferguson.
Never, however, has it been implemented remotely approaching the degree to which it was in these two back-to-back matches.
I do not intend to list the incidents. The main ones have been referenced many times on these forums and in any case they are a matter of easily established fact for all to see who re-watch both games. What I do feel, however, is that something sinister happened in the match officiating in those two games and it needs to be highlighted and challenged because it is unacceptable and makes a complete and utter fucking mockery of everything that football and the football dominated lives of so many of us stand for.
I do not wish to speculate upon why it happened or how it came about. What I do know is that the unprecedented sham of match officiating that stained those two games demands to be forensically examined and scrutinised by Liverpool Football Club and the findings published. Mason and Webb and their assistants need to be held accountable and need to be made to explain the inexplicable to a public that deserves to know how such blatant favouritism came to pass.
The thread proceeded to prompt a huge response both from those who agreed with the basic sentiment that bias of some sort does exist and does manifest itself and those who firmly rejected any such notion. The thread was ultimately closed by the mods because it eventually descended into a free-for-all denigration of Webb.
My own particular beef, however, was with Mason. His performance back then at the Etihad was a disgrace and last night at Leicester he possibly matched it when, amongst a litany of crap officialdom, he not only elected to ignore a blatant penalty on Gerrard that would have meant a sending off of the goalie but he proceeded to witness a relentless succession of fouls on Sterling which for the most part he simply chose to ignore and on several occasions actually ruled against the little winger.
In the final analysis, I’ve no answers but I guess at this juncture I just don’t want a rather fortunate but wonderfully welcome win and three points to take away one iota of the disgust that should be directed at a man charged with the weighty responsibility of being fair and equitable yet entirely incapable of being so whenever he officiates a football match involving Liverpool Football Club.
I’m assuming the fact he is still officiating our matches means that the club has failed to make representations to the premier league/FA in such a vein. Surely to God after last night’s debacle they can now have no alternative but to do so. The fact is the man simply finds it impossible to referee fairly and squarely a match that involves Liverpool Football Club. And that has to be unacceptable, most especially to Liverpool Football Club.
