Mike Riley – What a Referee!

It’s not essential to have played the game in order to be an effective referee, even at the highest level, but it certainly helps.

Unfortunately, Mike Riley continues to show no sign whatsoever of having done so, whilst at the same time indicating that he is sharp enough with his cards to interest the proprietor of his local casino.

For Blackburn’s game against Newcastle he was at his brilliant best, breaking free from that characteristic loping run into a joyful sprint and thrusting his hand eagerly into his pocket no fewer than 7 times. Indeed such was his excitement that on one occasion he even dropped his notebook, which regrettably someone was foolish enough to return to him.

His ‘piece de resistance’ was without doubt the second yellow and subsequent red awarded to Newcastle’s young central defender Steven Taylor, though it was difficult for lesser mortals to discern the heinous crime that evidently warranted such a severe punishment.

As he contemplates the ramifications of Mr Riley’s decision, Taylor (like his manager, his team mates and a several thousand Newcastle United fans) might be forgiven for wondering why some of the less subtle challenges meted out by Blackburn Rovers players escaped any form of sanction. They might find some comfort in talking to Arsenal fans who were at Old Trafford last season, where Riley saw nothing untoward in United’s treatment of Jose Antonio Reyes, yet rushed with what proved to be indecent haste to award a penalty for an alleged foul by Sol Campbell on Wayne Rooney (the replay showed beyond doubt that no contact had been made).

Far from endorsing Mr Riley’s credibility as a top referee, decisions such as these only lend weight to the rumour that at his worst he is reminiscent of an ungainly alliance between Mr Bean and Cyrano de Bergerac.