Seeing Red (23 page)

The 2004/05 season saw seismic events in English football, but they involved a Portuguese, a Russian, a Frenchman and a Scot. An Englishman based in Tring was involved in some key moments, and I would like to tell you about them.

The Portuguese, of course, was José Mourinho. The Russian was Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea. Together they set about making Chelsea champions for the first time in fifty years. The Frenchman, Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, and the Scot, Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United, seemed more concerned about their own enmity than about the newcomer. We all soon learned that we could not ignore Mourinho, however.

Just before the start of that 2004/05 season I was invited along to Chelsea's training ground, which was then at Harlington, to the west of London. I was asked to brief the players about changes in the Laws of the Game and some new interpretations.

Mourinho welcomed me into his office and we talked about the two European ties I had refereed when he was
coach of FC Porto in Portugal. He said, ‘I want you to tell us what we need to do and how we can get through the season without upsetting referees.' Recalling that remark now in the light of what has happened since, I am surprised that he kept a straight face.

Mourinho was complimentary. He said, ‘Chelsea want to be the best so we wanted the best referee here.' He was helpful: when I pointed out that I had a flight to Switzerland later that day, he brought the players' meeting forward a little. He was restrained: he took a back seat as I ran through the law changes and answered questions from the players.

It went very well, I thought, and there were no problems a couple of weeks later when I refereed Mourinho's first Premiership match, in which Chelsea beat Manchester United.

But, in December 2004, I was in charge of Chelsea's visit to Arsenal. That was when Mourinho ceased to think I was the ‘best referee' and when my opinion of him changed. The game was an epic. It ended 2–2 and was full of good football, but the next day's headlines highlighted a controversy over a goal scored from a free-kick by Arsenal's Thierry Henry. Well, the media thought it was a controversy, and so did Mourinho and his players – I just applied the Laws.

I penalized a foul, about five yards outside the penalty area, in line with the left-hand post. Thierry stood over the ball as the Chelsea players shuffled into position in front of him. Thierry asked me, within earshot of some Chelsea men, ‘Quick or slow? Can I take it, please?'

I replied, ‘Yes.' I stepped aside and gestured with my arm that the kick was about to be taken. Petr Cech, the Chelsea keeper, was still standing by the left-hand post (his right), making sure that part of the goal would be covered by the
defensive ‘wall' of players. Chelsea's Eidur Gudjohnsen realized what was about to happen and tried to get his goalkeeper to move to the middle of the goal. At the moment Eidur turned his head to shout at Petr, Thierry clipped the ball towards the unguarded side of the goal. It went in and Chelsea went potty.

Thierry's goal made it 2–1 to Arsenal, but Eidur equalized later and Chelsea remained at the top of the League. That did not appease Mourinho. When he addressed the media, he said, ‘If you can forget the way Arsenal scored their second goal – if you can call it a goal – the result was correct. But it's difficult for me to forget Arsenal's second goal, so I don't think the result was fair. If I speak about it maybe I would have to go to the FA and be sent to the stands for a few weeks or pay a large fine, and I should keep my money for Christmas presents. I am more than unhappy, but I cannot say the words in my heart and soul. I just cannot do it.' Then he added this quite extraordinary postscript: ‘In pre-season, we had a top referee at our training ground who showed us all the rules of football. So I have no doubts about it. One of the things he explained to us was walls, distance, whistle – everything was clear. I have a lot of respect for Mr Poll. He is a top referee. But the rules of the game are the same all over the world – in China, Japan, Mexico or England, in the top league or under-15s.'

Mourinho did not bother to tell anyone that the ‘top referee' who had explained the Laws to Chelsea was Mr Poll. And if he honestly thought that I had talked about ‘walls, distance, whistle' at that briefing, then he was not listening. I did not deal with the subject of taking free-kicks because nothing had changed, and I was only dealing with new Laws and new interpretations. The situation with quick free-kicks
was exactly as it had been two years previously when I had allowed Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink to score for Chelsea in an FA Cup replay before West Ham had organized their wall. Arsène Wenger commented, after Thierry's goal against Chelsea, that the players should know the Laws and the goalkeeper should remain alert. Hear, hear!

What was instructional from my point of view was that Mourinho used me as a scapegoat for his team's lack of awareness – and that he produced a version of my visit to the training ground which was not what I knew had happened. Mourinho's version suited his message, but it was not accurate.

A couple of months after that game at Highbury, my friend the Swedish referee Anders Frisk was the recipient of even more unacceptable criticism by Mourinho. Again, the Chelsea manager's version did not tally with the facts. Anders sent off Chelsea's Didier Drogba in the second half of a Champions League match against Barcelona at the Nou Camp stadium. Afterwards, Mourinho claimed that he had seen Barça manager Frank Rijkaard enter the referee's room at half-time. That was against UEFA regulations and the implication was that Rijkaard had influenced Anders in some way, and that had led to the sending-off of Drogba.

The irrefutable truth is that Rijkaard did not enter the ref's room. We know that for certain, because Pascal Fratellia of UEFA was in the room with Anders. But Mourinho had a version which suited his purposes, and Chelsea fans believed their manager. Anders retired prematurely from refereeing, FIFA announcing that it was because of ‘death threats against his family'.

When I missed out on Euro 2004, Anders had been wonderfully supportive. He told me, ‘I feel someone has
wronged you, so do what you can to make it right. I think you are a fantastic referee. The best ship is sitting at the harbour. You must sail again.'

When Anders decided he did not want to risk going to sea again, to use his metaphor, I was personally saddened for him as a man and a friend. I was also saddened for refereeing and for football.

With his abilities as a motivator, organizer and tactician, José Mourinho does not need to target referees – to use them as diversions when his team does not win and to put them under pressure to try to affect their decision-making. He had some success doing just that when he was working in Portugal, and so he imported the tactic with him to England. I also believe, fervently, that he made Chelsea players think it was acceptable – desirable even – to blame referees for their own failings. Because José produced inaccurate accounts of events to fit his indignant view of the world, the Chelsea players thought that was the correct way to behave as well. After I sent off John Terry against Spurs, the Chelsea captain had no qualms about implying that I and the other three match officials were part of a conspiracy. The Chelsea captain was just taking his lead from the Chelsea manager.

Don't forget that in my last match at Chelsea, when they played Manchester United and Senhor Mourinho used atrocious foul language, I learned exactly what sort of behaviour the Chelsea manager thought was acceptable towards match officials. José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix is a truly great coach, but as a human being his methods are open to question.

So, let's leave him. Let's move on to two other managers near the top of the English League in that 2004/05 season – Arsène Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson – and let me tell you
about refereeing the match between their teams at Highbury which I consider one of my best performances of my career.

To put the fixture in context, we need to know about a game in which Mike Riley was the ref. That was in October of that 2004/05 season, at Old Trafford. Arsenal went into the game hailed as ‘The Invincibles'. They had put together a sequence of forty-nine unbeaten games in the Premiership. But in match number fifty, Sir Alex's men won 2–0.

It was a bruising, bitterly contested encounter, and long-standing hostilities between the clubs were bubbling just below the surface throughout the game. They erupted afterwards in the tunnel and in the dressing rooms area. In a scuffle between players and staff on both sides, slices of pizza were hurled.

So when the season reached the return fixture, at Highbury in February, the game did not need any hyping-up. That did not stop Sky from doing just that, of course. The satellite TV company showed endless repeats of previous red card incidents between the teams. I took it as the highest possible compliment that I was appointed to take charge of a game which newspapers predicted would be ‘unrefereeable'. I understand that both clubs asked for me to be in charge, which, again, was a tremendous compliment. I had earned the respect of two clubs with whom I had a fairly chequered history.

Sir Alex Ferguson is not exactly known for praising referees, but he is well known for complaining if referees do not add on enough time (if his team are trailing) or when they add too much time (when his team are winning!). At one game at Old Trafford, at the start of the 1996/97 season, United fought back from 2–0 down to level the scores but because I ‘only' allowed five added minutes, Fergie raced
towards me at the finish of the match. Brian Kidd, his assistant at the time, got hold of one sleeve of his manager's coat but Fergie was so determined to get to me, he wriggled out of the coat. Thankfully, his assistant managed to grab his other arm and keep him away from me.

Managers had to send their own match reports to the Premier League. Usually they harped on about one specific incident about which they felt aggrieved, but on one occasion Sir Alex made a more general point. He said of me, ‘This is supposed to be the future of English refereeing. He's good but he makes too many mistakes.'

On yet another occasion – before the start of the second half of United's game at Liverpool in November 2003 – United's Rio Ferdinand asked me, ‘Are you going to give us something this half?'

I said, ‘Did the gaffer tell you to say that? You wouldn't have thought of it yourself.'

I spotted Sir Alex Ferguson, who had overheard the exchange and had a broad grin on his face. He said, ‘Well, I've seen you have better halves.'

Gradually, over the course of many seasons involving many controversies, I earned the grudging respect of Sir Alex. In my last season, he was asked at a media conference about Howard Webb. Sir Alex remarked that it appeared Howard was being groomed to ‘take over' from me as the country's top official. He then added that, in his opinion, I had been ‘the best referee in England over the last ten years'. That short phrase is locked away in my memory banks because it meant such a lot to me.

My relationship with Arsenal had been much more fraught. I had endured problems with them ever since February 1998 when I cautioned four of their players and sent off
Patrick Vieira for a second yellow card offence during the Coca Cola Cup semi-final at Chelsea. Gary Lewin, the Arsenal and England physiotherapist, came to see me after the game and told me the players were ‘confused' over a number of my decisions.

So I contacted Arsenal a few days later to tell them I was willing to talk to the players and manager Arsène Wenger. They could raise anything they wanted about the match. But the request was rejected out of hand. I was told, ‘We have our job to do and we'll do it our way. You do your job. That's it.'

So we went about those jobs without building any bridges. My job was to referee their games fairly and to make honest decisions. Many of those decisions upset them. I got many of those decisions right, but I accept that I got some wrong. That is life. That is football.

I certainly got some things wrong when I refereed Arsenal against Liverpool at Highbury in the first Monday night live TV game of 2000/01. Because Euro 2000 had not gone well for me, I was not in the right frame of mind for such a big match. It was probably my worst refereeing display, not so much for decision-making but in terms of my mental approach to the match. If I could change one game in my entire domestic career, it would be that one. I sent off Liverpool's Gary McAllister and Didi Hamann, plus Arsenal's Patrick Vieira; I booked four players. But, although I was not happy with my performance, when I looked at a recording of the game, the only really poor decision was to send off Hamann. I had already cautioned him and was convinced that he then pulled back Robert Pires by grabbing his shirt. When I looked at the incident again, however, the Liverpool player did not touch Pires. So I successfully asked the FA to
withdraw that second caution. We did have a procedure to do that, and it meant that Hamann was not suspended for being sent off.

I was also in completely the wrong frame of mind before another Arsenal match. That was in December 2001 when I had just heard that Gerald Ashby had died. He was just fifty-two.

When I first became a Premier League referee, Gerald was a top ref and, although our personalities were very different, I gravitated towards him and was always pleased to listen to his advice. Once refs became professional, we each had a refereeing coach appointed. Gerald had retired by then and became my coach. That meant that I spoke to him on the telephone after every game to discuss issues and so on. I also telephoned him at other times and he was wonderfully encouraging, but then Gerald was a wonderful man; thoroughly decent and utterly honest. He was one of the biggest influences on my refereeing. He helped me work on my composure; he set me standards; he ensured I never became complacent. The moment I heard of his death was the first time my children saw me stifling tears.