The BBC London television news at
lunchtime often advertise BBC Radio London, featuring their presenters, Danny Baker and Vanessa Feltz. If anything would put me off tuning into a radio station, it would be telling me I have to listen to those two.
I'm surprised that Danny Baker is back working for the BBC. He was sacked a few years ago from BBC Five Live, when he gave out the private address of a referee and suggested to listeners that they 'put things through his letter box'. The reason for this disgraceful behaviour was that the referee concerned had given a penalty against Chelsea.
Chelsea fans are again in the news now that the referee of their game against Barcelona, Anders Frisk of Sweden, has retired from the game to which he has given so much, because of death threats to him and his family by telephone, post and e-mail. There is no suggestion that fans have been put up to this behaviour but the Chelsea management made unsubstantiated comments about the referee after they lost the game.
When England lost on penalties at Euro 2004, one television company gave out the referee's e-mail address. He received so much hate mail, including death threats, that he went into hiding.
All this because each referee made a decision, right or wrong, that the fans didn't like.
It's reckoned that on average, a referee makes five hundred decisions in the course of a match. That doesn't mean five hundred free kicks. What it acknowledges is that every time there is an incident, for example a tackle, a referee has to make a number of decisions.
First of all whether it is fair or foul. If he considers it fair he will allow play to continue. If however he considers it an unfair tackle he has to decide whether to stop the game, or allow it to continue, if by stopping he would be giving an advantage to the offending side. If he stops play, he then has to consider what type of free kick he should award, direct or indirect. He also has to decide whether the free kick is enough punishment or whether it warranted some further sanction. If so, is it to be a yellow or a red card. The one thing a referee has to do above all else is make decisions.
When you consider the number of decisions a referee has to make and the amount of cheating by players today, can you really believe that he is never going to make a mistake? What fans have to ask themselves, is why the referee made the decision he did? The referee will have no connection with either side. It makes no difference to him which side wins the match. He makes a decision honestly, based on what he saw or what he believed he saw.
Football has always stirred the emotions but shouldn't fans grow up and just enjoy it. Surely no game, no decision, right or wrong, is worth threatening peoples lives. It reminds me of an e-mail I received just after Euro 2004. It told of a father whose fifteen year old daughter went missing. On her bed was a letter from her, which said she had eloped with her new boy friend, who was lovely with his piercings, scars, tattoos and big motor cycle. They were going to live in his caravan in the woods, where they were growing marijuana to pay for the baby she was carrying. In the meantime she asked her parents to pray for a cure for AIDS so that her boyfriend would get better.
The father was going frantic until he noticed the PS. Dear Dad, None of this is true. I'm watching TV at a neighbour's house, but I wanted you to know that there are worse things in life, than England getting beat on penalties again.