The Fergie Factor

The English Premiership has had me hooked from the time they started broadcasting it in these parts of the world in the early nineties. Even in those embryonic days of regular club football viewing, the name Alex Ferguson (the ‘Sir’ came after the treble in ’99) stood like a colossus, a larger than life figure, a bigger name than all the big name players in his first team at Manchester United. His words carried greater weight in the footballing world (referees, media, administrators) than those of the Ayatollah in Iran.  Since those days, till last night’s daylight robbery for United over Liverpool, I have watched the Premiership intently, as an Arsenal supporter, but otherwise essentially a neutral student of action on and off the pitch.

They say in football, decisions even themselves out for a team over a season. Somehow, for Fergie’s team, they never seem to do. Over the past few seasons, I have seriously given thought of maintaining a stat sheet over the entire season counting the number of incorrect potentially game changing refereeing decisions that go for and against Man U over the course of the entire season. I have never managed to do so, but a random look at this season and the count stands at 2 incorrect penalties awarded and an incorrect red card (still waiting for a decision to go against them).  Wenger, Mourinho, Ancelotti and Mancini  (the other premiership winning managers that I have seen) have all made claims to their side being short changed, but for their teams the whole ‘decisions even themselves out’ factor probably holds true – if anything Mancini has probably been at short end of the stick more often than others.

What then ticks for Fergie and United- I will not go as far to claim that officials are bought off. That would be puerile. However, the undeniable fact remains that the intimidation factor of Sir Alex far weighs heavily in the mind of an official while having to make a split second, game changing call. Imagine the position of the referee while having to officiate on the Welbeck or Valencia ‘dives’ this season.  Even he is wavering towards the side of a non-call, his sub-conscious probably starts weighing up the implications of a post game Fergie rant vs a Brendan Rogers rant, and within the fraction of decision making time, the damage is done. If I had a dime for every time I’ve seen Paul Scholes go unpunished for the type of challenge Shelvey was sent off, I’d have been a far richer man.  

The other thing to factor in this is that over in the European Competitions, this Fergie intimidation factor is lost and you find a lot less managers bemoaning the refereeing advantage to United in Europe.

Sir Alex has even famously targeted referees before a game making statements in his pre-match interviews about how the gentleman had cost his team points in a previous game -  a gambit that has played havoc in the official’s mind before the starting whistle. Would the man then dare brandish an early card for a cynical foul in the opening few minutes of the game?

These issues are greatly downplayed by the media and the English refereeing association is a bad joke and I fathom ,till the great man stays in the job United will get the rub of refereeing green just that wee bit more often than his rivals. What I’d be really interested in seeing is the first Man U season after Sir Alex hangs his boots. While I’m convinced the decisions will be far more even, there’s even a chance that United may suffer from a few awry ones fuelled, by the sub-conscious relief of officials finally free of the yoke of the Fergie factor.