Why Middlesbrough and Newcastle shouldn’t, and Sunderland and Hull City should, be in the Championship
How would the Premier League table look if refs got all the key decisions right? A quick glance at the Right Result league tables for the last 3 seasons will tell you how crucial refereeing decisions can be for certain clubs.
In the 06/07 season, refereeing mistakes allowed Tottenham to claim a European spot while pushing Aston Villa all the way down to 11th. At the other end of the table, West Ham escaped relegation not just because of Tevez but also thanks to poor refereeing decisions.
In the 07/08 season the difference was crucial near the top of the table, with refereeing errors allowing Liverpool to pip Everton to 4th spot and Chelsea finishing in 2nd place ahead of Arsenal.
The 08/09 season hasn’t been without it’s share of controversy either. Rafa’s claims apart, the title for a third year in a row was unaffected by refereeing errors but we saw Newcastle and Middlesbrough both get relegated when they shouldn’t have, while Sunderland and Hull City stayed up even though they should have gone down.
The purpose here isn’t to rewrite history or to vilify referees – like players, they too are human and they can make mistakes and given the pressures they face it’s hypocritical to lambast a referee for getting one decision wrong while praising a player like Carlos Tevez for his ‘work rate’ regardless of his (relatively) poor finishing skills.
Rather, ventures like the Right Result Table highlight the magnitude of the task facing the English FA, the Premier League and FIFA when it comes to improving the game so that referees get more decisions right without compromising on what makes the game so enjoyable to watch.
Have a look at the Right Result tables for the 06/07, 07/08 and 08/09 seasons and see for yourself what might have been for several clubs in the English Premier League (and the English Championship).
Check your facts. No team was the victim of terrible refereeing more than Sunderland. I refer you to ex Permier League ref Jeff Winter`s League of Injustice. Sunderland would have been in the middle of the table were it not for appalling refereeing decisions going against them
why should sunderland and hull have been relegated. nothing in the article shows that they should have been. sunderland have had at least had 10pts taken from them this season due to bad refs. (the chelsea game was another example), newcastle have fell due to how the clubs has been run and what has happened on the pitch. its football, relegation is part of it and tbh, newcastle and boro have played some shocking football and had no fight. end of.
the article is bollox, sorry, but it is
hmmmm. rewriting history with a bitter taste in the mouth…..it’s like the interweb in nazi germany around here.
besides, if you took a glance at the injustices Sunderland have suffered at the mercy of inept officials this season you may want to rethink things.
Newcastle and Middlesbrough have been utter shonk all season, and there’s simply no excuse. Good riddance.
What an idiotic title to a post.
To then go on and not even give a reason to back up why you think Hull and Sunderland should have gone down and Newcastle & Middlesbrough should have stayed up.
That’s how football works – if you score points during the season you move up the table or stay in the premier league, or if you dont score the points required – get relegated. So whoever stays up deserves to – and whoever goes down deserves to – Simple !
Football news you can trust, Give me a break.
I am sick and tired of people who go by stats claiming to have a more informed insight into what could have, would have or should have been had the “rule book” been followed to that last word.
Part of what makes football such a rollercoaster experience is that fact that anything can happen. That fact that you insist on producing this bullshit table confirms you dont understand the game. Middlesbrough scored the least goals in the country !!! and they deserve to stay up? Put that in your fact pipe and smoke it!!!
Fair comment, Stats count for nothing, Any team is as good as any other on their day fact, getting 11 players to work together is the the hurdle.
What a crock!
Hull City would not have been relegated under a ‘fair league’ table. Poor refereeing cost us a win at Anfield (both Liverpool goals where a result of fouls on Michael Turner), At least a draw at Sunderland when Cisse was offside to score, a result at Goodison had Falleni been sent off for elbowing, a result against Villa at the KC had a perfectly legit Nick Barmby goal not been disallowed.
I could go on, but I won’t. Just read Jeff Winters league of injustice. He’s an ex-ref so i trust his judgement more than yours!
It’s interesting that the smoggies and the scum have injustices but not Hull or Sunderland; leagues are over 38 games which usually balance out the injustices. Yet another whingeing story about how we were robbed, get a life
Pointless waste of time article. I’m a Newcastle supporter and even I have to agree, refereeing decisions or not, we were relegated because we were crap this season.
As people keep saying; “the table never lies”. True, some decisions went against us, but some went for us. We’d never have got a draw against Sunderland (as much as it grates me to say it) if it hadn’t been for Stephen Taylor’s spectacular dive. These things tend to balance out. Everyone got what they deserved.
Magpie by any chance
you have got to be kidding me all other articles i have read have said that sunderland should be about 11th with all the descisions that sunderland shold have had so you seriously need to sort your facts out.
You are talking bollocks. Just a few to remind you.
Fulham away – Ref disallowed goal for a fowl in box – TV showed own player. Free Kick direct into goal disallowed.
Aston Villa Home – Milner put ball in goal with hand.
Penalty awarded although tackle outside box, plus Sunderland had 2 blaitant penalties turnd down.
Newcastle away – Taylor cheated to get penalty to draw.
Man City – Away Most one sided refereeing I have ever witnessed.
Any a few more
Hilton
right result is a cool idea, but there is too much bias involved. some decisions they do not consider, and the ones they do “correct” can often be argued against. if you look at the “rule book”, you will see that the way they take some things into account but not others, such as red cards, is unrealistic and frankly quite questionable.
how can you say Hull should have gone down and not newcastle and middlesbrough – you plonker
The “right results” panel is inconsistent at best. Seems they pander to media and fan reaction after a match rather than what actually occurred during the match. We didn’t need 7 paragraphs that tell nothing and only refer to another website altogether. If I wanted to go there, I would. I come here for insight and all I get it more mindless drivel.
Thanks a lot.
Please, Newcastle played utterly terrible football this season and in my opinion was the worst team in the league by far. I get West Brom more credit then them. And Borough scored what, 28 goals in 38 games. Please… that is the worst in all four leagues in England. I would hazard a guess Arsenal and Liverpool’s youth squads could score more than that in this league. So don’t even begin to explain that they shouldn’t have been relegated. Just because Newcastle and Borough havent been relegated in a while, doesnt mean they are immune from going down. Just accept that they honestly played the worst football in the league and rightly deserved to go down. Hull at least had respectable wins this season (Arsenal..)
I think you may needs to check your “facts” again. Read Jeff Winter’s site- not a big fan of his but he does look at the decisions with an unbiased view- and corrects them- from this you would see Hull and Sunderland would be nowhere near the drop zone- I think you would find Blackburn and Stoke a lot further down. As for Newcastle and Boro- they were 2 of the worst teams I saw all season. Boro somehow managed to beat LFC 2-0 when LFC had 30+ shots on goal. Newcastle should have been beaten by LFC by at least 10 goals at SJP- if it wasn’t for Given in goal they would have been. The only team to give Hull a proper stuffin has been Man City. Even the Wigan game (5-0) was nowhere near as 1 sided as it sounds- with the Tigers having more efforts on goal and more possession and territory- Wigan hit us on the break 4 times and scored with an own goal from a corner- no other efforts on target!!
As for decisions going against us- well LFC at Anfield (penalty not given and two goals should not have been allowed 3-0), Arsenal at KC (offside goal and we should have had a penalty 2-2), Sunderland and Villa away- offside goals, Villa home good goal chalked off. I could go on and on- but hey lets not let FACTS get in the way of some bullshit story!!
Oh and by the way- there are a good number of matches involving Sunderland and Hull that are not included in the “right results” – if you are going to use “facts” in a report at least use PROPER FACTS – not biased and incomplete “facts” as are portrayed by “right results”- or should that be “some of the right results”
Overreaction from everyone or what?!
I get the Right Result table. It is with its flaws, but to say that all decisions even out anyway is just as inaccurate.
Middlesbrough did have decisions go against them, and with a relatively young squad, we did crumble. If we’d been more galvanised, the injustice could have spurred us on to wins. Who’s to say our poor performances were not exacerbated by seeing points slip away after poor refereeing decisions?
To believe it as fact would be wrong. I think even if we’d had all the luck this year, we would have still been very near relegation. To dismiss it as tosh isn’t smart either. It just highlights who the referee’s are really intimidated by.
When I played football many years ago, I had one phrase hammered into me in those days; then, after a serious leg injury killed off my playing career and I became a referee I hammered the same phrase into all the players I met: play the whistle. Argue as much as you like between yourselves afterwards, but if the sports reports say you lost 2-0 then you lost 2-0 and all the disallowed goals, blatant offsides and disputed penalties count for nothing and are soon irrelevant.