THE FOCUS: PGMOL IS DAMAGING THE PREMIER LEAGUE

FOCUS ON THE PREMIER LEAGUE PRODUCT AT ALL TIMES

Honestly, I can't believe I'm about to write this, but PGMOL kicked into new levels of desperation yesterday in a bid to shift the conversation. We can't let that happen.

The focus of the conversation should be clear:

Will the Premier League continue to allow referees to ruin the spectacle of football?

The second focus should be this: When will legacy media stop treating fans like they are stupid?

A lot of people might tap out of a blog that opens like that, but you won't, because I know why you're here. You know that my overarching love in life outside family (most family) is Arsenal. I write what I see and believe in, and the only agenda I have is a better future for Arsenal.

I also don't think you are stupid.

I predicted after the Wolves game that the narrative shift would move towards tone.

I was wrong because I didn't account for PGMOL having the audacity to first try and position the most egregious error of the season as a 'letter of the law' issue. But when that failed to such a degree, Sky Sports deleted the tweets (something they've been doing a lot lately), they pivoted hard into this.

Arseblog wrote this yesterday, something you'd never read in a broadsheet, but worth considering when you're looking for where the seeds of this sort of approach come from.

This response, however, shows just how out of touch and unfit for purpose they are. Webb, a former police officer with the South Yorkshire Police (look them up), is running this like some kind of constabulary force, with his referees the bobbies on the beat. "Come for one of us, you come for all of us." Circle the wagons. Accept no criticism, admit to no wrongdoing – and in the full knowledge that football moves so quickly and isn't that important in the grand scheme of things that no public inquiry will uncover the 'truth' years later.

I hear you, abuse is terrible, I understand that, and agree. The whole footballing world agrees. No one should have their family threatened. But if PGMOL were serious about this issue, why didn't we hear about this when it happened after a Liverpool game?

"That was after he had awarded a penalty to Liverpool when Manchester United's Matthijs de Ligt had handled the ball in the area during the teams' 2-2 draw at Anfield earlier this month. It was not revealed at the time but that threat, too, prompted a police investigation."

This is where we are: handball decisions, even ones that brook little dissent, equal car bomb threats these days.

I'll tell you: Because the mission of the PGMOL statement is not about the discourse around football, it's to pivot the debate away from something factual that PGMOL can't win, to an area they can get broad consensus on whilst averting our eyes from the real problem.

Emotion is their only weapon.

Let's talk about MLS. If he'd been sent off and Arsenal's Premier League season had derailed, and the media narrative had been allowed to flower, he'd be the stupid young player who couldn't behave.

Why are we not considering his mental health? Why are we not considering the abuse he'd have received? We’ve just seen Kai Havertz wife abused after a game. Have we all forgotten the consequences these ‘never been seen before’ decisions have on the players who are the victims?

We haven’t. The fans are not tolerating what the legacy media is trying to put on them.

Jamie Redknapp pondered where the next generation of referees was going to come from. Fans reminded him that there are 28,000 registered referees in the country, and out of 20, 80% are from the same area of the country.

Jeff Stelling distilled the whole thing down to a simple mistake, reminding us that football is just a game. That Guardian journalist, the least curious journalist in the business, wondered why this sort of challenge was the one that set off the entire football culture. A Daily Mail writer said there was no conspiracy, no corruption, no bias, on the day David Coote came out as gay and said that he had a cocaine problem in the same paper that caught him calling one of the Premier League greats a c*nt at an after-party.

Fans pointed out on all these diversion messages that Michael Oliver:

- Has given Arsenal more red cards than anyone else

- Has given Arsenal more yellow cards than anyone else

- Has given the most penalties against Arsenal

- Has given Arsenal the least penalties

If Arsenal were a person and someone complained to HR they were being mistreated by their Michael-Oliver-shaped manager and presented this data, do you think Ollie Holt saying 'there's nothing to see' would cut it?

If you ran a betting company and Manchester City vs Arsenal was being played and you entered the following data points into the odds checker:

• Michale Oliver is the ref

• Michael Oliver’s record of penalties, fouls, red cards, yellow cards for City

• Michael Oliver’s record of penalties, fouls, red cards, yellow cards for Arsenal

• Michael Oliver’s interpretation of the rules over 5 years between Arsenal and City

What do you think the AI assistant would say about this? Do you think it would say this appointment would have a net neutral impact on the odds? Don’t be daft…

The focus should only be on one thing right now: Making sure the Premier League has the best possible product.

Howard Webb runs a business that is partly funded by the Premier League, and it has a budget of £33m a season. The Premier League is a client of that business. The job is to provide the best possible referees who deliver the best possible outcomes for Premier League games.

A lot of you are business people who read this, a question for you: If one of the most dominant themes of conversation among fans of your product was substandard refereeing, would you continue to put money into this business?

Next question: If the people who are supposed to have the deepest understanding of Premier League rules agree at every level that the Myles Lewis-Skelly trip was a red card because of violent conduct - could you possibly trust the leadership of Howard Webb?

Final question: As a business person, do you look at this £33m business setup and think it is optimal?

I would say no to all three questions.

We know the culture is not built on a foundation of excellence because mediocrity is preserved. How do I know that? Lee Mason was sacked by PGMOL for being awful, then they rehired him to coach the next generation of managers.

We know the leadership team lacks maturity. A very basic principle of PR, when you make a terrible mistake, you own it fully and communicate how you will fix the said problem. PGMOL doubling down on the indefensible is the truest sign of weakness.

It's also clear that the focus of Howard Webb's rebuild job has not been on improvement. He hasn't had a clear out of the deadwood. What he has done with expert precision is to double down on relationships with big media personalities. He expended most of his energy post-Wolves on rounding up the big names in legacy media to write hit pieces about how the real problem here was terrible fans and non-compliant social media accounts.

Bring it back to the product and the different ways these pundits assess performance.

In 2023, 17 Premier League managers lost their jobs for not hitting the mark. One Premier League referee lost his job, then got it back training referees of the future.

But let's bring it back one more time: Is the Premier League and the media ecosystem associated with it accepting of the mediocrity of PGMOL and are they prepared to accept the ramifications of a large chunk of the fan base believing it might be rigged by bias?

That question is all that matters. You either believe in the best possible product or you don't. If you are focused on abuse right now, you are not doing your job. If you are focused on the product, like many are, then you are doing a good service to the future of Premier League football.

Final point of "OH MY GOD" on this: The Times is running a story that states Michael Oliver has now been taken off the Manchester City vs Arsenal game this weekend.

Can you believe they were actually going to do that regardless of the Wolves game?

- 0 red cards for Manchester City

- 7 red cards for Arsenal

- A litany of favorable decisions for Man City in these games

- A list of mistakes against Arsenal in these games

This is why PGMOL needs compliance officers, auditors, and new leadership. The organization is not fit for purpose right now, and decisions like the above tell you all you need to know.

So lesson for today: Keep the narrative on the product.

Ok, we move. x

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