1) he had no credibility anyway.

2) are you suggesting he should have lied to his bosses, or are you suggesting he has lied to his bosses?

I think he has lied!

Nobody from Spurs complained when Suarez (I think it was him) swung his arm at Parker at WHL either.

Catch 22, as much as I want the players to appeal for things I don't want to see my team chasing down the ref for every thing like some other teams do.

I thought he did a good job of reffing the game too, those two incidents were ones that most refs would have missed in realtime and other than that he got everything pretty spot on.

He's obviously seen the media frenzy surrounding Mario in the aftermath of the match and thinks this is the way to save his credability. How Lescott has been given the benefit of the doubt but Mario has not is strange at the least.

I thought he did a good job of reffing the game too, those two incidents were ones that most refs would have missed in realtime and other than that he got everything pretty spot on.
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my thoughts.Its not like the stamp was that obvious.He had a great game, even the penalty decision was brave as it did not look opbvious in real time, especially considering that Mario was the victim going down and good old ledley was carrying out the siccors kick.

i personally dont think King was last man so I cant really say anything about the red card.

Spurs players were carrying out consistent tiny fouls in the 1st half but Webb was calm enough to control the game unlike a certain Foy.

Having watched the stamp 5mil times u can clearly see Webb look away from the incident and miss it for about a second.. he then looks back and sees the aftermath.

Having said that he has been v poor in about the last 5 games i have seen him ref

With the desicion not to send King off, if you apply common sense like I think he did then it was fair enough, but if you apply the rules more strictly I think he should have walked - Balotelli would probably have pulled the trigger had Kings tackle not come in, had it been earlier in the game I think he would have been sent off.

I like referees using common sense, but at the moment that just worsens the inconsistencies we're seeing on a game to game basis.

I like referees using common sense, but at the moment that just worsens the inconsistencies we're seeing on a game to game basis.
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fair point,Ive always liked common sense refs.You cant Ref premiership games according to the letter of the law, it never works.

What I hate is when you become incosistent.Esp refs that suck up to the big clubs or big profile players, it eventually comes back to bite them.

You also dont have to be officious, just mild manners and stay out of focus unlike Webb & Coy.

You can't go on how other players around it react. There's always the possibility they didn't actually see the incidents at the time. It's not as strange as you think.

By the way, and I've said this before, Balotelli doesn't immediately apologise to Parker. After he seems to protest his innocence to Webb does he apologise.

Also interesting to see Crouch has got off with his incident v WBA, looked guilty to me, no consistency at all, Balotelli's agent may have a case, the 2 incidents in the City game proved it (Lescott and Mario), my personal opinion is Jolean sould have got the retrospective red and Mario not, but who am I!!

Balotelli was on a yellow already. Even if you think he's regaining his balance he's doing it in a dangerous way, knowing a player is right there below his foot. So that's a second yellow anyway at least.

You're not even allowed to eye gouge in wrestling but apparently its ok for Peter Crouch to do it on a footie pitch!

When we were shiete I remember being at a game where we got a corner, it wasn't, in actual fact it had bobbled of Sun Jihai's knee last, but none the less there was a corner given (this at home by the way). The Chelsea players, led by Terry, then swamped the referee and berated him, he changed the desicion. A living example of how much influence players can actually have on a ref.

Even if you think he's regaining his balance he's doing it in a dangerous way, knowing a player is right there below his foot. So that's a second yellow anyway at least.

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That is nonsense, you can't book someone for 'regaining their balance in a dangerous way', if he'd have fallen over and landed on Parker instead of trying to regain his balance that could have done as much damage.

That is nonsense, you can't book someone for 'regaining their balance in a dangerous way', if he'd have fallen over and landed on Parker instead of trying to regain his balance that could have done as much damage.

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This is besides the point because I think he did it deliberately, but whatever way you look at it, it's dangerous play. He doesn't need to do the stamping motion like that to regain his balance.

I think he probably did it deliberately too, but if he was trying to regain his balance there's no way he could be booked for it. If I thought I was going to fall over I'd get my foot down as quickly as possible to steady myself, more an instinctive act than anything else.

It's entirely feasible that both Webb and the Spurs players didn't see the incident, so I don't think it's fair to base an argument in favour of Balotelli's actions being interpreted as being accidental on that.

Nevertheless, the correct decision to retrospectively punish Balotelli has been made in my opinion.

But I simply do not like the rule that the FA can only act if the referee hasn't seen an incident. Even that rule is inconsistent in the sense that they have the power to (for example) overturn a red card on appeal - thus undermining the action that the referee took during a match. Referee's are not infallible, and the FA don't regard them as such, nor do they regard their decision as final (as the above example proves). So if an incorrect decision is made, or an incident is missed because the ref didn't see it, it shouldn't matter. This ruling, in my opinion, simply has to change.

I don't think he's that unbalanced before he falls, which means that if he knew Parker's head was where it was, he could just as easily suffer the fall than stamp his head towards Parker's head to regain his balance. Then again any lack of balance there I don't believe requires a stamp so I interpret it as deliberate anyway.

How did he deliberately stamp on his head? Look again, parker was behind Balo who was looking foward not backward so how could he deliberately aim a backward kick without looking ?

How is 'arry claiming that "he's done it before" any different to the imaginary red card that you lot were giving Mancini pelters for? He's a tax dodging, lying cheat and i hope he get's sent down.

ManCityMan (U1189)

How can you aim a kick without looking????

Easily. Spacial awareness. Of course he meant it. It's so so obvious!

That's like saying you can't aim an elbow without looking for God's sake.

Well said Mancityman well said

If someone filmed me in slow motion falling over you'd notice my hands suddenly accelerate in an attempt to stop my fall, this is instinctive. This is why tackles can look much worse than they actually are when they are slowed, and slowed, and slowed down for the purposes of action replays.

Now whether you believe that Balotelli was indeed attempting to regain his balance, in which case kicking out like he did is not unnatural, or whether he used this as an attempt to masque a blindly aimed stamp in the general direction of Parker is open to much interpretation. It certainly wouldn't hold up in court as a few Spurs fans I've noticed seem to want the police to get involved.

ManCityMan

Ask yourself what Balotelli thought he knocked into accidentally just before he did it. He knew Parker was there. It's very easy to aim backwards deliberately when facing forwards. It doesn't look very innocent especially when his stamp is straight after the first contact, making it seem as though he's lashing out in retalliation.

Maybe when Harry says he's done it before, he means other petulant behaviour, like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDy6jcmIP_Q

Now whether you believe that Balotelli was indeed attempting to regain his balance, in which case kicking out like he did is not unnatural

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Sorry but it is unnatural. When have you ever seen any ever do that stamping motion backwards in a fall moving forwards. Makes absolutely no sense.

Yes it was deliberate and if it could be proved that Balotelli knew it was Parker's head that was there then I think police should be involved.

Ask yourself what Balotelli thought

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??? Impossible.