Unsporting Behavior:
8 red cards, 3 downgraded upon further review, 3 matches irreversibly changed by regretful officiating.
In the opening week of the season, Newcastle United were down to 10 men after just 32 minutes after Jermaine Jenas' tackle against Arsenal's Gilberto Silva was adjudged by referee Steve Bennett to be an act of violent conduct and Jenas was shown a straight red card. The decision was appealed by Jenas and the red card was downgraded to a yellow. Newcastle held off Arsenal's persisent challenges until a late penalty put them behind for good. They were playing inspired football before and after the incident and looked like a side capable of taking a point at Highbury, and Newcastle manager Graeme Souness said as much after the match. "Until the sending off we more than a match for a team that will be challenging for the championship come the end of the season."
We'll never know.
In week 2, when Sunderland faced off against Liverpool, midfielder Andy Welsh was sent off by referee Barry Knight after he was thought to have pushed Liverpool's Luis Garcia, leaving Welsh puzzled as he left the pitch. "It's not a sending off. It's sad I'm talking about the referee when we played well, especially in the first half," said Sunderland's Mick McCarthy, "I spoke with Barry Knight after the match and he said he'll have a look at it." The replays showed the contact was incidental, and to no one's surprise his 3-game ban was dismissed on appeal.
In the same week, West Ham's Paul Konchesky made a textbook, game-saving tackle on Newcastle's Jenas and was given a straight red card. The decision, made by referee Dermot Gallagher, was challenged immediately by Newcastle captain Alan Shearer who surprisingly sprang to the defense of Konchesky but could not convince the official to overturn the decision. Konchesky appealed the card and just days later, he was cleared of any misconduct and his 1-day suspension was overturned.
In each of these situations the referee made a choice to change the course of the game and put the offending player's team in a position that was difficult to recover from. Playing with 10 men at this or any level in football arguably puts a team in a points-conservancy mode that restricts the teams capability to attack and as a result forces the team to abandon its gameplan. The Premiership, as a league, is the most lucrative in the world with total club revenues exceeding £1.3b. The league pays out millions to its participants based on each teams final position in the league table, and in an environment where a club could be fighting for qualification into one of Europe's lucrative club competitions or another club could be struggling to meet its annual budget, these questionable decisions are magnified.
Should referees be held more accountable? Just last season, Premiership referees Mike Messias and Andy D'Urso were handed 14-day and 28-day suspensions respectively for "less than proficiently applying the laws of the game." In each case the official was reprimanded for not sending off a player that recieved a second yellow card, not a situation where a player is dismissed wrongfully and the potential for gaining points significantly reduced. In the interest of the game itself, referees should take more responisibility, but how can you hold officials accountable when a decision is made, the match goes on and whatever chance a team had of competing on a level playing field is gone? Wouldn't Newcastle, Sunderland and West Ham like to know.