Pontificating Poll Admits Referee Bias Against West Ham

Well not West Ham per se but Poll reckons that referees show a bias to the bigger clubs when it comes to awarding penalties - and West Ham aren't big enough to be in receipt of the bastard in black favours! Indeed, analysis shows that we were on the wrong end of more decisive incorrect decisions than any other club in the Prem last season.

Why do referees show this bias? Well according to Poll, it is not deliberate, it is more a "subconscious" thing and a reluctance to award pens against the big boys unless they are "stone wall" because of the "fall out" from the media and the managers.

Poll postulates that no penalty should ever be awarded unless it is absolutely certain that it is a penalty, with "no doubt" in the referee's mind at all. That is an absurd position, of course, because it is a charter for cheats. How many times would defenders foul a striker slyly if the criteria for awarding a penalty was beyond ALL doubt? We see enough cheating at every corner anyway, without this load of Pollocks being introduced.

The answer is simple, of course - referral to a 4th official at a television monitor.

Mind you, Poll has no right to talk on this subject. I have met him and he boasted over drinks that he had once denied Arsenal a nailed on penalty because his brother in law was a "Gooner" and had upset him the day before the game. So there you have it from Poll's own mouth. Referees deliberately cheat. Now there's a surprise. Kenny Dalglish probably has an opinion on that after the game at Stoke!