Sent to FIFA, the F.A, FAMOA, the R.A and my local County F.A: All, As an active Level 5 Referee registered with the West Riding County F.A I wish to inform you that I am currently considering my future within the game. The reason for this is that I feel I can no longer represent what was once a beautiful game and the F.A. Following the F.A's announcement that they do not see any reason to punish Chris Morgan of Sheffield Utd for what was, without question, a violent act with intent to harm a fellow player, I feel that the whole essence of fair play and football for all has been seriously damaged. Quite rightly the F.A state that a challenge should be judged for what it is rather than what injury occurred. However, by deeming a deliberate elbow which was an unprovoked violent attack as a cautionable offence is completely disrespectful to the game and the notion of sporting behaviour. Indeed, all experts interviewed on the various TV shows have all stated their disgust at the challenge. Given the F.A's apparent unwillingness to uphold the nature of sport and fairplay, alongside the clear mockery this decision makes of the Respect Campaign I feel let down by the F.A to the extent I no longer feel proud to wear the Three Lions on my kit as a representative of an organisation I no longer believe in. Football has been lost. As a result, I no longer feel able to carry out my duties as an official and therefore will not be officiating any matches until further notice.
Fair play. I am a welfare officer for a local football club (junior) and have resigned my position as it is governed by the FA!
True, but . . . . How am I supposed to get respect from the teams if the F.A clearly don't believe in it? How can I uphold fair play and sporting behaviour, when the F.A do not? How can I act as a representative of an organisation that has so badly let down the sport it is supposed to govern? I have lost all belief in the F.A and, to an extent, the sport in general. I am no longer proud to be a football fan when the game has become a disgrace from the top throughout. Likewise, I am no longer proud to be a referee!
Well done. Maybe Barry Taylor should follow your example,I don't see how his conection with the FA is tenable given the probability of legal action by the club
Maybe you should reconsider your view about packing in the whole thing....Its you and others like you what the game needs....
HM Mutdoch you are a truely honourable man, If I wore a hat I would take it off to you. Unfortunatly honour seems to be sadly lacking in the professional game, and is certainly an unknown concept in the world of a certain Mr D'Ushat as, correct me if I'm wrong, all he needed to do was to contact the FA and admit he'd made a mistake and the offence was worse than he at first thought after reviewing video footage of the game, as Dermot Gallgher did in the Ben Thatcher case. Spineless the lot of them.
I used to know Danny Fullbrook pretty well He played footy for our 4th team at Uni. If I can find his contact details I'll send on this information to him, as chief football writer for the Daily Star he might be interested. I'll ask a mutual friend if he has his email address.</p> PP</p>