Andre Marriner: Racist Or Just An Idiot?

Everyone will have seen or heard about Andre Marriner sending off the wrong Arsenal player against Chelsea yesterday.

We all know most referees are useless but this takes it to another level, the man should never referee a game again.

Now he's quite rightly getting slated in the media for his incompetence but no one seems to be asking the obvious question - is Marriner a racist? Is he guilty of reinforcing the stereotypical racist slur that "all black people look the same"? If the two players in question had been Rosicky and Podolski would he have made the same error? I doubt it.

Marriner has got off lightly in my opinion, the worst that will happen will be sitting out a weekend of fixtures on full pay. Big deal.

What do you think, could he honestly not tell the difference between Gibbs and Oxlade-Chamberlain or is he just an honest but incompetent fool?

I don't understand how this happened?

These days the ref and the linesmen have radio contact (or whatever the correct term is) to speak to each other, so too the fourth official.

Oxlade-Chamberlain also seemed to put his hand up to the offence as well, so you would have thought one of the officials would have said "are we sure we've sent the right man off" before it was too late to do something about it?

The guys a fucking idiot, as sluffy said even Chamberlain said to him ''it was me''.

Surely he must have thought i'd best check this out before I make the final decision.

Reinforces the need to give referees a little help from cameras...

They should put players' names on the back of their shirts along with a big number to help referees identify them........

now there's an idea!

Who actually gave the penalty in the match?

The ref didn't give it, the linesman didn't give it. About 10 seconds past between the incident and the ref pointing to the spot.

 Plus it was going wide so why did he get sent off anyway?

How did this happen? it was almost as bad as that goal at OT that wasn't given against spurs.

Magoo Would make a good ref, he's a blind fooker!!!!

Soul Kitchen wrote:Magoo Would make a good ref, he's a blind fooker!!!!

Magoo wouldn't be as bad as this wanker with a pair of these...

Marriner clearly realised he'd sent off the wrong player, so why didn't he change the decision, get Gibbs back on and send Oxlade off?
Apparently once refs give a decision they aren't allowed to reverse it. So is that the law or was it a poor attempt to save face? If the latter, it didn't work very well.

Marriner will be refereeing again this weekend apparently.

He should be suspended pending an investigation in my opinion!

Marriner just cocked up. To say he is racist though is ludicrous.

The problem is the FA are a proud bunch. They don't like referees to lose face which is why we so rarely see them go back on decisions, or apologise when they make bad ones.

According to the news he was suffering from exhaustion. He refereed a game in Italy on Thursday night.

wanderlust wrote:Marriner clearly realised he'd sent off the wrong player, so why didn't he change the decision, get Gibbs back on and send Oxlade off?
Apparently once refs give a decision they aren't allowed to reverse it. So is that the law or was it a poor attempt to save face? If the latter, it didn't work very well.

A referee CAN alter certain decisions PROVIDED play has not re-started. eg, he can say something's off-side but then if his assistant calls him over and says "it's a goal the guy was on-side" he can give it so long as the free kick hasn't been taken. In this case he could have altered the situation because the penalty hadn't been taken but for whatever reason he didn't despite Oxlade-Chamberlain saying "it was me ref" and my feeling is he might simply have forgotten the rule because it's so rarely used. 

It's an exceptional circumstance thing, I think (don't quote me I haven't looked it up so am not 100% sure) there was one such reversal in the premier league last season and all hell broke loose afterwards. People arguing that a ref's decision is final and should never be altered vs people saying common sense should prevail nd the spirit of the game is more important than the letter of the law. The debate raged for days and the ref concerned didn't officiate anywhere for a few weeks even though technically he'd been right. That might have been on Marriner's mind and so might a fear of looking like a complete pratt by calling back one guy to send another off in his place. 

Personally I believe he made an honest mistake not a racist one and he was let down by his assistant and fourth official who probably could have told him instantly. He bears the ultimate responsibility of course but his support team did fail him and I kind of feel sorry for the guy. In this day and age everything the ref does is instantly visible to millions of people via a dozen or more camera angles and replays while ex-refs and former pro's sit on a couch and get to point out every tiny error. 

Ref's are human, they have bad games just like the players do. Andre Marriner dropped a clanger and he knows it but I don't feel there was anything sinister or prejudiced in his motives. He just got it wrong. Remember Graham Poll and the three yellow cards?

luckyPeterpiper wrote: 

Personally I believe he made an honest mistake not a racist one and he was let down by his assistant and fourth official who probably could have told him instantly. He bears the ultimate responsibility of course but his support team did fail him and I kind of feel sorry for the guy. In this day and age everything the ref does is instantly visible to millions of people via a dozen or more camera angles and replays while ex-refs and former pro's sit on a couch and get to point out every tiny error. 

Ref's are human, they have bad games just like the players do. Andre Marriner dropped a clanger and he knows it but I don't feel there was anything sinister or prejudiced in his motives. He just got it wrong. Remember Graham Poll and the three yellow cards?

Absolutely. Refs get an awful lot of stick, quite often unfairly. It's a bloody difficult job to do at the best of times.

Completely agree with LPP a one off mistake, Marriner's generally a decent ref, he won't make this mistake again I'm sure.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:

wanderlust wrote:Marriner clearly realised he'd sent off the wrong player, so why didn't he change the decision, get Gibbs back on and send Oxlade off?
Apparently once refs give a decision they aren't allowed to reverse it. So is that the law or was it a poor attempt to save face? If the latter, it didn't work very well.

A referee CAN alter certain decisions PROVIDED play has not re-started. eg, he can say something's off-side but then if his assistant calls him over and says "it's a goal the guy was on-side" he can give it so long as the free kick hasn't been taken. In this case he could have altered the situation because the penalty hadn't been taken but for whatever reason he didn't despite Oxlade-Chamberlain saying "it was me ref" and my feeling is he might simply have forgotten the rule because it's so rarely used. 

It's an exceptional circumstance thing, I think (don't quote me I haven't looked it up so am not 100% sure) there was one such reversal in the premier league last season and all hell broke loose afterwards. People arguing that a ref's decision is final and should never be altered vs people saying common sense should prevail nd the spirit of the game is more important than the letter of the law. The debate raged for days and the ref concerned didn't officiate anywhere for a few weeks even though technically he'd been right. That might have been on Marriner's mind and so might a fear of looking like a complete pratt by calling back one guy to send another off in his place. 

Personally I believe he made an honest mistake not a racist one and he was let down by his assistant and fourth official who probably could have told him instantly. He bears the ultimate responsibility of course but his support team did fail him and I kind of feel sorry for the guy. In this day and age everything the ref does is instantly visible to millions of people via a dozen or more camera angles and replays while ex-refs and former pro's sit on a couch and get to point out every tiny error. 

Ref's are human, they have bad games just like the players do. Andre Marriner dropped a clanger and he knows it but I don't feel there was anything sinister or prejudiced in his motives. He just got it wrong. Remember Graham Poll and the three yellow cards?

OK. If the criterion for being able to change your mind is whether or not play has restarted, at which point was Marriner filmed mouthing the words "the wrong player"?
Maybe it was the TV editing but the implication was that he mouthed it as Gibbs was trudging off.
If that's the case Marriner made the choice not to call him back and do the right thing.
Accept that the original decision was an honest mistake (confusing one mixed race player with another which does add some creedence to Nat's original point) but if he had both the right and the opportunity to correct his mistake, that's a second error compounding the first IMO.
"Forgetting the rule" and "Exhaustion" are not valid excuses for a top flight ref.

bwfc1874 wrote:Completely agree with LPP a one off mistake, Marriner's generally a decent ref, he won't make this mistake again I'm sure.

So a one off mistake shouldn't be punished?

If a doctor removed your penis instead of your gallbladder would you shrug your shoulders and say "...he's generally a decent doctor" ?

Natasha Whittam wrote:

bwfc1874 wrote:Completely agree with LPP a one off mistake, Marriner's generally a decent ref, he won't make this mistake again I'm sure.

So a one off mistake shouldn't be punished?

If a doctor removed your penis instead of your gallbladder would you shrug your shoulders and say "...he's generally a decent doctor" ?

Based on your own argument in another thread wherein you questioned the validity of my BWFC comments on the basis of not attending enough matches this season, you are clearly not qualified to comment on penises, bellends or sex-related matters unless you qualify every reference with "from distant memory".