From the Football League after my e mail regarding ref Neil Swarbricks 'performance' during the MK Dons match;

"Dear Mr Jackson

Thank you for your email and apologies for the delay in replying. The Customer Service Department has a small staff whose resources have been depleted due to illness.

We will ensure that Professional Game Match Officials - the body responsible for the management and administration of match officials are made aware of your views.

We receive numerous queries and complaints regarding individual referee's decisions and their overall performance. Although we are unable to respond on each individual incident, we can advise that the performances of all officials are constantly monitored by way of club and assessor reports, the match video or DVD and, at some grounds, the Prozone statistics. The match is also analysed by the Referees' Manager, referee's coach and the referee and, despite the perception of some, match officials are most accountable for their performance.

Referees make their decision based on years of training and experience and what they see at that moment in time, from a position different from anyone else in the ground - he can only act on what he sees, assisted by the other match officials and not everyone will agree with the decisions he takes.

Contrary to expectations, the Referees' Manager will not attempt to support a referee out of sheer loyalty. It is his responsibility through Professional Game Match Officials to identify training needs of not only individual referees but also of all National Group officials.

The Manager also works with his group in a bid to constantly improve standards in a game which has become faster and more frenetic over recent years. Every match is recorded and referees are under closer scrutiny than ever before.



Thank you for contacting The Football League with your view.



Patricia Brown

The Football League"

It must taken her ages to copy and paste that

Roughly translated, this reads...go away,we really aren't interested.

To be fair I'm not really sure what I expected to achieve and can't remember what I said

I'm just relieved they didn't ban me from e-mailing them for an extra game as they deemed my e mail 'frivolous'.

PJ, I think you should write back and demand to know what proportion of queries and complaints received are acted upon by Patricia and her department, and also how many match officials, say in the last year, have been made accountable for their performance......

And ask her why a bewer is in charge down there.

possibly one of the best examples of someone with a genuine point to make being fucked off by a faceless organisation with whom the complaint won't even have registered, save for probably laughing at it. Pack of c-unts. I hope they all get diarrhoea.
NOW.

iN FACT WHAT i SAID IS PROBABLY A BETTER LETTER TO SEND THEM.
i COULD EVEN PUT SOME REAL DIARRHOEA IN IT SO THEY KNOW WHAT i'M ON ABOUT.

Shite!! Caps!!

Mr. P do you know you've got your caps lock on?

Edit

Yes you do.

My responce...

Dear Mr Gaunt

Thank you for your email and apologies for the delay in replying. The Customer Service Department has a small staff whose resources have been depleted due to illness.

We will ensure that Professional Game Match Officials - the body responsible for the management and administration of match officials are made aware of your views.

We receive numerous queries and complaints regarding individual referee's decisions and their overall performance. Although we are unable to respond on each individual incident, we can advise that the performances of all officials are constantly monitored by way of club and assessor reports, the match video or DVD and, at some grounds, the Prozone statistics. The match is also analysed by the Referees' Manager, referee's coach and the referee and, despite the perception of some, match officials are most accountable for their performance.

Referees make their decision based on years of training and experience and what they see at that moment in time, from a position different from anyone else in the ground - he can only act on what he sees, assisted by the other match officials and not everyone will agree with the decisions he takes.

Contrary to expectations, the Referees' Manager will not attempt to support a referee out of sheer loyalty. It is his responsibility through Professional Game Match Officials to identify training needs of not only individual referees but also of all National Group officials.

The Manager also works with his group in a bid to constantly improve standards in a game which has become faster and more frenetic over recent years. Every match is recorded and referees are under closer scrutiny than ever before.

Thank you for contacting The Football League with your view.

Patricia Brown

The Football League


(The lengthy e-mail I sent them is below.)


From: Daniel Gaunt
Sent: 16 November 2008 13:22
To: FL
Subject: Hartlepool vs. MK Dons Match Complaint



As a Hartlepool season ticket holder who travels to every game from Leeds, I feel the need to complain about the referee who officiated between the Hartlepool vs. MK Dons game. I have been going to every home game and about 80% of away games for the last four years. I have been going to Hartlepool matches for around the last 15 years. I have never felt the need to officially complain about a refereeing performance until now.

Over these years there have been some refereeing performances that I have considered poor but none compare to what I witnessed yesterday. I understand that referees have a difficult job and I understand that they do not get every decision correct.

But what I saw yesterday was a referee who was incompetent. A referee who was nowhere near consistent and a referee who made serious misjudgements. The straight red card for Sam Collins was an absolute joke, at the time I was dumbfounded and thought the MK Dons player simply slipped. However, I gave the referee the benefit of the doubt in the hope that he'd have seen the incident at a different angle even though I was sure he'd made a mistake. Upon seeing the replay, which is from the same direction the referee was facing, I am certain the referee made a terrible mistake. There can be no reasoning or excuses for giving Sam Collins a straight red card.

There was another incident where a Hartlepool player was elbowed by an MK Dons player. I and everybody I have spoken to thought it was a red card offence. Considering the attention of what the Iain Hume fractured skull incident brought on elbowing, I thought the referee would at least deem it a foul and take serious action. Instead he gave MK Dons a free-kick. It could not have been an MK Dons free kick, again a serious error of judgement.

I understand that referee's make mistakes but I believe the performance of Neil Swarbrick was wholly unacceptable and worst I have ever seen. He spoilt a good game of football. Football is expensive, especially amid these difficult financial times, and his refereeing performance did not give the game value for money.

I hope that you will review the match video and that we will at least get an apology, not just to the club but the fans.

I was would like to take this opportunity to commend the refereeing performances of Anthony Taylor. Graham Salisbury, Andy Hall, Mike Thorpe, Karl Evans, Craig Pawson and Darren Drysdale who have all refereed games involving us to a good standard this season.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.


Yours faithfully,

Daniel Gaunt

That's very similar to PjJ's reply!

Oooh it does.

I've had a drink