Institutional
bias is a heavy phrase to bandy about in these enlightened times of post fact bliss.
Anyone attempting to make a salient point these days is
more than likely to be met by a wailing mass of hysterical pitch fork wielders,
who question their parentage and ridicule their every word.
The next two and a half thousand words may thus be simply asking for trouble.
***
Manchester
City’s coverage in large areas of the press is downright scandalous. The club’s
treatment at the hands of referees has followed suit and the reaction of the
great unwashed is driven by combinations of the two. Anyone, who mentions this
these days has an agenda, is half blind to the truth or has a grudge against Alan Shearer because he's famous.
Even the club itself,
driven by a need to be accepted in its new elite position, won’t say boo to a
goose.
The moments before, during and after an enthralling City-Spurs game brought things once again into sharp focus. Raheem Sterling unwittingly became the centre of this particular vortex some time ago and, bless him, he's still there today.
When Sterling goes down too easily, he is cheating. When he tried to stay on his feet
against Tottenham, running through on goal one on one with Hugo Lloris with a
golden chance to put his side 3-1 up in a game totally dominated by City, he
did not get what he deserved, or what the rules of the game state he deserved: the
award of a penalty. The shove in the back that he had received from a beaten
Kyle Walker, described gamely by the Spurs defender afterwards as “I did as much as I could to put him off”,
came an instant before he took his shot and critically unbalanced Sterling at
just the right moment.
Let’s take
the player’s words first: “I did what I
could to put him off” is player-speak for “I fouled him”. Fair enough, you do what you can and what he could in
this instance was to perpetrate a foul. Every defender in the land, including
those lambasted in the sky blue shirts of Manchester City and those given a
free ride in Liverpool’s red, would attempt to do the same or something
similar. Now it’s in the hands of the
referee to dish out the proper punishment: a penalty, certainly, and quite
probably a red card for Walker for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
The
incident was met with a mixed reaction of incredulity from those treating the
game to an unbiased view and subjective ridicule from the internet’s teenage
warriors and miscreants. City can’t even
hold on to a 2-0 lead anyway, was the retort, ignoring the fact that they
would have done, had the referee had two functioning eyes in his head connected
to a fully functioning brain and –apparently- a workable head set. To lament
the malfunctioning communication system between ref and linesman is of course
to forget that the linesman in question, was in the handy possession of a fluorescent
flag, which might also have been a useful communications tool had he felt the need
to wave it.
City
watchers of any great vintage turned around in their thousands at that very
moment and said one of two things: “this
is going to 2-2” or “we’ll lose this”.
Both of
these phrases come originally from a different mindset altogether: the gallows
humour so readily found on the Kippax in the old days of thud and blunder at
Maine Road, when the club shot itself in the foot so many times its feet looked
like colanders. Self-deprecation was rife. It was all that kept many of us
going every weekend, as City were relegated twice in the 80s and began a spiral
downwards in the 90s that would end in the third division and, for many fans,
in the psychiatric wards of their local health centres.
It was in
those days of comedy revolution that City’s fans turned up in ever greater
numbers, averaging a well-documented 28,000 average for home games in the third
division. Turning out to watch Chesterfield and Gillingham, Wrexham and
Macclesfield in those sorts of numbers gained City a warm response from fans of
other clubs. Like the fumbling megalith that is Newcastle today, many fans felt
warm enough about City to consider them a second favourite or at least a club
they felt warmth, empathy and positivity towards. In truth – contrary to all
the modern day brickbats aimed at City fans – they had long before been noted
for their loyalty in numbers, making the modern day shout of “where were you when you were shit”
perhaps the most ill-advised chant of them all. Away followings at Leeds in the
1977 and 1978 FA Cup games, at Notts County in the second division and at
places like Hillsborough, Ewood Park and the Victoria Ground reached well
beyond 10,000 and regularly gained a positive press from media commentators at
the time.
“And the noise you can still here in the background is from the large mass of travelling City fans, who it must be said have once again backed their side with the usual loud and faithful support…” Barry Davies, Match of the Day commentator, Coventry v City, FAC up 4 round replay 1996.
“The City fans amassed in the away end have been standing all afternoon in lusty support of their side” Barry Davies, Aston Villa v City 1995-96, with City one game from relegation.
That has
now not just evaporated, but been replaced by a deep hatred from many and ridicule
from others. Even the legendary faithfulness of the support has now been swamped
by widespread and brainless banter about empty seats and lack of history. The know-nothing
brigades, who shout loudest on radio phone-ins and internet forums are having a
field day in the Post Fact era Donald Trump and his acolytes have ushered in.
People will
say that this sea change comes with the territory. City have been transformed
into a side chasing honours on domestic and foreign fronts. And, of course,
unlike all the other successful sides throughout history, money is involved.
Sunderland (“The bank of England side”), an Everton bankrolled by the pools
millionaire John Moores, Real Madrid, levered above the rest of Europe by foul
means or fair, Liverpool, Manchester United and many other clubs in the
historical spotlight have always relied on cash to push themselves clear of the
rest. Now City have done it, just to give themselves a fighting chance, it
amounts to some kind of vulgar heresy, of course. Certainly, our culture is to
build things up in order to knock them back down again. This is as true in
politics and the arts as anywhere else and football has also proved an
excellent conduit for this irrational behaviour in recent years.
Sure, I can
remember grudgingly admiring Liverpool in the 70s and 80s when they spent two
decades rubbing everyone’s noses in the dust, but also hating the fact that
they always seemed to get the run of the ball, a blind eye from the referee and
the lucky breaks. Part of this is what being a strong side is all about. The
more pressure exercised on the opposition and the more possession of the ball
you have, the more the number of fouls committed against you will go up and the
number of decisions apparently favouring you might be expected to follow.
Yet
curiously this doesn’t happen with City. This season the club has the highest
possession stats in the Premier League and is apparently the dirtiest in the
division, with red and yellow cards being sprayed around like confetti at a
wedding. How does that work? Guardiola certainly can’t explain it.
These
things can only work when the bias against a team becomes institutionalised. On
the eve of the Tottenham game there were three strands of destabilising bile
coming out of the press, led as usual by the Mail, Mirror and Sun. Neil
Ashton’s piece in The Sun bore the scarcely believable headline “569 million reasons City need a good kicking”.
Now please correct me if I’ve missed it, but I have never seen an article like
that aimed at West Brom or Bournemouth, or against Liverpool or Manchester
United. Ok, the trolls will wail that
nobody cares about West Brom and Bournemouth and whilst that is clearly
nonsense, those clubs are not as newsworthy and therefore do not carry such a
high profile in the media. The press greatly ignores them as a result.
Liverpool and United, however, do. They are
big news. Bigger news than City, thanks to their recent pasts and the continuing
genuflecting of large swathes of the media, this is where it all kicks in
again.
Liverpool’s
3-2 loss at home to Swansea should, if it follows the pattern of any of City’s
recent failures, be met with a wall of criticism from the great and good of the
tabloid press. It should receive undercurrent stories attacking their calamity
defence, as City have received, and yet more about the obscene amount of money
they have spent to create this common failure, as City have done. Then there
should follow a series of snidey reports about their manager’s glum and
unresponsive performances in the press interviews, as Guardiola has been
subjected to in the last month, followed by widespread story-telling of how
unsettled Klopp is and how he may either soon be leaving the club or even
quitting the game altogether, as Guardiola was reported to be doing in recent
releases. If you are truly awaiting any of these to actually appear, you may
have to take a picnic and settle down for a considerable wait. Liverpool’s
lamentable recent record of 1 win in 6, and that in extremis against lowly
Plymouth, does not seem to be attracting the vitriol to their manager, who for
some reason is a darling of the press. Strangely, people seem to be falling
over themselves in the rush to see if English football can send Guardiola over
the edge.
Another of
many destabilising strands in the press last week covered City’s obscene
spending. The number of times a spend comparison flashes up before a City game
is these days something of serious comedy value, as it has been continued in
the obvious light that the other big clubs are spending just as much as City
and in various cases more, to be competitive. Needless to say, when Liverpool
trot out against Plymouth and nearly exit the FA Cup, neither a spend
comparison flashes up nor any criticism of their paper thin performance.
No doubts over the shining football disciple Herr Klopp were heard to be uttered.
The money slant
escapes all the other big spenders, of course. No spend comparisons when
Liverpool show up at Home Park, nor when United play Bournemouth. All is calm
and good. Wayne Rooney is a guy who’d play for United for just 50 quid, after all. No doubts over the shining football disciple Herr Klopp were heard to be uttered.
Refereeing
decisions, of course, can go against absolutely anyone and to suggest there is
some kind of concerted effort by officialdom to neuter City’s challenge would
rightly be met with equally widespread ridicule. However, the treatment of
Raheem Sterling by the press begs a question: can it have a subliminal effect
on the referee? The answer most surely to this is yes.
Sterling you see, was, thanks to The Sun (ah here we go again) widely blamed for England’s collective defeat in the Euros, despite being no worse than the rest and considerably better than some. He was then ridiculed in the Sun (“England flop Sterling enrages fans after Icelandhumiliation by showing off blinging house and fleet of supercars”) and the Mirror for spending money on a house for his mother (obscene wealth, you see is something only Raheem Sterling has in these modern times of you’ve-hardly-heard-of-him footballer millionaires).
Curiously when he was later spotted in Poundworld, he was treated to equal amounts of column space. The same has happened to him on the pitch. Because of his transfer fee and the club he plays for, he has been subject to ever-closer scrutiny from the press. Visiting grounds like Burnley and Crystal Palace, you are left wondering what earthly reason the home fans could have for actually singling Sterling out for continued booing. Is it his hair, perhaps? Or are they just following the great example of the press and joining a bandwagon that has been rolling for months since Liverpool fans took the hump that anyone could consider swapping Anfield for anywhere else? Sterling is not only a good target off the field, he “goes down too easily” on it too. A bit like Ashley Young, whose latest dive only managed to register on the amusing Gifs level of internet coverage and didn’t merit comment in the national press.
So, what happens when Sterling goes down these days? Fouled by Danny Rose against Tottenham, he fell to the floor and a possible penalty went unawarded. Fair enough, these things happen. Marginal call perhaps. You win some, you lose some. Next time Sterling stays on his feet, determined to score, to play fair and perhaps in the knowledge that if he does go down he’ll be labelled a diver and again get nothing. Everyone saw what happened. Is Andre Marriner, already infamous at City for “not seeing” Sergio Aguero’s “heinous elbow” on Winston Reid this season that enabled the striker to be retrospectively banned for three games, running down the field with a clear objective mind or is he saying to himself here goes Sterling, he’s a diver?When City’s game with Chelsea exploded with similar ferocity to the Tottenham match and Aguero and Fernandinho were sent off, not a single line was attributed to the part played in the affair by Cesc Fabregas. The incident even got as far as that august magazine World Soccer, with City’s two miscreants laughably managing to lever themselves in to one of the three slots for the global game’s “villains of the month” alongside Metz fans for throwing firecrackers at Lyon keeper Anthony Lopes that hospitalised the player and caused the game to be abandoned and the Brazilian FA president, wanted for extradition for widespread fraud. Aguero's villainous act was a late high tackle and Fernandinho's na inappropriate reaction to being slapped in the face by Fabregas. They stand accused alongside rioting fans and a major fraudster!
It reminds one of City's UEFA fine for walking out late at Porto for the second half of a Europa League match. Porto were fined half as much in the same game for racist chanting.
The Sun opts for calm objectivity |
The referee, Anthony Taylor “of Altrincham” showed no card (it would have had to be red) and waved play on. The red mist had been rising understandably for some time. Yes, Chelsea won that match by merit of scoring more goals than City, just how it is meant to be, but yet again the opposition were aided by officiating bordering on the criminally inept. To top it all, Aguero copped for an added 4 game ban, thanks to Marriner’s errant antics against West Ham.
In the old days, we’d have laughed
along with everyone else, then gone home to weep into a pillow somewhere. We wouldn't be booing UEFA and their bent FFP attempts to scuttle City on the continent. We wouldn't be steaming and frothing about this that and the other.
The truth is
out there somewhere, unpalatable or not.