The Telegraph: Chelsea defied PGMOL order in referee huddle row, Chelsea staff were told at the pre-match meeting between officials, representatives from the two clubs and the Premier League not to form the huddle around the centre circle if Newcastle were about to kick-off.
by Kygoche
14 Comments
– Farcical scenes with players standing around official Paul Tierney took place despite club being warned pre-match
– Chelsea players were warned not to form their infamous huddle around the ball just ahead of kick-off against Newcastle United last Saturday – but did so anyway
– In that event, Chelsea representatives were told the players should form the huddle in their own half
– It is understood that Chelsea were told by Tierney that he would be standing on the spot in the moments before the game and would hold his ground.
– He was doing so to ensure that there was no confrontation between Newcastle and Chelsea players over the huddle
– In the game against Aston Villa the previous week there had been anger among the Villa players
– Tierney was told that he should stand his ground and make sure the same kind of confrontation did not happen.
PGMOL can go fuck itself.
Can’t they see we’re respecting the ball
Rosenior should’ve seen this coming. We’ve already been warned about it, so continuing to do it just looks like we’re deliberately pushing the referees. Instead of making a statement, we’re only agitating them and putting ourselves at risk of unnecessary bookings or even bigger decisions going against us during the game. It’s just not worth it.
New day new rules. You know what they should look into? Molesting the GK on corners, or even better clear handballs while holding down a player.
On one hand, this circle-gate thing is stupid and rightly got scrapped, but it is a bit odd from PGMOL to create and enforce a new rule like this right before kickoff without any kind of public announcement or messaging.
Man, we’ve been super popular this past week or so. We really suffer from not having more pro-Chelsea media personalities.
Good to see they have their priorities in order. There’s more noise for this than there is for the state of corner kicks
Just as I suspected, Tierney was stood where he was specifically because he wanted to interfere with the huddle. Normal referee positioning for the opening kickoff is outside the center circle, not right over the top of the ball. We knew the huddle riled up our opponents and their fans, and for some reason pundits and commentators, but the refs now too?
It’s amazing how such a simple thing has managed to get under so many peoples’ skin, and I’m also amazed at how it’s being used around here to point to Rosenior’s shortcomings. It was a harmless thing that the players decided to do to check in with each other one last time and get their energy and focus on the same page just before the first kick of the ball, and the boss supported it. Now it has become apparent that it’s not perfectly harmless if it’s going to bother the refs, and we adjust. Super simple stuff.
Why does this get so many people riled up? Who cares if they have a huddle, and why the FUCK does the PGMOL have to say a word about this?
Anyone else sick of this “controversy”? Who gives a shit about this if we can’t put in a shift during the game?
Yeah this is our biggest problem. The huddle. 🙌
Sorry, please can the PGMOL point to which rule this was breaking… because surely it’s not something they made up on the spot…
PGMOL and BlueCo can both get out! Serious cancers to football!