This is an apt title to what has been a very interesting and gnarly few weeks regarding an incident on Twitter, of which I will get to very soon...
Blimey, it's April! We're under a month away from the start of a brand new cricket season that also means Summer 2012 is on its way, and the mood of the Mitten is to improve ten-fold. In fairness, I've been good recently. I've been talking more, thinking things through more rationally, and the results have been effective. I have just about got to grips with events at the Post Office, despite an impossibly busy 4 hours this morning, whilst recovering from a ridiculous idea of a night out last night. More on that in a moment aswell!
A brief summary of the past month or so can be described in one word. Solid. I've had very few blips, and the blips that have appeared out of the darkness have quickly been subdued, discussed and rationally disposed of, as if it were an out-of-date sirloin that's lay in the fridge for a fair while. I think the main ingredient for this is stability and... dare I say it, routine. I've gotten into a routine of working particular days and hours, and planning all of my social events around it, and it seems to have helped. Part of this may also be because the Hawkers, (or should I say 'Weird Blokes'), have returned from university ventures, meaning I can surround myself with friendly faces and forget for a while.
Anyway. We'll begin with last night, where I had decided by mid-afternoon that I was not to go out. I might be solid in the procedure of the Post Office by now, but if I turned up half-cut, it wouldn't be ideal. I was also unusually tired by 8pm and as the parents have started charging me board for staying in this wonderful abode, plus "other events", meaning I am quickly running out of money. However, everyone was out, so I decided upon paying Beddoe a surprise visit, walking into his house unannounced and demanding a vodka and orange. Spontaneity beats anything else. I had known that if I was to begin pre-drinking, it was only going one way, so didn't bother fighting the urge and went out on the town with everyone else! I was home early though, and got a decent enough sleep in to get through the ridiculously busy morning that greeted me! It does help that someone left a few Jagerbombs on the tables of Chameleon for us to indulge on mind you...
As I say, this morning was outrageously busy, and I was happy to be walking home at 1.15pm, where I instantly went straight for a mid-afternoon nap, where I dreamt of happy and cool things! Sorry... Where was I...
Ah yes, the title. The main event. The raison d'etre. Roughly a month ago now, I tweeted about the ex-Chief Executive of Bedfordshire Football Association, Peter Brown. He had sent a racist e-mail to colleagues, and was asked to resign. Despite this, he had been awarded with a "celebration of retirement", otherwise known as a party. Anyone with half a brain cell can see this is wrong, no? I tweeted my frustration, stating that this shouldn't happen and left it at that. I wasn't under the illusion that we were living in a country envisaged by George Orwell in his well known novel...
2 weeks later, I received an e-mail from a certain Mr.Neale Barry. Those of you with a good knowledge of 1990's/2000s football, will know that Neale Barry is a former Premier League referee, but these days heads up National Referee Development at the FA. His brief e-mail said that I had been reported for "misusing Twitter" and would get back to me regarding a charge. I thought this was a bit silly, but thought nothing of it. I did wonder what the world has become if someone of no particular importance cannot voice their opinion, but I genuinely thought I would get a warning, at worst, and then we'd all get on with our lives.
However. At the beginning of this week, I received a letter, again from Mr.Barry. I had just come home from a particularly busy morning at work, and was looking forward to a couple of days of well deserved rest. As I walked through the door, I walked on the letter, with the recognisable FA badge and knew instantly of it's contents. I opened it up, threw the envelope away, and proceeded to read the most outrageous and ridiculous charge and subsequent punishment I have ever seen.
I had been found guilty of Rule 7(a), of "not acting in the best interests of the game". I had subsequently been dealt with a 3 week ban, effective from 17th April and a £25 fine. I knew instantly that this would mean I miss very important games. I had been appointed to the Junior Challenge Cup final line, happening on the 25th April, another charity cup final 5 days earlier and a youth League cup final middle in between, and they were all to be missed because of this nonsensical charge.
Can someone please, please, please explain to me how I have "not acted in the best interests of the game" by tweeting the actions of a man who sent racist e-mails and gets a retirement party because of it? Logically, I can only conclude that tweeting about the FA is wrong, yet sending racist e-mails is right. It's good to know that the FA act fairly when it comes to issues like this. (Sarcasm alert.)
If their derisory theories are to be followed then, it makes complete sense that this blog is also "not acting in the best interests of the game", but one detail has changed. I've quit. Quit with immediate effect, because I cannot, and will not, sit here and accept being bullied by an elitist organisation with tendencies of extreme favouritism. Sounds drastic? Maybe, but this is the final straw in what has been a series of huge mistakes by my county FA and now the Wembley-based national FA. I sent a letter to the new Chief Executive of Bedfordshire FA, Football League referee, Keith Stroud, and outlined what has gone wrong in the past couple of years especially. The county has been a laughing stock, the referee community split down the middle over the most biased and abominable campaign of hatred against the only person in that place to have an air of pride, a sense of hard work and companionship. Quite frankly, I do not want to be part of a community that sends out witch-hunts for anyone who disagrees with the way that the place is run. I have received no support or guidance of any sort, and in all honesty, refereeing is difficult enough with 22 adrenaline-filled players jumping on your back, without the county who should support you, doing exactly the same thing.
Whether or not he will take a blind bit of notice of my letter is another issue, but the fact of the matter is, I am no longer a football referee. I am always free to return, whether it be next season or in 10 years time, but rest assured, I will only be returning if I affiliate with a different county. My current county, or ex-county I suppose, will no longer be my chosen county of choice.
It is quite strange that I get so worked up and antagonized by such a thing, but the treatment I have received is astoundingly bad. In truth, I had been thinking about taking a break for a while, but would probably have carried on, as it's a good way to keep fit if nothing else. But if I'm to be treated like a piece of dog excretement, then sod it.
It might be so, that this isn't over either. I'm debating further action, so if I come back to this blog in the near future, you may hear of it. If not, then I bid you a good Easter.
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8 comments:
I would suggest that if you supported the chief executive of your county football association instead of tweeting, blogging and going to newspapers with your outspoken and negative views of the situation, then the county football association might support you.
Furthermore, the "witch-hunt" you speak about is essentially what you have done, are doing and (knowing how much of a knob you are, it is likely) that you will continue to do so. You have tried and succeeded in costing a man his job, in which he achieved many things over a number of years.
In addition to this, the man is allowed to celebrate the achievements he has made over the years on an evening with his colleagues and friends to say goodbye. The evening (believe it or not) was not to celebrate that you had cost him his job, and rather to reflect on the positive events.
Your time would be better spent by forgiving the man than writing boring articles and attempting to provide media coverage to an event that has had your desired effect - costing a man his job. That is something you are probably proud of, and as a result I question your ethics and hopefully anyone else foolish enough to read your article will question your ethics too and form the correct opinion of you.
You need to grow up
Interesting to note that the above comments are "Anonymous", although the brown-nosing hypocritical content and composition of the posts makes it quite easy to identify this particular keyboard warrior!
If you don't like the blogs why read them? To report the content back to HQ perhaps?
Interesting critique. It would seem our anonymous friend condones the labelling of the black community as idle scroungers. No-one is to blame but the person who sent out a racist email. Defending such an action and blaming others is ridiculous.
Besides I thought he 'retired' so how did it cost him his job?
You're perfectly entitled to your opinion, but I would like to add that Peter Brown lost his job way before I went to the press about the unfair and ridiculous treatment I received in getting banned for writing fair comments. As for my "boring articles", I recommend you stay away if they're that soul destroying.
Also, who exactly am I supposed to report to at the CFA if it's Chief Exec is the culprit?
Finally, as said above, may I suggest you openly contact me and discuss it without hiding behind the anonymous button? I'm sure the chinese whispers at the CFA has gone on long enough the past couple of years without this adding to it.
And as for "supporting" him, why the hell would I want to support a person who was racist?? Some people need to get their priorities right before choosing who they stand by. And judging by the nature of your comments, I'd presume that one of these people was you.
In your letter to the press you clearly said that he should step down therefore it was prior to his resignation.
You didn't need to report it seeing as a charge had already been made by The FA.
Oh and FYI Checketts, it's difficult to criticise someone for being anonymous when you did the same, moron.
Carr, why don't you just leave the man be. He's had his punishment and thanks to you he's had all the publicity with it too. Nobody else tweeted and went to the papers about it - and nobody else got fined for it... Funny that?! Stop bringing down the county just because your career got brought to a close just as his did (thanks to you and your "anonymous" friend I might add).
His charge that resulted in him being allowed to stay on? He deserves all the publicity he gets in all honesty. No place for any racism in our game thank you very much.
Quite ironic you should talk about "bringing people's careers to an end" isnt it... I have a fair idea of who you are, or at least who you're associated with, (behind the anonymous tag), and I think it's fair to say you played a large part in bringing an end to someone else's career.. Like I say, he deserves all the publicity he gets.
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