• Exclusive - Bothroyd: 'Referees should have to hold their hands up to mistakes'

    Jay Bothroyd has hit out at referee Kevin Friend following Cardiff’s 2-1 loss to QPR in the Championship.

    The clash which saw the top two sides in the division come face-to-face was touted as one of the biggest of the season but ended in controversy when Friend denied the Bluebirds what they felt were two “stonewall” penalties.

    Recently capped England international Bothroyd told talkSPORT he was livid with the decisions after fouls on him and his strike partner Craig Bellamy resulted in nothing from the referee, leading him to question the protection officials are given when they get decisions wrong.

    He told Call Collymore: “It was a very even game but we lost and I think it was down to the decisions that weren’t given to us. It was nasty. I don’t understand why if players make bad challenges during a game we hold our hands up and say it was a bad challenge but when a referee makes a bad decision you can’t talk to them. I don’t understand that and I don’t think it’s fair.

    “There was two stonewall penalties. I’ve gone through in the penalty area, the guys left his leg out, he’s not got the ball and he’s taken me down and he ain’t given a penalty. Then Craig Bellamy’s run through, he’s in the box, the guy’s pulled him by his shirt - everyone can see the big V from the back of his shirt and once again he didn’t give it and it’s inconsistent. He’s a Premiership referee as well.

    “I don’t understand why referees are untouchable. For me if you make a mistake you hold your hands up and say I made a mistake. I don’t understand why referees can’t do that. Today he waved me away saying it was never a penalty. I’m going through to score a goal, he’s brought me down. I don’t understand, why would I go down if it’s not a penalty.”
     

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Comments

Comment by jak10qpr posted Sunday, November 28, 2010 - 14:21

This moron is forgetting that QPR had two clear cut penalty decisions that should have been awarded. Cardiff should have had one penalty i admit. The referee was too frightened to award any yellow cards to cardiff it was only towards the end of the game when he decided to book any players.


Comment by GK10 posted Saturday, November 27, 2010 - 20:43

The game was one of the best I've seen down Loftus Rd with 2 evenly matched teams going for it. What Boothroyd fails to mention are the 2 'stone wall' penalties that we could have had. It seems that he is following the lead of both Bellamy and Dave Jones in disputing every single decision, and this being the only reason they lost. Footballers in general need to grow up and get a back bone and accept that things will go for and against them.


Comment by slovenianian posted Saturday, November 27, 2010 - 20:25

I was at the match today and saw both incidents clearly. I've got to say Bothroyd has got a point. And I'm a QPR supporter.


The best team won on the day anyway!


Comment by ASTONEGOONER posted Saturday, November 27, 2010 - 19:37

The trouble is lately the referees want to be a part of the game, but the best referees are the ones where the games flows and you dont hear much from them because its under control, Phil Dowd is one ref who loves to be a part of the game, taking any chance he can to perform step overs rather than continuing his movement away from the ball, the ref at the Braga v Arsenal game was a showman thinking his opinion mattered instead of seeing clear decisions that any ref on their job wouldve caught hold of. Jays right in what he says and if these refs want to be a part of the game then let them have a press conference after each game, I promise you the mistakes will be less and less and there wont be any favouritism as there obviously is among refs!


If they had to answer questions after the game in a press conference then the anger against refs would be so much less among fans, if a ref makes a genuine mistake, has the time after the game to reflect on his performance as the match official and comes out and says hey I can only appologise I made a mistake then they will earn the respect of fans and managers alike, theyre only human! But it will also route out the wannabe superstars who make decisions because they want to make an impact instead of what the incident the game and football cries out for!


Pay them an extra couple of hundred if they want theres enough money in the game now, but the press conference will solve so many problems!