Howard Webb

25/1 a quarter looks a bit big for me max.

FIFA might let him run a bit further this time round. To what stage did he ref in the CL?

Personally, i would price;

Group 3/1
2nd 5/4
1/4  4/1
semi 28/1
final 100

Webb has a decent chance of a quarter or semi imo particularly if England go out early. He'll certainly get a last 16 game at the very least unless things go wrong in the group games.

asparagus 16 May 10 16:34
Webb has a decent chance of a quarter or semi imo particularly if England go out early. He'll certainly get a last 16 game at the very least unless things go wrong in the group games.

And I'd say there's more than "a decent chance" of him fúcking up royally in his first or second game. He's a poor ref, and not even close to being England's best.

Max and Paddy, I disagree. I think he's comfortably the best ref in England. He's also one of the best in europe. His assistants are amongst the best in Europe as well.

He's had a really bad season. The best ref in England is Phil Dowd. Anyone who knows anything about football knows that.

AFAIK once the quartr-final teams are known, all officials from those 8 countries can no longer participate in the finals.

asparagus, he continually gets the big decisions wrong and almost admits to it after the games by saying "I make the decisions honestly" (which I'm sure he does), its just to be a top ref you have to make the big calls correctly.

clattenberg is the bets imo

best*

Rider, he makes mistakes but I'm far from convinced he gets more big calls wrong than any other ref. He's also better at keeping control of the big games than most of our other refs. He stands out more physically than most other refs and also gets more of the big games than our other refs so therefore any bad decisions are more memorable. That doesn't mean he makes more mistakes.

Mike Dean is surely the worst referee for continual match changing mistakes

He stands out more physically than most other refs

Get Rennie on!

db1974, it's probably fair to say referees are more likely to be sent home at the quarter final stage if their country are still in the tournament. However in 2002 Collina got the final when i believe italy had made it to at least the quarters. The same has happened at euro champs or world cups since then.

I checked that stat and Italy lost in the Last 16 to South Korea

Euros may be different but I'm 99% sure that this is FIFA's official policy at the WC.

Db1974, My apologies about Collina in 2002. i thought it was the quarter finals when Korea beat Italy but was mistaken. many places on the internet quote that game as qf too but you're right that it was last 16. Rossetti of italy definitely officiated in the final of Euro 2008 (italy knocked out in qf's) but you may be right that for world cups officials are sent home at qf stage if their country are still in competition. Ref's from germany, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Brazil are amongst fifa's top ranked as well as Howard webb so will be interesting to see if they stick to that policy this time.

Db, actually I've just looked up 2006 and it appears the Argentinian ref got the final even tho Argentina weren't knocked out until the quarter finals so it appears the policy has changed.

Maybe it has changed alright - I seem to remember it back-in-the-day.

The bigger countries were up in arms about the better European refs being sent home while some of the less-experienced ones from poorer Confederations were being kept on.

Especially since "simulation" became such a major part of the game in the last 8-10 years.

Webb is refereeing the Champions League final!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep - well deserved. Perhaps you'd like to review your odds of how far he'll go in the world cup.

"Well deserved"!

Sorry, Howard - I didn't realise you were on the forum. Enjoy your big night. If you perform as badly as you have done in recent months, we should all get a right laugh.

I don't think Howard will be too worried about your rating of him. Uefa must be happy with his handling of champions league games to give him the final.

I don't care what Webb thinks. He's a cráp referee, and if he has a good game on Saturday it will be a huge surprise.

As for UEFA's decision, they never make mistakes, do they?

Interesting to see how much faith UEFA have.

Interesting if no country in the 1/4's on can ref any more.

Would make me change my oddss to;

Group 2/1
2nd 4/6
1/4 12
semi 50
final 100

asparagas, stop listening to andy gray and the rubbish he talks, saying big games need to be refereed by big nations and Howard Webb would have done better. He recently said the barcelona inter game was ruined because UEFA had a appointed a ref from a tiny nation.  Really idiotic and pathetic argument!!!  And yes Howard Webb is a really awful referee.

Jonny Sac, you need to go back and read properly. I've never said anything about andy gray and nor would i. Howard Webb had a good game and is a very good ref supported by excellent assistants. Our officials get criticised to a ridiculous extent when realistically they are amongst the best around.

there were virtually no penalty claims so HW was ok, its these big decisions that worry me when i'm betting and HW is officiating

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/cups/championsleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/10/05/22/manual_214659.html

OK boys, you couldn't have been paying attention so here is what happened in the 16th minute accoreding to Sporting life

16: Bayern's players are screaming for handball in the box, but Webb is not interested. Replays show Maicon had his arm raised and made contact with the ball. A lucky escape for Inter.