Skammens kapittel er konkludert

Etter mangfoldige år med elendighet, naive drømmer og tomme løfter er det endelig konstatert: Norge tilhører det europeiske bunnsjiktet. Vi er i beste fall en B-nasjon på nivå med Armenia, Hviterussland og Tsjad. Det finnes ikke et snev av tvil om saken.

Nederland-Norge 2-0 (1-0)
10. juni, 2009
De Kuip, Rotterdam
VM-kvalifisering, gruppe 9

Sist sluttspill med Norge som nærmest selvsagt håpløs og uverdig deltaker var i år 2000. Ni år etter EM i Nederland/Belgia, hvor vi scorte kun ett mål, er vi endelig omforent rundt det faktum at Norge aldri noensinne kommer til å kvalifisere seg til et sluttspill igjen. Alt vi kan gjøre nå er å ta vare på minnene fra 90-tallet, og drømme tilbake til tiden da vår neandertalske fotballnasjon fortsatt var å regne med.

Norge, som i en periode lå som nummer to på FIFA-rankingen, var et fysisk helvete av et lag å møte for teknisk overlegen motstand. Vi rendyrket spillestilen vår, med fokus på dødball og langpasninger. Vi var ærlige mot oss selv, og forsøkte aldri å spille fotball langs bakken. Vi visste at apokalypsen sannsynligvis ville komme før et norsk ballbesittende landslag, så vi bygget opp et infrastrukturelt fotballsystem med vekt på løpsstyrke og fysikk.

Og det funket.
Helt til resten av fotball-Europa, med Premier League i spissen, fulgte etter. Det var da bobla sprakk.

På 90-tallet kunne Drillo velge mellom et hav av utenlandsproffer av ypperste slag. Landslagstroppen besto av spillere fra Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, AC Milan og Werder Bremen. I dag kan han velge mellom spillere fra Stabæk, Lillestrøm og Odd Grenland. Spillere som ikke engang hadde blitt tatt ut til B-landslaget til hvilken som helst ledende europeisk fotballnasjon.

Drøyt? Vel, jeg nekter å tro at vandrende elendigheter som Jon Inge Høiland, Christian Grindheim, Kjetil Wæhler eller Fredrik Winsnes hadde kommet med i troppen til Nederland. Eller Spania. Eller England. Eller Sverige, for den saks skyld.

Det toppet seg på mange måter i fjor under Åge Hareides ledelse, da landslaget ikke vant en eneste fotballkamp. Vi ble utklasset og avkledd gang på gang av helt grusomt svak motstand. Det har på ingen måte blitt bedre med Drillo tilbake i trenerstolen. For nå blir vi utklasset og avkledd igjen, og som en naturlig konsekvens sendt hodestups av VM-kvalifiseringen.

Men hvem tror vel egentlig på mirakler?

Det finnes nemlig ingen mennesker, absolutt ingen, som klarer å vinne fotballkamper med dagens spillermateriell. Det blir fiasko uansett om så José Mourinho eller Guus Hiddink hadde blitt hyret inn (ikke det at dét prospektet virker videre sannsynlig med Karen Espelund og Sondre Kåfjord som beslutningstakere), og det er jo selvsagt sørgelig.

Men det aller verste er nok fremtiden til norsk toppfotball. For hvem i all verden skal bære Norge inn i et sluttspill i årene som kommer? Det finnes per dags dato ikke nok talenter til å skape et godt nok landslag. Vi ser jo disse såkalte talentene i Tippeligaen hver eneste helg. Og nivået er skremmende svakt, noe U21-landslagets 0-5 tap hjemme mot England tidligere i år vitterlig bekrefter.

Siden 2008 har Norges aller beste ungfoler tapt mot land som Østerrike og Irak, og spilt uavgjort mot gigantiske fotballnasjoner som Jordan og Estland. Det lukter ikke akkurat gull av U19-landslaget heller, til tross for et par oppløftende resultater.

Det er bare å grave seg ned. Heldigvis har vi minnene.

Enn så lenge.

Møt rapperen Youri Djorkaeff

Mange lurer sikkert på hva som skjer med pensjonerte fotballspillere og livet deres etter en lang karriere på topp. De fleste stikker til Quatar eller Saudi Arabia for å tjene latterlige mengder med penger, som for eksempel Jay-Jay Okocha (so good they named him twice) og Gabriel 'Batigol' Batistuta.

Men du har også de med litt andre ambisjoner. René Higuita, kjent for denne mildt sagt hysteriske klareringen, sitter høyt oppe i det colomibanske kokainkartellet, mens Youri Djorkaeff er hjemme i Frankrike og satser alt på musikken. Ja, musikk.

Djorkaeff, nå 41 år gammel, var en av Frankrikes beste spillere under VM-triumfen på hjemmebane i 1998, og spilte for bl.a. Inter Milan, Paris St. Germain, Monaco og Lyon. Det bør også nevnes at Djorkaeff endte opp i amerikanske Metro Stars etter noen merkelige år i henholdsvis Bolton og Blackburn.

Nå derimot, er det duket for Youri Djorkaeff som rapper (!). Nyt det. Jeg er iallfall helt sikker på at dette går veien for Les Bleus' tidligere stolthet.

NB! Merk deg skinnbuksene.

Yossi's great night out

Now for the trip to Middlesbrough. Liverpool, or the Two Liverpools as they should be known, exist in parallel universes where Rafa Benítez's men can come to the Bernabéu and defeat a Real Madrid side who had won nine consecutive league matches but then motor across northern England to the Riverside with their cherished Premier League ambitions unravelling.

Maybe they should stop caring about domestic power. Last night a wedge of their Euro-centric followers brought The Kop to the home of football's greatest superpower and roared their approval for a warm-down. The Liverpool squad jogged around a pitch that was meant to serve as the stage for an ambush by a Madrid whose manager, Juande Ramos, was swiftly reacquainted with the obduracy and spirit of Premier League football.

It grows ever more curious. Liverpool bring that tenacity to European action but cannot find a consistent winning formula in a league they dominated for two decades before Manchester United ran off with the ball. People say they lack the depth of talent to end their 19-year wait for a domestic title and yet up pops a support act, Yossi Benayoun, to strike eight minutes from the end of a game Liverpool had smothered through sheer tactical forethought.

Benayoun played only because Steven Gerrard was unable to start. Fernando Torres, their gliding assassin, departed with an injured foot. And yet Liverpool still found a path to the honey-pot of a 1–0 first-leg away win. Can anyone figure this team out? Real, certainly, could not, and as Benítez waved to acknowledge the crowd's affectionate singing in the dying moments he was also raising his hand to the possibility that he will one day stand in the next dug-out as Real Madrid manager.

For Liverpool to prevail without Gerrard for the first 87 minutes and Torres for the last 28 is testimony to the deep reserves of know-how that manifest themselves on the continent. "Liverpool FC – European Royalty", announced one banner. A familiar delirium swept through supporters who will board coaches and trains to be at Boro on Saturday afternoon.

It was no disgrace to seek to nullify Real's attacking threat here. Granted, United had played with greater ambition at Internazionale on Tuesday, but only one English side went home with a win.

"This was a classic chalkboard triumph."

This was a classic chalkboard triumph. While Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso threw a blanket over Raúl, Fernando Gago and Lassana Diarra, their more attack-minded colleagues waited for the opportunity to score from a breakaway or set piece. The chance came when Fabio Aurelio curled a free-kick on to the head of Benayoun, who was in more space than a Real Madrid defence should allow. The revenge of the understudy. Gerrard's cameo was hardly required.

The chief threat was Arjen Robben, once of Chelsea, who displayed all his best and most infuriating traits in one parade of thwarted endeavour. Each time he was touched, he jumped like a scalded cat and then hobbled. Every time football's status as a contact sport was reaffirmed by Liverpool's tacklers, Robben turned it into a street crime. But at least he carried the ball and the fight to Liverpool.

The game's main sub-plot was meant to be Torres's return to the half of Madrid that loathes him. To the outside eye Torres was born on the wrong side of the tracks. By posting his allegiance to the less celebrated inhabitants of the Vicénte Calderon stadium on the banks of the Rio Manzanares, El Nino turned his back on the opportunity to join the great Real goalscoring lineage of Di Stefano, Puskas, Hugo Sanchez and now Raúl.

Torres would have looked a picture in the crisp white of the King's club but his boyhood love was for Atlético, who trail Real 9–0 on the list of European titles won. To swoon for Atlético in the city where the world's most illustrious club parade their majesty must have felt like walking past the Prado to take in the pavement art outside the train station.

Fortunately, though, success is not the only force to which the human heart responds and Torres was to become to Atlético what Raúl is to Real: a Madrileno sent down from the stands to the pitch as an emissary of the people. Before the kick-off Liverpool's record signing at £26.5m went down on his haunches and stared at the ranks of white like a skier studying an arrangement of slalom poles.

But it was not his night. There were intimations of his increasing frailty when a first-half bang to the foot sent him to the touchline for treatment and he was withdrawn after just over an hour.

The pursuit of a first league title since 1990 has assumed greater emotional importance in this year of the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, and the game at Manchester United on 14 March remains the season's biggest. But so much joy flows in Liverpool's European universe that England must seem another country, remote and unconquerable.

Homoerotikk og mål = Homoerotikk

Verden har sett en rekke ubegripelige mål. Verden har sett en rekke ubegripelige feiringer. Den første snutten er fra Stuttgarts 1-5 tap hjemme mot Bayern München. Gomez er på rett sted til rett tid med reduseringen, og får et lite slag nedentil fremfor en klem fra sine lagkamerater. Langt verre er klippet fra Sevilla, hvor en av spillerne legger seg ned for å kjærtegne målscorerens penis med munnen. Et lite 'vennlig bit' kan det vel kalles. Utrolig, men sant.

Stuttgart-Bayern München, Mario Gomez



Sevilla-Real Betis, José Antonio Reyes



Har du fått nok av über-homoerotiske målfeiringer? Greit. Dette er bare en samling idiotiske målfeiringer. Sånn. Tre minutter av livet ditt du aldri får igjen.

Steve Staunton klar for Chelsea?

Peter Kenyon, Chelseas administrerende direktør, ble i forrige uke rundlurt av et irsk radioshow. Radiovertene gir seg ut for å være den tidligere fotballspilleren Steve Staunton som desperat ønsker å ta over de blåkledde til sommeren når Guus Hiddink visstnok forlater skuta.

Apropos skute, Staunton-imitatoren spør etterhvert Kenyon pent 'om det er mulig å få en av de joggedressene med initaler på' og om det 'lar seg gjøre å besøke superyachten' til Chelsea-eier Roman Abramovitsj. Ubetalelig moro.

Lucky, lucky Liverpool

I think we all knew what the headlines were going to be as soon as Fernando Torres nodded in that 92nd minute winner. As the men on the pitch and the fans in the stand celebrated in the way only a last minute winner can be, the hacks in the press box had already written their match reports; and there's no way they were re-writing their critical words of the manager and his selections just because of a late winner.

"Late Torres winner gets manager off the hook"

"Rafa the rotator strikes lucky"

The lazy press, bar the odd few exceptions, seem to have a typecast of each club and report on that typecast no matter what.

For Arsenal they are brilliant to watch, producing flowing football and have some of the best youngsters around. Yet Wenger is never criticised, despite going without silverware for over 5 years and currently 12 points off the pace in the league and in grave danger of missing out on a Champions League slot for next season.

Chelsea have spent incredible sums of money, yet are currently sat 4th in the league, dropped yet more points at home over the weekend and have won only 4 of their last 11 matches. But they are known as a brilliant counter attacking side and one of Europe's best. A handful of fans may have unfurled a "Scolari Out" banner over the weekend, but you won't find the nation's press and media asking questions of him. I put that banner and the booing down to the small time "new fan" Chelsea have following them these days. A side with only 3 league titles and no European Cup wins in their entire history now trying to hound out a manager halfway through a season as they've dropped a few points.

Anyway, back to the point being made.

Every time Liverpool concede a goal from a set piece it's put down to zonal marking. The pundits hark on about it in every post-match analysis, stating how they don't like it and it doesn't work. Yet non of them have enough of a brain to realise that Liverpool have had the best defensive record in the league over the past 3 or 4 years using that system. Non of them ever question the man marking system when another side concedes a goal from a set piece do they? It's lazy and it's all part of the typecast associated with each club.

They state we are nothing without Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard and will struggle in a big way without them. Yet somehow we've managed to sit top of the league for large parts of the season, with Torres spending most of that time sitting in the stands through injury. We managed to beat United at home without Torres or Gerrard in the side. We beat Chelsea away without Torres in the side. We beat Portsmouth on Saturday without Gerrard in the side. All of which is ignored when reverting to type in writing those reports or asking questions at a press conference.

Where Alex Ferguson rests his players and keeps his players fresh, Benitez rotates or drops them; damaging their confidence and ruining all chance we have of winning the league. When Man Utd win by the odd goal away from home despite hardly having a shot on target, they are deemed unstoppable. When Liverpool win by the odd goal away from home, despite having chances to score 6 or 7 goals, we are deemed lucky.

The side Benitez sent out at the weekend surprised everyone. We can argue the rights and wrongs of it until the cows come home, but he got the result, came home with 3 points and the key players were only required for the last quarter of the game at most. Job done. The game could have been, and should have been, over long before then. We had enough chances to win it before the introduction of the so called rested stars. That was always the plan. To try and win the game with the side put out, and if not, then the others were on the bench to come on and change things if needed. It worked, and yet the manager is still grilled post-match over his selection and policy of resting players.

Torres, Alonso and Kuyt all had gruelling games in midweek against Everton and left the field on their knees. All will be turning out for their countries this week, and I think Rafa knows that they will play for the majority of those games, so wanted to give them a chance to rest. Even if they play the full 90 minutes for their countries, they will have had a rest this weekend, and then have another week or so off until our next game, returning with batteries recharged.

That result put us back top of the league, albeit for only 24 hours, yet the manager was being interrogated in the way he would if we'd just drawn away from home at relegation candidates and looked in grave danger of missing out on the lucrative top 4 finish; a little bit like Arsene Wenger maybe? I wonder if he was dragged over hot coals yesterday afternoon after falling further behind in the race for 4th place, never mind the race for the title.

"The media treatment of Rafa Benitez is a disgrace"

I was critical of him after the Wigan game, mainly for his removal of Steven Gerrard and the defensive approach to those games. And I still think that criticism was justified, as is all constructive criticism when required. But when the criticism is constant, no matter what the result, then it starts to become a little tedious.

On Saturday we may have started with a different system and players in unfamiliar positions, but for me, it was an improved performance from other recent games on the road. We attacked, and even when we went 1-0 and 2-1 down, I still thought we were going to win the game. We went forward, attacked in numbers and I just knew it was a matter of time before we scored again. That's something I couldn't say about the games at Stoke and Wigan, and it was a refreshing change. We ended the game with Torres, Kuyt, Babel and Benayoun playing upfront and going for it, which is exactly the way we need to be finishing those games, as there is no margin for error anymore. Every game is a must win.

Is it too much to ask for games to be reported on, without letting a vendetta against a manager dictate the tone of that report?

Scolari sparket i Chelsea

Luiz Felipe “Big Phil” Scolari fikk i går sparken i Chelsea kun syv måneder etter han overtok sjefsstolen på Stamford Bridge. Tålmodigheten til styrtrike Roman Abramovitsj var tilsynelatende mer tynnslitt enn vi trodde. Etter 0-0 kampen hjemme mot Hull sist helg ble laget buet av banen, fulgt av protester mot Scolari utenfor stadionanlegget. Ikke akkurat hverdagskost for en russisk eier og hans visjon om å føre Chelsea inn i fotballhistorien som ‘tidenes mestvinnende lag’.

Det faktum at fotballens bestefar nå er gjort arbeidsløs er blitt møtt med sjokk og vanry blant godt skodde kolleger i Premier League. Sir Alex Ferguson uttrykte sympaty for brasilianeren, og vedgikk at ‘det simpelthen ikke var nok tålmodighet igjen i moderne fotball’. Enkelte hevder fortsatt at Scolaris sparking er et resultat av en hensynsløs heksejakt fra medias side, mens andre føler det var fortjent.

Chelsea har kun vunnet 6 av 13 hjemmekamper i år, og har samtidig stakkarslige fire tap (0-1-4) på fem kamper mot Manchester United, Arsenal og Liverpool. De blåkledde aristokratene ligger strandet hele 10 poeng bak Manchester United i Premier League, og har fremvist en form like ustabil som en demontert matrioshka-dukke siden sesongstart i august. Er det da så rart at Scolari fikk fyken?

José Mourinho ble sparket da mannskapet hans ikke videreførte hjemlig dominanse ut i Europa (raskt nok), mens arme Avram Grant måtte gå etter å ha ført Chelsea til finale i Champions League. Det ligger kanskje litt i kortene, men man må være en ubetinget suksess og følgelig vinne alt man kommer over for å virkelig lykkes som personlig ansatt av Abramovitsj.

Scolari tar finanskrisen til sitt forsvar, og hevder han til slutt ble felt av en ‘liten, ustrukturert kjøpekraft’. For ham dreide det seg om å fornye laget med yngre spillere, men måtte nøye seg med Deco (32) og kontraktsløse Miñeiro (33). Sist måned skulle Chelsea kjøpe to-tre solide forsterkninger, men endte opp med en låneavtale for Ricardo Quaresma (26).

Jeg tror derimot at dagens Chelsea-spillere sitter med hovedansvaret for årets floppsesong. Hva i all verden har skjedd med Didier Drogba (ett eneste mål i årets Premer League)? Ashley Cole? Michael Ballack? Peter Cech? Chelseas neste trener må umiddelbart ta tak i spillergruppen og rette fokus mot det mest grunnleggende av alle ting - nemlig gløden, spillergleden og viljen til å vinne.

Engelske tabloider er allerede godt i gang med å lansere nye trenernavn. Blir det Gianfranco Zola? Avram Grant? Roberto Mancini? Det er mulig det først blir en midlertidig løsning med mulighet for forlengning, selvom Abramovitsj nok helst ser at den ideelle kandidaten dukker opp rett rundt hjørnet. Det betyr vel Guus Hiddink?

Jeg kommer uansett til å savne de flotte intervjuene med den filosofiske bartemannen fra Brasil, som du forøvrig kan se et godt eksempel på nedenfor.

Hvilken trener er nestemann på ønskelisten til Abramovitsj? Legg igjen deres forslag til hvem som bør ta over Chelsea i kommentarfeltet.

Parademarsj til helvete

Fotball er en rar, men vidunderlig sport. I går skulle Liverpool feie over Everton og sikre avansement til FA Cupens 6. runde. Men det ble aldri noen fest på Goodison Park. Den forutsette parademarsjen endte dessverre i helvete.

David Moyes’ mørkeblå destroyere klarte nemlig å slå ut erkerivalen etter 118 minutter med ulidelig håpløs fotball. Liverpool måtte spille med 10 mann fra det 76. minutt etter at ungfolen Lucas Leia fikk sitt andre gule kort av dommer Alan Wiley. Liverpool la seg bak, og ingen av lagene klarte å produsere noe som helst. Det ble på mange måter en fadese fylt med frispark, krangling og utrettelig løping.

Ikke bare røk vi ut av cupen, men vi slet ut hele førsteelleveren foran den vitale kampen borte mot Portsmouth på lørdag kl. 18.30. I tillegg er det også konstatert at Steven Gerrard er ute med lårstrekk i tre uker. Kapteinen måtte ut etter snaue kvarteret i gårsdagens kamp.

Det er litt urovekkende at et lag kan ødelegge en fotballkamp til en såpass nedverdigende grad. For i går var det overhodet ikke mye underholdning på banen. Og det er desto mer irriterende at det er såpass effektivt. Skal man slå Liverpool er det visst bare å lage frispark. Hele tiden. I samfulle 120 minutter. Man ødelegger rytme, tempo, sjel og underholdningsverdi i kampen, samtidig som man avanserer og høster ros fra alle kanter. Perfekt!

Nå handler det om å reise seg så fort som anatomisk mulig. Liverpool må slå Portsmouth på Fratton Park. Hvis ikke er det over og ut. Det lukter Nabil el-Zahr lang vei.

Clattenburg axed from the game

Mark Clattenburg was widely regarded as the brightest young talent in English football refereeing, a handsome, charismatic Geordie who soared through the ranks in record time and looked destined for fame on the greatest stages.

The 33-year-old from Gosforth, Newcastle, began officiating aged 15 as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, and enjoyed a meteoric rise, taking charge of his first Football League match in 2000 aged just 25, a post-war record. In 2004, he was promoted to elite level in England, contracted full-time to the referees' governing body, PGMOL, on a salary of £75,000 a year, to specialise in Premier League games.

Since 2001, when professionalism was introduced, PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) has been responsible for a pool of 78 officials who work in English professional football. Just 19 of them are salaried, paid big money to oversee games featuring star-studded clubs such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, and Mr Clattenburg was among them.

In 2006, while still just 30, life got better still when he was also appointed to the refereeing roster of Fifa, football's world governing body, to take charge of prestigious international matches. He was the youngest Englishman ever elevated to that level.

But last night, Mr Clattenburg's career was in tatters after he was sacked from his job as a Premier League match official after an inquiry into his financial affairs.

He denies any wrongdoing and will appeal his dismissal, and there is no suggestion that he has been involved in any activities related to corruption within football.

But in a cautionary tale that highlights the extraordinary level of transparency required from modern referees, and the intense scrutiny of their lives, on and off the pitch, it appears that the divorced father of one took his eye off the ball when it came to his terms of employment.

Well-placed sources say he was sacked for breach of contract arising from failing to disclose in full or on time details about debts relating to businesses he ran as an electrician, his former trade.

He was initially suspended last August when his bosses received emails alleging he had secret debts of up to £175,000 and that he had sent an allegedly threatening email to a business associate. In separate, anonymous correspondence, allegations were also made about his private life.

Following a five-month investigation, during which Mr Clattenburg has consistently protested his innocence, he was called in to see the PGMOL hierarchy last week and told he was sacked.

PGMOL declined to confirm that Mr Clattenburg has also been told he will never work as a professional referee in England again but a spokesman effectively confirmed the sacking and the appeal by saying: "The disciplinary procedure is still ongoing, therefore it would be inappropriate for us to offer any further comment at this time."

High levels of transparency are required from referees in an era when match-fixing and corrupt officials have blighted leagues around the world. Most infamously in recent years, a German referee, Robert Hoyzer, was sent to prison in 2005 for his role in a match-fixing scandal in which several officials were paid by Croatian gambling syndicates to rig games in Germany.

The potential dangers of corruption in modern sport were also highlighted last year when the Central Council of Physical Recreation, the umbrella group for 270 sports governing bodies in the UK, published a report into the risks posed to the integrity of sport by corrupt betting. It said: "Referees are an obvious focus for betting rings to consider."

And while English football has never been affected by any substantiated claims of "bent" officials, at any level, Mr Clattenburg has, it seems, now fallen foul of contractual requirements put in place to help ensure no such claims will ever prove to be true.

His professional life was first thrown into turmoil in the week before the Community Shield match between Manchester United and Portsmouth, staged at Wembley on 10 August last year and scheduled to be refereed by Mr Clattenburg.

On 7 August, the allegedly threatening email sent by Mr Clattenburg to an associate was brought to the attention of PGMOL, as were details of alleged business debts, and he was suspended.

Mr Clattenburg's business interests centred on two companies. MC Electrical Services Ltd was placed in receivership last year and was subject to legal action over a claim of debts to another firm, Jarel UK, of £5,530.83. MC Electrical Retail Ltd was wound up by the official receiver with an alleged outstanding debt of more than £71,000, although Mr Clattenburg's total debts were alleged to be higher.

In August, when these claims first arose, along with claims about Mr Clattenburg's personal life, PGMOL suspended him. A PGMOL statement said: "[We] are aware of media reports concerning alleged debts incurred by companies connected to referee Mark Clattenburg. It has been decided he will not officiate any matches pending enquiries into the background to these reports.

"It is in the best interests of Mark Clattenburg and the game that these reports are fully investigated and, during that time, he will not referee any matches. Mark is one of England's leading referees and we hope to resolve this matter swiftly."

Also in August, a few hours after Mr Clattenburg had appeared at Newcastle County Court in the case related to Jarel UK debt, his £40,000 Porsche, parked outside his home, sustained thousands of pounds of damage when it was sprayed with paint.

Susan Clegg, 35, a former partner of Mr Clattenburg, was questioned by police, but in November was told she would face no action and her solicitor, Brian Hegarty, said: "Miss Clegg denied responsibility and fully co-operated with the police, informing them of her whereabouts when the offence was alleged to have occurred."

Most of Mr Clattenburg's on-field activities have been no more or less scrutinised than those of other officials. But one erratic performance – when officiating a Merseyside derby in October 2007 – led to death threats.

In the match, when Liverpool beat Everton 2-1 at Everton's ground, Mr Clattenburg sent off two Everton players, gave Liverpool a disputed penalty and turned down two penalty appeals from Everton. After the game, his life was threatened by Everton fans, some of whom also contributed to a online petition to PGMOL to have Mr Clattenburg sacked. It received more than 3,000 signatures.

Mr Clattenburg was dropped from the PGMOL rota for one round of games but it must be stressed that being dropped is not unusual for a referee after perceived errors on high-pressure occasions. And when he returned to action he was widely regarded as being on course to re-establish his reputation as his profession's golden boy.

Turbulent though Mr Clattenburg's life has been in recent years, the attention heaped upon him only reflects the exposure to abuse and pressure on top referees.

In 2004, the Swiss referee, Urs Meier, became the focus of a hate campaign – orchestrated by The Sun newspaper – by England supporters after he disallowed a goal by Sol Campbell against Portugal in the Euro 2004 quarter-finals. His personal details were published and he received thousands of abusive emails, and death threats, and was placed under police protection.

What Mr Clattenburg must now realise is that what he does away from a football pitch is scrutinised as much as what he does on it. He is understood to be indignant about losing his job, and while he was unavailable for comment yesterday, he is believed to stand by a statement he made in September, which said: "Every allegation that has been put against me, I have proved all the evidence against it. And I'll do exactly the same again. I'm innocent."

***Article re-published from The Independent Newspapers Ltd.

Hektisk i Soho Square

Det var litt av en dag i går. Som forventet ble Robbie Keane solgt tilbake til Tottenham for £16m, en overgangssum som kan øke til over £19m avhengig av hvorvidt Spurs tar hjem noen troféer i løpet av de nærmeste årene, mens Andrej Arsjavin og Ricardo Quaresma signerte for henholdsvis Arsenal og Chelsea.

De stakkars, arme administrasjonsmedarbeiderne ved det engelske fotballforbundets hovedkvarter i Soho Square våknet garantert med hodepine i dag tidlig. For overalt føk det meldinger inn om flere titalls nyregistrerte spillere. Og dermed er det duket for en interessant helg med flere nye fjes i Premier League.

En full oversikt over månedens transfervirksomhet kan lastes ned her.

Tottenham-Arsenal

Den første kampen det rettes fokus mot er hatoppgjøret mellom Tottenham og Arsenal på White Hart Lane. Selv om det ikke ennå er offentliggjort vil nok den russiske playmakeren Andrej Arsjavin være med i troppen til Arséne Wenger. Etter intens forhandling mellom Zenit St. Petersburg og Arsenal fikk de røde sin mann for omtrent £12m. Altfor billig, mente Zenit, som ble truet med både rettsak og streik fra Arsjavins visstnok 'aggressive' representanter. Hvem klarer seg best av Keane og Arsjavin? Jeg forutser en heseblesende kamp søndag kl. 14.30. Masse mål, men uavgjort. 2-2.

Chelsea-Hull

Det blir også morsomt å se hestehalebærende Ricardo Quaresma i helblått på Stamford Bridge, lørdag kl. 16. Den portugisiske lynvingen starter sannsynligvis kampen mot Hull, noe som ikke akkurat har vært hverdagskost etter marerittet i Inter Milan. Quaresma ble buet av banen etter 1-1 resultatet hjemme mot Torino, og har vært fullstendig ute i kulden hos José Mourinho. Sulten portugiser gjenforent med farsfiguren Felipaõ? Det kan jo kun bli én ting - et skuffende uavgjortresultat hjemme mot ultradefensive Phil Brown og co. 1-1.

Man City-Middlesbrough

Ai, ai, ai. Dette skulle være kampen da de lyseblå stilte med den ene verdensstjernen etter den andre. Men Kaká takket nei, noe som virket symptomatisk for alle de andre hundre overambisiøse forsøkene på nye spillere fra City denne måneden. I stedet ble det Shay Given for £11m fra Newcastle, Wayne Bridge for hele £12m fra Chelsea, Nigel de Jong for £8m fra Hamburg og, selvsagt, superstjernen Craig Bellamy. Signert fra West Ham for nærmere £14m. Med golfklubbe. Og hatt. Boro har uansett ingenting å stille opp med borte mot schizofrene City lørdag kl. 16. 3-1.

Det var mine tre utvalgte kamper for helgen. Selvsagt skal jeg se Liverpool slå Pompey borte lørdag kl. 18.30, samt Uniteds pinlige 0-0 kamp på Upton Park; men inntil da har jeg nok med å holde meg oppdatert på de siste overgangene. Bruk nedlastningen over - den gir deg oversikten!