Kevin Friend Appointed Ref For Newcastle v City

Tudor

Tudor

Vital Football Legend
The Premier League has appointed Kevin Friend as the man-in-the-middle for Tuesday nights (19 April 2016) rearranged fixture at St James’ Park between Newcastle United and Manchester City.

Controversy

Originally, Kevin Friend who is a Bristol City fan but lives in Leicester was due to officiate Monday nights fixture between Stoke and Tottenham however, due to a social media and message board campaign (Kevin often goes with friends to watch Leicester City) the Professional Game Match Officials Limited decided to replace him with Neil Swarbrick, due to possible integrity issues (I sometimes wonder!).

http://www.manchestercity.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=565159

Weird or what?

Mr Friend’s only other game in charge of a Manchester City match this season was when Newcastle visited the Etihad stadium, Saturday 3 October 2015. On that occasion City won 6-1 with goals (5) coming from Sergio Aguero and one from Kevin De Bruyne. Yellows were shown to Zabaleta, Mangala and Fernandinho.
 
Whilst it is still mathematically possible for City to catch the leaders his involvement with any team up there is quiestionable
 
Bluedub - 18/4/2016 09:01

Yet Anthony Taylor is allowed ref us and the rags?
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Maybe we need to start a "social media campaign" the next time they install him as manager for the derby (and they will) if that's all that makes the cowards at the FA and PGMO sit up and take notice
 
They've stupidly opened a can of worms by doing this. As has been pointed out, every referee can be accused of bias if simply attending a few games constitutes cause for concern. All fan bases are intrinsically paranoid and will look for any excuse to have a referee removed from a game. I'm glad i don't do Twitface, as it's going to be awash with 'campaigns' to have so and so removed from such and such a game because he was once seen having a pint with a supporter of the opposition :048:
 
Refs from outside England is the way forward.

One thing PGMOL should stop immediately is this experiment to clone Colina, it's producing sub standard results. Webb, Taylor, Mason, East all leave a lot to be desired, I can cope with human error but clone error is another matter altogether.
 
The spotlight will most definitely be on Mr Friend tonight and no doubt the Sky Sports pundits will be all over him. Lets hope he doesn't bugger up the occasion and that he has a good game.
 
We need to talk about Kevin...

Is he our 'friend' or will he be a homer?

Will he blow his whistle every time we foul one of their players and will he let play go on every time they hack away at Aguero/Merlin etc?

This evening will see our friendship tested to the max.

 
Tudor - 19/4/2016 21:10

The spotlight will most definitely be on Mr Friend tonight and no doubt the Sky Sports pundits will be all over him. Lets hope he doesn't bugger up the occasion and that he has a good game.
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Too late mate, he buggered us up! :002:
 
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