Failing With Styles

By Ethan Armstrong

Robinho sped toward the box as Shaun Wright-Phillips’ through-ball spun over the heads of Newcastle’s defenders. As Robinho pressed past the defenders, awaiting his chance to take control of the bouncing ball, in slid Habib Beye. He was a studs-down blur of human missile, winning the ball before Robinho tumbled over his legs in the penalty area. The ball went out of bounds. Newcastle supporters breathed in relief. The Brazilian’s attack was smothered.

It was the perfect tackle.

Yet, there was referee Rob Styles, pointing to the spot. And with no sign of hesitation (or of consultation with the linesman) Styles had the red card in Beye’s face as the crowd at St James Park gasped in helpless fury. Shocking. The experienced Senegalese defender who had done everything right was now ejected from the match. It was twelve minutes in.

There is no doubt that refereeing top tier football is a tough job. Amid the pace and intensity of the game, the roar of the crowd, and the emotion of the athletes, we all must accept that the ref’s judgment can be compromised and wrong decisions will inevitably be made. At times these will be game-changing calls——unearned penalties and goals disallowed from incorrect offsides calls being among the bitterest memories to linger with supporters for years.

Now, if this had been a bad tackle: if Beye had, as last man, taken Robinho down without winning the ball, Styles would have been right in sending him off. But if Styles had any doubt of what had happened——and it would have helped for him to note the change in direction of the ball before Robinho went down, but I suppose he was too busy reaching for the eject button——he should have at the very least kept Beye on the pitch. Since it was a good tackle, it is completely impossible for Styles to have been 100% certain, and so, reducing Newcastle to ten men, on top of awarding the penalty (which Robinho converted), proved to be one of the more crippling bad calls in recent footballing memory.

The double whammy, as the idiom goes.

I confess: when I saw Rob Styles named as the official of this match, I knew somehow this was going to be a bad day for the already struggling Newcastle United.

You see, this isn’t exactly Mr. Styles first case of game changing decision-making. He’s got a serious history of dubious penalty calls.

May 2004: Charlton Athletic vs. Leicester City. Styles ejects Nikos Dibazas, reducing relegation zone strugglers Leicester to ten men and awards a penalty for what looked to be minimal contact on Jonatan Johannson. Paulo Di Canio converts to put Charlton up. Leicester would equalize but still went down a league at the season’s end.

April 2005: Middlesbrough vs. Fulham. One minute from the end of regulation time, Fulham keeper Edwin van der Saar fouls Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink outside the penalty box, but Styles awards the penalty anyway. Bolo Zenden converts, equalizing for Boro. This controversial call raised questions over whether or not Styles should be allowed to officiate the FA Cup final between Arsenal and Manchester United. The Football Association stood behind him and he got the match.

August 2007: Liverpool vs. Chelsea. The Reds maintain a 1-0 lead over the Blues until the 62nd minute when Styles decided Liverpool’s Steve Finnan had taken Florent Malouda down in the box. The look on the faces of nearby Chelsea players’ faces carried as much surprise as the Anfield crowd’s booming protests. Replays showed the penalty to be clearly undeserved. The match ended 1-1. Styles was suspended for the next round of matches.

September 2008: Manchester United vs. Bolton Wanderers. Cristiano Ronaldo goes down after Jlloyd Samuel’s tackle. Replays would show Samuel clearly won the ball, and if Ronaldo wasn’t already falling before the defender made contact, he was most certainly embellishing the fall like there was an Oscar nomination on the line. Styles, a few feet away from the action at the time, actually made a private apology to Bolton later on. He was not suspended by the FA.

So the sending off of Beye, as absurd and unjust as it is, comes as little surprise for anyone who knows about Rob Styles’ love of manufacturing penalties out of nothing.

While he is not the sole perpetrator of horrendous refereeing decisions, he’s become one of the most notorious officials, and any club of any size must cringe when they see him on the match sheet.

To mend the officiating problems in today’s game, suspending a figure like Styles for the odd match here and there is not going to solve a thing. If the FA insists on keeping a man like Styles on, punishment for recurring incidences will need to employ a much harsher stance. Clubs are relegated for losing too many matches: why can’t Rob Styles be relegated to a lower league for a considerable spell for making too many patently awful decisions? If Styles spent a year calling matches in Blue Square South, (apologies to Havant and Waterlooville for their first bad Styles call… it’ll probably take him a while to get it out of his system), he would likely come back a much more thoughtful ref when given another chance at the top flight matches.

Otherwise, the continuation of regular, inaccurate, match-changing decisions is going to ultimately lead us to the nasty world of in-match video replay, and the grand footballing tradition of “getting on with it” will be sullied by constant stoppage. Four hour matches and endless commercial breaks… we’ve already let these things consume American Football. Please don’t subject the world’s favorite game to these cruel devices.

So until the FA cracks down on Rob Styles, let all defenders be advised: if you see an attacker careening into the box, you might consider backing off. You’re better off letting your keeper take his chances, because if Mr. Styles is on the scene, he’s looking for his next chance to invent a penalty. And you want to stay in the game, don’t you?