A level playing field

At the weekend Ryan Taylor was sent off in the game against Bolton. A rash, two-footed challenge over the ball on Elmander saw the midfielder get his marching orders from referee Chris Foy. And rightly so, it was a needless, potentially leg-breaking tackle. Everyone in St James' Park knew it was a straight red, you could tell that from the gasps from all four corners of the ground.

Meanwhile down at the JJB stadium Wayne Rooney was caught on camera deliberately elbowing James McCarthy in the head in an off-the-ball incident. Similarly to the gasps at St James' Park, the crowd at Wigan also gasped. But far from a red card, referee Mark Clattenburgh put his arm round Rooney, shared a smile and gave a free kick. Indeed from the video evidence it is clear that Clattenburgh hadn't seen the incident at all. He was clearly looking at the ball when Rooney jumped to elbow McCarthy. Had he seen the incident, then Clattenburgh would have, should have stopped the game immediately, but it's only when he hears the shocked intake of breath from the crowd that the whistle is blown.

After the game, Manchester United's manager and coaches were quick to jump to Rooney's defence. Mike Phelan commented that he didn't want to see a witch-hunt, Sir Alex Ferguson claimed that there was nothing in it, and that the media would see to it that Rooney would be "electrocuted or something..." However the rest of the football supporting world knew that the incident would probably be swept under the carpet, come on this is Manchester United after all!

Come Monday, the FA were allegedly left powerless to take further action as Clattenburgh claimed that he had mentioned the incident in his match report and felt that he had taken appropriate action. Unlike incidents in the past where players such as Ben Thatcher have had punishment imposed retrospectively for similar incidents, Clattenburgh's insistence that he was right has left Rooney free to play Chelsea tonight and in the next 2-3 games that he should have missed. The FA claim they are unable to take any further action, however under section 77 (b) of Fifa's disciplinary code states that "the disciplinary committee is responsible for

b) rectifying obvious errors in the referee's disciplinary decisions;"

So the FA are able to act if they want to, but they seem scared to offend Sir Alex Ferguson and his cronies. How dented would Manchester United's title chances be without Rooney in the squad? Especially as they are due to play Chelsea tonight? How furious would Sir Alex Ferguson have been if the incident had seen James McCarthy deliberately elbow Wayne Rooney? I'm more than certain that Fergie would have been berating the fourth official, storming over to Clattenburgh at the break and appearing all over the media to complain about how unfair the system is.

It's not the first time that the FA and referees have showed preferential treatment to one of the "Big 4" clubs. Earlier in the season Blackpool were playing Manchester United when a clear-cut penalty was denied to Blackpool, similarly defender Gary Neville went unpunished when he should have been sent off against Wolves. Only a few weeks ago the FA were ready to make an example of Nile Ranger, who pulled out of the England U20 squad with a bad back. Threats were made to enforce Ranger to miss the next Newcastle match, but these were quickly shelved when the FA realised that Manchester United's Chris Smalling had dropped out of the England U21 squad also and so were unable to single out the young Newcastle striker for punishment.

Referees are no better. In the Manchester City game earlier in the season Nigel De Jong made a shocking tackle on Hatem Ben Arfa which broke both bones in the young lad's shin. Ben Arfa is still out of action, De Jong did not receive a booking. In the league cup final Lee Bowyer was brought down, and should have received a penalty early on for Birmingham City against Arsenal, but the referee did not give the spot kick as the linesman incorrectly flagged that Bowyer was offside. Had Arsenal gone on to win the game 1-0 then the Birmingham City fans would have had no problems in complaining about the incident which was ignored.

As a supporter of a team that includes the notorious Joey Barton it's easy to complain about refereeing. However, I'm not asking for referees or the FA to be lenient to players who deserve to be punished for their actions. Just make it a level playing field for all of the teams and not just the "Big 4" who seem to scare the FA into ineffectuality.