Police apparently involved and pundits on 5 Live calling for the situation to be dealt with quickly, as if it is somehow of national importance.

The idea that the police / criminal justice system should somehow prioritise this case, just because football is involved, is ridiculous.

Some irony in Chelsea fans calling for Clattenburg to be sacked, whilst they still worship Terry.

I think it does need to be swiftly dealt with. The sport has had it's image dragged through the gutter by the likes of Suarez and Terry and could do without another racism case dragged out over the next 6 months. Both of those cases were kept in the limelight as everyday someone new would come out and give their opinion or express their outrage, which would then be discussed and counter argued. Football doesn't need it again. He either said those things or he didn't. Either way, deal with it this week and move on. If they are still discussing it by Saturday it's too long.

Yes, but if you're a cleaner in McDonalds and all of the staff swear their heads off at you, then all of the customers swear their heads off at you. Is it really unfair if you retaliate/make one/two bad comment/s? How is it fair to condemn a ref for discriminatory language when it's more than likely most of the players use it on the field every week? What the referee has allegedly said [iis[/i wrong, what's even worse though is the way people like yourself think it's borderline friendly to call somebody a Fat Spanish Waiter. Do you think Benitez found it funny? If he was offended by it (which I imagine he was, it's not pleasant, especially when sang with such an intent to humiliate), surely any other defence of it goes out of the window if we use your logic from the previous case with Suarez. Or is this another case of welcome to Britain, it's our rules and we'll do as we like?

The problem with the McDonalds analogy is the ref didn't swear at a customer, he swore at another player. I don't know what the FA guidelines are you speak of, but I imagine referees can be relaxed on occasions on the field and can probably let a few expletives go. The problem clearly isn't swearing, the problem is the use of the word Spanish in a discriminatory way. A player wouldn't make a complaint if the referee had said "stop being a tw*t", or "grow up you soft tw*t", it simply wouldn't happen and you know it, as the players dish out far worse every week.

The problem with the separate thinking is there shouldn't be a separate thinking when it comes to discrimination and 'racism'. We are told there should be a zero tolerance policy to it, whether it's a drunk scrub on the streets or a headmaster at a school, racism shouldn't be tolerated in any form is the message we're all forced to accept, so why should thousands of fans get away with it "because they're fans"? I understand the need to make examples of people in the limelight, they have to set the right example, but surely something isn't right if an FA won't act on thousands of fans singing FSW or your dad washes elephants, but they will possibly act on somebody saying Spanish tw*t. If they were consistent, they'd have said to the clubs that sung the chants that their fans would be banned if it carried on being sang, but they didn't, it was ignored.

If the entire Kop stand started doing monkey chants/gestures towards Evra next time we play United, will the FA condemn their behaviour, or will it be ignored because they're non-professionals? Will they fine Liverpool? Will they threaten with possible bans? What if the Kop stand sang "you're just a French African w*nker" towards him, would that be condemned or would it be seen as friendly? What if that chant became a regular occurrence at every ground? Would the FA have to act, or would they ignore like they have done with previous vile chants? You see, we expect teams in Europe to be banned if their fans don't behave, look at the reaction to the Serbian U21s as an example, yet we don't carry out similar actions when our fans use nationality to discriminate players/managers. You can't ask for a zero tolerance policy towards a referee's language but completely ignore the behaviour of thousands of fans.

I'm not saying you are wrong here, but it's a crusade to save the world you are proposing. You can't make 80,000 people behave appropriately, it's just not logistically possible. The authorities do fine clubs for their fans behaviour and chanting and get the Police to try to find the most serious culprits, but as a lot of those people are different every week and don't buy tickets in their own name, stopping them becomes impossible. It would be great if everyone could be respectful to each other, but such is the way of life.

Ref's you can do something about. They are paid to do a job and will have a code that tells them how to behave.

I've just seen it now for the first time, he definitely went down far far too easy after any contact was made.

I'm glad i wasn't the only one who saw that

Is that the same Clattenburg who was stood down for 8 months after he sent an email that could be interpreted as a threat to a business partners family?



It's impossible to say whether there was contact between Ivanovic and Young.

There was definite contact between Evans and Torres. I haven't seen it, but from what I've read Torres's sock was ripped where Evans studs hit him.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20135129 I know LFC love their stats...shame about the facts

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20135129 I know LFC love their stats...shame about the facts

The whole club seems to have some kind of mental illness over the last few years. They just don't see anything for what it is anymore. It's okay for Suarez to be a racist, he doesn't dive and should get more penalties etc. They're not going to win the league, but only because the other clubs outspend them



Now Everton play like Stoke and just hoofed long balls up against them, because we're not as good as them.



More possession, more passes, higher passing accuracy and fewer long balls. Finished above them last season and have clear daylight this season. It seems Liverpool think they are Barcelona now because they've hired Rodgers and signed Joe Allen (Who is anonymous). I think it would be hard for anyone to argue that Liverpool play better football than Everton at the moment. Some of the moves Everton are pulling off between the likes of Baines, Pienaar, Jelavic, Mirallas and Osman are fantastic and we've out passed every team we've played this season, including Manchester United and Liverpool themselves. If anything it should be Everton making the Stoke comparison of Liverpool, given they injured two Everton players with their thuggery during the game.

I'm aware of Clattenburg's history, however I think you have missed my point. With the fallout from the racism row, I said that Clattenburg would be stupid to say anything remotely racist. Just because he sent the above email (which of course is idiotic in itself), doesn't necessary mean he has racial tendencies.

I understand that you are obviously wearing your Chelsea specs and want the referee to be punished by the full extent of the law, but let's wait until the facts come out first before stringing him up. It all rests on his officials, no-one else.

I really do not understand why he has said that. I'm a Liverpool fan and even I can see that Everton didn't use long ball and outplayed us on the ground.

You said that he wouldn't be stupid enough to make a racial comment after the JT/Suarez incidents. Which means that you're the one who is judging the incident before any facts are being offered.

I am sitting back and waiting for a decent picture to emerge before making any judgements. I was just pointing out that Clattenburg has displayed massive stupidity before by possibly making a veiled threat by email.

Well, I actually said "I don't *think* he would be stupid enough Chief, but if that's been misconstrued into thinking that I'm judging the incident, well I'm not one to jump into the deep end and speculate on what happened so apologies if it has come across that way.



And there is no denying his stupidity in the past. Like I've said before, if he has said what he has been accused of, then he will need to deal with the consequences. Good to hear that you are halting on any judgements. As a supporter of the team that made the complaint, I would have assumed that you would have already been his judge, jury and executioner.

People I've spoken to, forums that I've been on, people on social media sites. I'm going off what I have seen. If you have not seen any of this, then fair enough.

Where did you get that ridiculous notion from?

Gerrard bemoaning Everton's ''long ball'' tactics just because Liverpool now spread it from the back is one clue.

What an amazing game at the Magejski tonight. 7-5 to Arsenal. 4-0 down and looking terrible, a couple of substitutions later and Arsenal rampage back to 4-4 with a goal after added time at the end of the second half. They go 5-4 up in extra time, but with 4 to go, Reading equalise. Arsenal then score two more to take the win. Sensational game, almost a football-basketball cross exhibition match. Neither midfield had any defensive discipline, so once an attack was broken up at one end, another sweeping move started. End to end stuff for 120 minutes. Eisfeld, who I saw destroy Everton's kids the other week, was sensational, he looks a fantastic prospect. Walcott was fantastic as well, as were both Chamakh and Giroud. McGreary and Roberts were great for Reading.

As an aside, is anyone finding it really difficult to get on this thread of late? It takes an age to load and fails most times.

That lad looked a player, I'd never heard of him before, but he looks like he'll be a really good player in a year or two if he gets decent game time, which you'd imagine he would at Arsenal. Thought Walcott was really good tonight, Arsene should give him a run of games through the middle because he can cause teams real problems with his pace and he's a good finisher too.

I'm finding the thread really difficult to get onto as well, it takes ages to load or quote posts. Maybe because it's so long it takes so long to load?

yes, horrendously slow and hit and miss getting on the site generally

I don't disagree that it's possible that Rodgers could have done as well as Laudrup, I just think it was a bit silly to seemingly make out like it's to be expected that Swansea would step on and improve when history and also the majority of the present shows that very few teams manage to do it even when they do survive the first season.

I still personally believe that if Liverpool finish in the top 8 Rodgers will have done a very good job in the circumstances, particularly if his striking options aren't vastly improved in January.

You are talking about a club that has spent £67.7m on it's top 3 strikers. That's about £15m more than Manchester United spent on their top 3.

Saying finishing in the top 8 if they don't strengthen is quite odd considering the amounts they've wasted.

Why is the amount they've spent relevant? Just because they've spent a lot of money doesn't mean that they've spent it wisely and guarantee that the player's they brought in are better than those who cost less at other clubs. You mention Man Utd, look at their strikers last year - the most expensive could barely get a game.

Also, whilst they might have spent that much on their 3 top strikers, they only have 2 of them at the club, and neither are exactly prolific. Dalglish spent a lot of money poorly and Rodgers has been hampered by that by both inheriting a poor squad and having the purse-strings tightened as a consequence, it's not at all odd to say that he will have done a good job to get them in the top 8. Do you think they have a squad good enough to do better than 7th/8th?

Gutted about going out last night, played much the better football over the 90, scored 2 great goals, but undone ultimately by 3 bad bits of defending and a goal that only just crept in. Chelsea really wanted revenge it seems what with bringing on Oscar and Hazard, turned out to be just too much for Keane and Wootten to handle

Chelsea have a new captain, leader, legend... www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... lbeck.html

Chelsea have a new captain, leader, legend... www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... lbeck.html