World

Europe

Poland

Howard Webb: The Most Hated Man In Poland.

June 14th, 2008 | By: tomasz | 21 Comments »

If I was Howard Webb I wouldn’t certainly go on holidays to Poland. I wouldn’t even visit Poland in the next few years. In fact, I would resign from refereeing in Euros 2012. Howard Webb is now everybody’s favourite person to hate. Hell, even people who don’t watch football hate him.

The prevailing feeling in Poland is that we were robbed and cheated. Headlines of every newspaper in the country made it clear: “Webb, you robbed us”, “Poland robbed in 93rd minute” etc. It was all fuelled by the players and coaches. Here are the most interesting opinions:
Leo Beenhakker: The referee wanted to show that he’s a big boy and awarded a penalty (…). I’m lost for words about what happenned.
Mariusz Lewandowski: This is a fucking scandal.
Pawel Golanski: I feel cheated as a footballer and as a Pole.
Dariusz Dudka: The referee deprived us of a chance to qualify further.
Jacek Bak: I’m lost for words. He would’ve never called it in England.
Marek Saganowski: If Webb awarded such a penalty in the Premiership he would have been suspended for a couple of months.
Donald Tusk, Polish Prime Minister: I feel like killing somebody. !!!!!!! (holy shit, I voted for him)

This, naturally, led the internet users to create some interesting ‘artwork’ with Webb as a main character. A new take at a BZWBK Bank commercial:

and a Mastercard commercial

At the same time there are many death threats targetted at Webb, which is not really funny. His home address is now well known to all Polish fans and some made a promise to make use of it. Generally, this whole ‘hatred session’ has gone out of hand. As much as I still feel that the penalty was a disgrace and I still feel cheated, I don’t want Howard Webb to occupy my mind more. I want to erase him. Let’s forget about Howard Webb and concentrate on football. We still got one game left and let’s make most of it. Let’s concentrate on the positive feelings that football can bring. Let’s cheer our boys against Croatia. Let’s not let Webb steal the spotlight from the likes of Roger and Artie Boruc. Let’s talk about football. Let the players rule our imagination, not referees.

No more Howard Webb.

Tags: Austria, Bak, Beenhakker, Dudka, Golanski, Group A, Howard Webb, Lewandowski, Poland, Saganowski

Poland World Cup RSS Feed

del.icio.us:Howard Webb: The Most Hated Man In Poland.

digg:Howard Webb: The Most Hated Man In Poland.

newsvine:Howard Webb: The Most Hated Man In Poland.

reddit:Howard Webb: The Most Hated Man In Poland.

fark:Howard Webb: The Most Hated Man In Poland.

Y!:Howard Webb: The Most Hated Man In Poland.

stumbleupon:Howard Webb: The Most Hated Man In Poland.

Comments

By al | June 14th, 2008 at 6:41 am

come on you were crap against germany and you were lucky against austria, you now have a chance to go through.take it and stop all the blame game.why has no one said anything of the guy who thought it would be a good idea to try and rip off the austrians shirt?

By julien | June 14th, 2008 at 7:06 am

Bad penalty. It reminds me of the slack South Korea got in WC 2002.

Posted from United States

By tito | June 14th, 2008 at 7:55 am

Yes, too much of this tournament harkens back to South Korea…

Posted from United States

By peter | June 14th, 2008 at 9:46 am

I heard that the home address that was posted was actually of another older howard webb living in the same village. As was the email.

The thing with death threats is that you do not know which you can take seriously and which you cannot therefore you have to treat every single one seriously which becomes quite annoying to everyone involved in proteting said person.

By Mike | June 14th, 2008 at 12:11 pm

@AL
I think you need to watch the play that got called a penalty again, to try and rip off a shirt you need a closed fist and be pulling, while during the play lewa has a open fist the whole time until the austrian starts falling and then he grabs on the shirt and begins to pull up as to try and keep him up. Gotta say it again a really bad call, and if you were watching the spain sweden game the foul on silva should have been a pk.

Posted from United States

By J.R. | June 14th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

Let’s get something straight – fair or unfair a ref has to be conscious of his actions and this was the end of a game and the penalty was simply not something you’d ever call in any significant contest. Why was the freekick redone in the first place? Why did Bak get a yellow for arguing?

This looked like a fixed match if I’ve ever seen one. “How do I prevent that win? Oh look they’re BREATHING on the Austrians!!!”

Death threats are stupid, the ref was terrible, case closed.

Shameful. Ridiculous. Unfair.
That’s all that this penalty was.

By al | June 14th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

hey we are all alowed our own opinion and i have to disagree with you mike.pulling shirts is far too prevelant in the game now.but thats the beauty of the game lots of talking points and unfortunatly also scapegoats.some of the reporting about the ref is a disgrace,all it takes is one idiot to act on it and someones life is over.

By ccc | June 14th, 2008 at 9:28 pm

My only hope is the in next championship England will be punished in exactly the same conditions (penalty in last minute in hardly foul situation). Then we’ll be able to speak will all supporters of Webb now about honesty, fair decisions, courage and so on.

Posted from Ireland

By Jeremy | June 14th, 2008 at 10:12 pm

Poland wins and Germany plays an Austria team with nothing to play for. Croatia isn’t assured of first place, so they field a strong team. Doesn’t look to good for Poland.

Poland draws Austria, Croatia qualifies first and sends out 8 new players against Poland. Germany plays an Austria team that has a shot to qualify so they are motivated. That’s actually a better scenario for Poland to advance. A Polish win and a German draw puts the Poles through. Much more doable than having to beat a full strength Croatia and rely on an already out Austria to beat Germany.

Of course that call still kind of sucks.

Posted from United States

By peter | June 14th, 2008 at 10:26 pm

A polish win and a german draw does not put the poles through.

Austria needs to win 1-0 and we need to win 2-0 (or by two goals) or austria wins by any other score and we need to win by two more goals then they did.

By Cal | June 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am

The penalty is open to debate but I find the silence from the Polish fans regarding their “offside” goal is deafening.

By drewsky | June 15th, 2008 at 8:54 am

Life is unfair the only thing Poland can do is show em what they got against the mighty Croats.I dont see Roger playin in Poland after this Euro or Boruc at Celtic either.Man United would be a nice spot for Boruc.

Posted from United States

By al | June 15th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

@ccc
how many times have england been on the wrong side of decisions?quite a few the graham taylor holland match for one.stop peddling you petty nationalistic bigoted anti english views on here.a nation damned because of one mans decision.do you adopt this with all nations by any chance.

By Horst Mayer | June 16th, 2008 at 5:13 am

Life is always unfair to Poles. They are the champions – of paranoia and self-pity. No dignity.

By The Raven | June 16th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

If I was a German, I would probably refrain from making generalizations about the character of the citizens of other nations. Just sayin’ is all…

Posted from United States

By Kris | June 17th, 2008 at 8:19 am

It is not about Howard it is about all referees :/

Posted from Poland

By Horst Mayer | June 17th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

I was – if not explicitly then certainly implicitly – referring to many Polish voices heard in these blogs.
Otherwise I would not have been – as indeed I have – supporting a poor Polish family recommended to us by a Catholic priest, with cash and goods for nearly two decades. Just to get your perception in perspective …

By The Raven | June 19th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

Oh, good…’cause I would read this: “Life is always unfair to Poles. They are the champions – of paranoia and self-pity. No dignity.” differently. I’m so happy to see that I was wrong…

Posted from United States

By JUREK | June 19th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

WHOEVER SAID THAT LIFE WAS FAIR? HORSTCHEN IS A BIT CLUMSY IN HIS REACTION BUT HE HAS A POINT. UNFORTUNATELY IT’S TOO MUCH FROM A GERMAN PERSPECTIVE, BUT SO ARE THE COMMENTS OF THOSE SEMI-PATRIOTIC BRAVE POLES WHO WANT TO KILL THE REF. IF THE POLES PLAYED WELL I WOULD SHARE YOUR SORROW, BUT CONSIDERING WHAT WE SAW, I’D RATHER FORGET IT AND MOVE FORWARD.

Posted from Canada

By steve | July 21st, 2008 at 2:43 pm

you were cheated? By who.Your goal was offside and they could have had a penalty earlier.The teams were told what to expect.Try looking closer to home.

Posted from United Kingdom