Angry Fans

The Irish Examiner’s football correspondent Liam Mackey returns from a warm weather camp boasting a nice tan and vowing to be nicer to Cork Blue.

The inbox is thankfully free of rugby comment but there is plenty of ire remaining on the island to direct towards the likes of a certain ‘mincing mummy’s boy’ operating around Old Trafford, Liverpool, the television paymasters at Sky Sports and Setanta along with the soap operas of Stamford Bridge and White Hart Lane.

Letter of the week goes to Waterford’s Patrick Mullinger for his comments on the timing of Premier League games. Your prize is on its way to the sunny south east.

BOTH UEFA and Fifa say that the balance of doubt on offside must be given to the attacking team. So why aren’t Premier League officials following that ruling? A few weeks ago Chelsea had a goal disallowed against Blackburn which probably was a contributory factor to the departure of José Mourinho. Now Steve Bruce is saying that he is worried about this future after a legitimate Birmingham goal was ruled out.

I have been saying for a long time that the officiating problem isn’t mainly with referees (although it is with some of them) but with the referee’s assistants. They simply aren’t up to scratch.

Liam Duffy, Blackrock, by email

The rest of today’s Angry Fans column is in the Irish Examiner newspaper and will appear here tomorrow.