Years ago, I watched a Palace Sunderland game that descended into ugliness.

Partly, I thought, because of the refereeing decisions.

A week later, I found out that a bloke from my old school, who now lives in the north, was assigned (by the FA, through an agency) as the driver who takes the referee home from the game.

Riley, I assume, thought he was safe to share his opinions in the safety of the car. He said he hated refereeing palace games because, apparently, they bother the referee.

(Yes, unlike Man United. They never surrounded the referee did they? I'm sure this is a coincidence, but Mike Riley was incredibly sympathetic to Moan United. He might issue a booking to Roy Keane, but only presented with a situation where he couldn't possibly fudge the decision, such as a corpse with a bullet in the back and Keane holding a smoking gun.
I'm surprised they do't sell Mike Riley replica shirts in the Old Trafford club shop.)

My friend, who is Moan United fan and was at the game, said even he could see how this explained Riley's decisions in that Palace Sunderland game.

Now Riley is in charge of referring policy.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think the refereeing system is a fishy corpse that has rotted from the head down.

What do you think?

All I remember from the game in question was that Niall Quinn was playing for Sunderland and showed a great bit of skill for a big man when he scored.

And Daniel Dickhead got sent off. But only after getting away with so many fouls he must have thought he'd been granted immunity.

it's hard refereeing

I've tried it a couple of times

People in amateur football lose their heads as soon as they step onto a football pitch.

If you've ever tried hosting a pub quiz, a similar collective madness overcomes the crowd the minute a competition gets under way. ("Table 7 are looking up the answers on their iPhone!!! That's cheating!"

Having said that, Mike Riley really had it in for Palace