By Aston
March 16 2006

Ipswich Town manager Joe Royle has blasted the quality of refereeing Town have had this season.

Royle: “I think if you ask anyone in the League if we are physical then you would get a lot of smiles and head shaking, we have had five sent-off and in four of those incidents simulation has been involved.

 

“It's a worrying trend in football now and while the foreign players may have brought it into our game, there are a lot of English players at it now and harassing referees.

 

“I have never told my players to dive or surround officials, maybe we are naïve or Corinthian in our attitudes.

 

“I don't know where to turn in the feeling that we have not had a fair crack of the whip from referees this season. It's left us all frustrated and I will be writing to the head of referees and making my feelings known.

 

“I would like to get all our refs together and send them over to Italy to see Pierluigi Collina in Italy, not to get a lesson about the laws of the game but to get lessons on how to handle people, how to handle a game, how to man manage - all the things that are not in the rule book.”

 

Source: Ipswich Town – the official website.

 

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