Hackett calls for Riley to quit post
KEITH HACKETT, former boss of the elite Premier League referees, has broken ranks to call for the head of his successor Mike Riley, who has been in charge for five years.
Hackett wants leading official Howard Webb, who took charge of the 2010 World cup final and is now technical director of the Professional Games Match Officials Ltd, to replace Riley following a period of turmoil over how the PGMO run their business.
Hackett was a guest on a BEIN Sports show in Doha hosted by Richard Keys and andy Gray and when asked about changes at the top of the PGMO, replied: ‘Mike Riley should step aside and let Howard Webb take over.’
The PGMO always conduct their business as privately as possibly — not even admitting that a problem with nerves down his leg is what has kept Lee Probert off the match list since the Fa cup final last season. So Hackett, who has also criticised the performance and fitness of referees in his online blog, publicly damning Riley will cause great angst within PGMO. as expected, a PGMO spokesman would not comment on Hackett’s outburst.
The current scrutiny of referees follows Sports agenda’s revelation that Mark clattenburg was banned for leaving a match in his own car to drive to an Ed Sheeran concert and taking a call from crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock.
WITH 53 players on each NFL roster and almost as many attendant coaches and backroom staff, the drenched Wembley pitch was cutting up badly even during the warm-up last night before the Jaguars versus Cowboys game. There were more than 200 people on the surface. So England manager Roy Hodgson (right), opposed to American Football sharing the stadium, will be relieved to know the NFL hierarchy are some way from making up their minds about a Wembley franchise, despite it being an FA priority.
No help for Lancaster
ENGLAND rugby union head coach Stuart Lancaster is resigned to accepting a long-standing international fixture programme over which he had no input. But the RFU, the wealthiest and most powerful union in world rugby, perhaps should have done more to finesse the schedule. This has seen England start a tour of New Zealand last summer before the Premiership final and then face the two best sides — New Zealand and South africa — at the start of the autumn series rather than at the climax. The RFU say the calendar is set by the International Rugby Board in consultation with countries.
TWICKENHAM’S West car park has a long tradition of being the prime spot for the car boot entertaining that is always such a pre-match feature. Yet the RFU, much to the upset of rugby regulars, have carved up the space to greatly limit the room for cars in order to greedily grab yet more commercial income. So a Samsung exhibition of their latest technology, a Guinness bar and a double decker bus drinking facility sadly take up the room that used to be so much part of the car park picnic scene. Bill Beaumont, chairman of the RFU management committee, was one of those having a drinking in the cramped area remaining before the England versus New Zealand game. But — as usual — he wasn’t prepared to comment on the RFU land grab. THE half-hour opening ceremony before the start of rugby World cup, sure to have a London 2012 flavour with so many LOCOG personnel now working for ER2015, has one over-riding concern during the planning stage — not to damage the Twickenham turf just before the big kick off. So expect lasers and lights rather than parades on the protected pitch.
TWICKENHAM made great promotional play about two new, giant screens unveiled at the start of the autumn series. But the new technology wasn’t utilised to show New Zealand’s iconic pre-match Haka — which many disappointed spectators high in the top tiers of the stadium would have wanted to see close up on screen. The RFU said there was no order from the England camp, but it was the call of the screen director who wanted to show fans and the England team’s reaction.