I’m taking aim at ‘shooting’ charge

Stuck in gridlock at Liverpool Lime Street station last week, the cab driver and I agreed that whoever designed the new one-way system for taxis and drop-offs should be shot. We didn’t mean it literally, though. It’s a figure of speech. A very poor job has been done and we were steaming. this was the point Darren Ferguson, manager of Doncaster, was making about the referee Andy Baines. critical of refereeing standards generally following a draw with Plymouth, Ferguson was asked what could be done. ‘Shoot them, it would be a good idea,’ he said. Of course he wasn’t serious. Ferguson called it a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ remark but it wasn’t even that, really. It was a harmless turn of phrase. that Ferguson has since been forced to clarify that he ‘does not advocate violence against officials’ is quite ridiculous. If he is like most British citizens he would not even know how or where to get a gun, let alone advocate using one. Maybe in the united States facetious remarks about shooting officials must be guarded against, but not here. Nevertheless, the Football League, ever ready with a sledgehammer lest a nut rolls past, have charged Ferguson with bringing the game into disrepute. It is preposterous that managers are required to attend press conferences, yet are sanctioned for speaking in a way the man in the street perfectly understands.