Former referee Howard Webb has finally hit back at claims which dogged his career that he was biased towards Manchester United.
Rival
fans constantly called into question Webb's professionalism and
Liverpool's Ryan Babel was even fined £10,000 for linking to a picture
of him mocked up in a United shirt on Twitter following their FA Cup
defeat in 2011.
But
Webb, who retired from officiating last week to take up the role of
technical director for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited,
strenuously denies he ever gave United any favour.
'There's no
element of truth in it,' Webb said. 'It's not something that affected me
or played on my mind at all. It wasn't hurtful. Much of it is
tongue-in-cheek, of course.
'What
does play on my mind is when I’ve made a mistake, particularly an
influential one that has affected the outcome of a game. I’d be
dishonest if I said it didn’t bother me.
'One
newspaper listed the five games I’d want to forget over the course of
my career. Well, there’s more than five. But against the backdrop of
more than 500 professional games – I can think of many top professional
footballers who have made plenty of mistakes but are still top
professional footballers.'
Webb
was considered by FIFA and the Premier League as one of the top
referees in the world during his career. He officiated in two World Cups
and was handed the finals of the 2010 World Cup and Champions League.
But that did not stop English fans questioning his integrity throughout
his career.
Webb
added: 'If our integrity is questioned by people in a serious way,
that’s a different matter. The level of integrity we have as a group is
really high.'
Webb is known to be a supporter of his hometown club Rotherham United.
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