Exaggeration has ever been a part of soccer; perhaps team officials take every little decision, which went against them, as a conspiracy to debar them. Sometimes, these officials lost their control and start condemning everything related to a match, including referees, opponents, and all. This is something that recently happened with Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert when he lost an important match to Chelsea by 2-1. Their performance throughout the match was commendable; everyone saw this, but there were two moments when, according to him, they should have been awarded penalties: one is when ball touched John Terry’s arm in a confrontation with Gabby Agbonlahor and second when Branislav Ivanovic deliberately elbowed Christian Benteke. According to Lambert, Ivanovic should have been sent off for his nonsense behavior; a mistake which cost them a match coz the defender later scored the winner for Blues. The Scot specifically questioned the performance of referee Kevin Friend and his unconditional support to José Mourinho men.
Even, he did not stop there and organized a press meet after the match where he pointed out how they were strategically defeated by Chelsea and referee together, he said, “It’s a sending-off, it is there for everybody to see. He clearly elbowed Christian. The penalty was a penalty, everybody saw that. Gabby has won the header and it has hit John’s hand. I’m pretty sure if it had been down the other end, it would have been given. The referee missed two huge moments. How can you miss a decision of that magnitude? It is beyond me. My team were brilliant. I don’t think we deserved to lose that game.”
His outburst on referees is taken as a serious violation by the FA who investigated the matter and now Villa boss is slapped with a £8,000 fine. They issued a statement on their website informing their disciplinary action, it reads as, “Following an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing, Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has been fined £8,000 in relation to post-match media comments he made after his side’s game against Chelsea on 21 August 2013. The misconduct charge, which Lambert admitted, was that the comments implied the match referee was motivated by bias; and/or brought the game into disrepute, in contravention of FA Rule E3(1).”
Actually, performance wise, the match was rather a nail biting affair where both teams were aggressive to take the final lead, and that is why, when a wrong decision caused Villa a defeat, Lambert lost his control and ranted on the referee.