A few years ago I read an excellent book about Italian football and in it there was a section about how a lot of football fans in Italy consider that referees have an inherent bias towards the top clubs.

The theory is that there is a 'psychological slavery' from referees towards the big clubs and was first coined in the 1960's. Basically the idea is that while referees may not be corrupt or obviously bisased per se, it is extremely bad for their careers if they continually award decisions against the big teams and so therefore it naturally leads them to be biased towards them. Journalists in Italy often write after a particularly biased perfromance by a referee in favour of one of the top clubs that he will have 'a good career'.

In Italy there is an obesession with which referees are awarded which games and how the process of selecting referees takes place. Interestingly the last time there was a free ballot to determine referees for games (referees for games were simply drawn out of a hat for each game rather than being 'awarded' games based on perceived performance/ability), a small provincial club Verona won Serie A. the big clubs hated this system and it was soon scrapped.

At the time I read this I dismissed it as largely conspiracy theory nonsense but after this season Im not so sure. I dont think for a minute theres an anti Cardiff bias but Ive seen so many poor decisions given in favour of top six teams, particularly when they are looking at an embarrasing defeat, that Ive come to think there might be something in it.