Appalled Hodgson lashes out

Fulham boss disgusted by referee's treatment

Last updated: 8th May 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Appalled Hodgson lashes out

Hodgson: Lashing out

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Fulham boss Roy Hodsgon is "appalled" at the torrent of abuse aimed at Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo following Chelsea's exit from the UEFA Champions League.

Hodgson, who managed Viking FK in Norway for a brief spell, feels the attacks made on the under-fire official are completely unjustified.

Since the controversial match earlier this week, Ovrebo has been subject to death threats and an enormous amount of criticism for his controversial handling of the crunch tie at Stamford Bridge.

Hodgson, though, feels the torrent of abuse launched at the Norwegian official is unnecessary.

Appalling

The Cottagers boss also hit out at Jamie Redknapp after he questioned the decision to put a referee from the Norwegian league in charge of such a high profile game.

"I find it quite appalling that referees should be under death threats," said the Fulham boss.

Hodgson, who boasts managerial stints in Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark and Finland, then defended the rights of smaller countries to be involved on European football's biggest stages.

"Do you want to go down the Jamie Redknapp route - only England, Italy and Spain count, everywhere else is no good?

Fair's fair

"There's 60 countries in Europe. Do we say to the other 57: 'Sorry pal, you're not Premier League'.

"Norway is good enough. The average crowd in Norway is 15,000 and that's in a country of four million. We can only average 25,000 in a country of 60 million people.

"What are we going to do in future? Are we going to make certain because the Premier League has loads and loads of money if you are not in England then forget all about it?

"Are we going to say 'You're from Spain, you might be just about okay but the rest of you, Switzerland, France, Poland, Russia, Austria, Ukraine, Slovenia, Serbia, you don't count?' It's nonsense."

League campaign

Concentrating on matters closer to home, Hodgson went on to assess Fulham's campaign with just three games remaining.

Still chasing seventh place and possible entry into Europe, Hodgson admits that he is looking for victory in each of their remaining fixtures.

Looking to Saturday's home game against Aston Villa, Hodgson said: "Villa are fifth in the league which is a remarkable performance.

"They have re-found their form towards the end of the season and we are prepared for a very tough game against a team who are above us in the league.

"We are aware it is not going to be easy for us to get that seventh position. We have some very stiff competition from the teams around us but there's three games to play and we will try and win them.

"If we got those results, finished the season on a high and got into the Europa Cup that would be a great achievement but we are very much aware we have three major stumbling blocks in front of us in Aston Villa, Newcastle and Everton."