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David Elleray, a former referee who was also a Geography teacher while he was not busy officiating a football match, was part of an experiment for ITV’s World In Action documentary where he had to wear a microphone around his waist during a Division One match between Arsenal and Millwall back in 1989.
Surprisingly, despite the fact that both of the two teams were informed that referee Elleray was wired-up, the Arsenal management team didn’t inform their players which led to several players abusing the referee during the match.
To make matters worse, when then-skipper Tony Adams’ goal was disallowed, the defender went on to call the referee a cheat out of frustration. This, of course, didn’t sit well with Elleray, who was known for his rather strict approach to the game, called Adams up and gave him a warning, while the microphone tapped to him was recording everything.
During an interview with BBC, Elleray spoke about the incident and called the documentary corrupted for focusing more on the violent part of the match.
“It was a shame the programme was corrupted. The original show looked at violence towards referees, particularly on local parks. They filmed me officiating the top game of the day as well as a local referee to see how we were both treated,” he said.
“I saw a preview which was very balanced, but it was then hijacked to become a witch-hunt of Arsenal. Bleeps were put in to give the impression that players were swearing when they hadn't. They only showed the occasions when there was some sort of dispute between the players and me. They edited out all the good exchanges and gave the impression that Arsenal had behaved appallingly,” he adds.
“They destroyed the opportunity for people to have a really good behind the scenes look at refereeing. A balanced documentary would have given them greater access to referees wearing microphones in the future, which hasn't happened since. And it probably won't for a long time.”
Watch some of the highlights from the controversial match:
