THE looking-glass world of the Premier League has claimed its latest victim this week, blind-sided by the random gunfire of the moral sniper.

On the long, long list of offensive, ignorant and patronising comments that match officials are subjected to, “Can you believe that? A female linesman. Women don’t know the offside rule”, is surely one of the least offensive.

After all, this is a man who said in a 2007 newspaper interview “Referees hate me, but I don’t lose any sleep over that“ before adding “I hate these people who condemn everything and never give you a reason why, but with referees I have never been that bothered, to be quite honest.”

But this media firestorm is a nonsense and hides some of the very profound and cancerous issues that affect the professional game.

Take the Premier League’s High Court petition to block a move by HM Revenue and customs to get the football creditors’ rule scrapped.

The rule means all football debts – everything from players’ wages to transfer fees – must be paid first.

The taxman rightly believes this is unfair and has sought to challenge it. The Premier League has said it will “robustly“ defend its position in court, with a hearing scheduled for February 15.

It isn’t just football that has left its obligations behind. The owners of Wrexham-based rugby league club Crusaders went into administration at the end of last season.

Its list of unsecured creditors, which total more than £2m, include Wirral University Teaching Hospital (£1,321), Welsh Ambulance Services (£1.683), St John Ambulance (£463) and Disability Wales (£344). A fraction of the £2m-plus, but important funds to those organisations.

There are debts to private hospitals, including those in Wirral and St Helens, as well as doctors, small companies, and the taxman, who was owed £440,353.

In this time of public spending cuts why should a rugby club owe HMRC all that money? HMRC is after all only the organisation with the job to collect what is owed to all of us so it can be spent on our behalf on schools, roads, hospitals and the rest.

The arrogance of sports clubs and a lot of people within sport would make bankers’ blush. The people of Wrexham should go to the ground and demand the money they are owed, just like the people of Portsmouth should demand the £19.2m that was left owing to the taxman.

The dozens of other sports clubs that have collapsed in recent years have got away with hundreds of millions of pounds owed to the public. A public, it is always worth remembering, that the vast majority of whom don’t care about sport and don’t see its nebulous benefits to society.

Clubs, like commentators, would do well to pause and reflect on whether what they are doing is the right thing.

It is only fair that The Last Word goes to Andy Gray, so here’s one more quote from that 2007 interview.

He said: “My job depends on my performance and a referee’s job should depend on his.”

Well Sian Massey didn’t drop any clangers on Saturday. Unlike Gray, who finally got his wish to be judged on his performance.