One of the most well-known referees around, Howard Webb, has decided to call time on his career after 25 years as an official, and the internet is having a ball with it.

A distinctive figure of authority on the pitch thanks to his muscular build, Howard Webb has a had a distinguished career as a referee, which has included presiding over a World Cup final, amongst his many other achievements. However, the internet doesn't care about that, rather they only want to make bad jokes, so when he announced today that he was retiring, Twitter went in to overdrive. 

In case you're not familiar with it, or you tend not to indulge in conspiracy theories, referee Howard Webb is not only one of the most highly-respected refs, but fans of certain teams also seem to think he has it in for them, while many have accused him of showing a bias towards Manchester United in recent years. That theme is a recurring one today in most of the tweets that have greeted the news of his retirement. 

Former Manchester United captain and star Rio Ferdinand even saw the funny side, offering a retweet of some of the many jokes about his close links with the side.

 

 

Even the official Manchester City account couldn't resist having a sly little dig at him, given that he's so often linked with their neighbours and bitter rivals.

Someone in charge at the official ITV Twitter account today may also be in for a bit of a telling off after they tweeted out that Webb was a club legend at United in their piece on his retirement.

 

Webb is headed to become Technical Director at Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PMGOL), but before he hung up the boots, whistle and watch, he did sign off in style with a cheeky penalty at a charity match just a few days ago. 

Back to the conspiracy drawing board for the football fans out there who don't support United anyway, at least they have a few weeks to come up with something before the new season starts.