Corrupt officiating

[maverick180]

"A point that seems to of been missed Antonio’s goal could not be seen from any angle whether it definitely came off his stomach or his arm, therefore should never have been disallowed However VAR made the decision to straight up disallow it Souceks goal definitely could be seen to strike his arm, that was the one that was the correct decision However, VAR called over the ref this time to make the decision Does nobody else find that highly suspicious? For me that is what someone would do who’s already made a bent decision and not trying to further put themself in the spotlight"

[chim chim cha boo]

"Personally I never wanted VAR to start with but the standard of refereeing in the richest league in the world has never been anywhere near good enough. I remember away at Newcastle years ago one of their players hit the ball from outside the box straight at a very offside Scott Parker to the point where he had to jump over it, Rob Green (I think) was completely unsighted and the goal stood because it was deemed that he'd not interfered with play. He JUMPED over the fucking ball! Leaving aside the conversation that the game is bent (and I am sure it is), refs are not really fit enough to keep up with play any more as it's a much faster game, ALL of them have a God complex and you can almost see them getting a boner as they stride pompously toward a pitchside monitor knowing there are 65,000 people watching him and countless millions more watching on TV around the world. I honestly think that there are refs who think people say 'ooh we've got Mike Oliver reffing today, I like watching him, he adds gravity and theatre to the game'. Even 'all those world famous millionaire footballers out there but I'm the most important person because I'M IN CHARGE' and 'ultimately its ME who gets to choose who wins titles and cups'. Then you get the fucking pundits who say shit like 'I've seen them given', 'Alverez will think himself a bit unlucky with that decision, and the oldest lie in the game, 'they balance them out over the season'."

[only1billybonds]

Anyone notice the ref in the Celtic Rangers game? One of his kit sponsors was Spec savers. Made me giggle.

[nerd]

"Wolves player was stupid to stand there and was interfering with play no matter what anyone says , he thought he was being smart and a yard offside . hardly the worst decision ever , the player was an idiot and cost them a point , yet all blame the officials who got it right . We had one chalked off the same but it was earlier in the game so no furor."

[gph]

"""The best point made was that if that can be classed interfering with play, all a GK has to do is move and stand behind the nearest player and its a free out everytime. "" Is it even a good point? Standing behind the nearest player only works if that player is offside, and a keeper busy trying to figure out which players are off is going to be letting in an awful lot of goals."

[happygilmore]

"fraser 4:16 Sun Apr 7 I wouldn't use Mike Dean as a yardstick for correct referring. The best point made was that if that can be classed interfering with play, all a GK has to do is move and stand behind the nearest player and its a free out everytime. The game is fucked enough with general VAR interference"

[claypole]

"I watched a bit of the Arsenal game and have never seen so many players throw themselves to the floor. I would love to see retrospective punishment issued to the players involved. Leicester pretty much won a title on the back of initiated contact, Vardy was a master at it."

[BRANDED]

"VAR's primary goal seems to be to add extra interest, intrigue and excitement to the televised game. Its fucking gash in the stadium."

[ludo21]

"Limit VAR to the automated offside system (as used on the continent) and have one VAR official who is given 30 seconds to see if the referee has made a 'clear and obvious error'... if he thinks he has the ref is sent to the monitor to determine for himself if he thinks he has made a mistake. e.g. the 2nd Newcastle penalty. I can't remember if that was given on the pitch, don't think it was? If so it clearly wasn't a clear and obvious error as the clear consensus subsequently is that it shouldn't have been a penalty. The VAR decision making process shouldn't be 'was it a penalty' it should be 'did the ref make a CLEAR & OBVIOUS error'."

[Manuel]

"My main gripe is that it goes out of it's way to look to disallow goals and is essentially now refereeing games, and what comes with that is the ref's are mainly off the hook, nobody talks about the ref's much now."

[ludo21]

"threesixty - agreed, could easily have a foreign VAR team... no need to even be in the country."

[threesixty]

The issue with VAR is a) when it is called in for use is completely subjective. The phrase “clear and obvious” error is a meaningless phrase. If this were Arsenal / Liverpool or Man City going for the title does anyone believe that disallowed goal wouldn’t have gone to VAR? It’s a joke. b) it can only be “reliably” used for off sides as that is objective. But then it gets over used to rule out goals that are a milimetere off side. No fans want that. c) when facing “lesser sides (I.e. us!) VAR operators have a habit of looking for more issues to disallow a goal. I think I’ve seen at least 3 separate incidents looked at for ages trying to find a way to get our goal rules out. If it’s meant to help out the ref what ref is thinking about 3 incidents in a run up to a goal? VAR is basically abused and weaponised by the officials and the league to shape the competition as much as they can in my view. Some of the inconsistencies can’t just be down to basic errors. There is a psychology to how it is run that seems to make it predictable as to what decisions will be enforced and what won’t. I think the VAR team should be a completely different set of refs that have no relationship with the refs in the pitch. Would be even better if they were foreign refs doing the VAR. It’s pretty clear that their personal relationships distort the process. I think some refs have even admitted it.

[Side of Ham]

Yep it’s instigated more gamesmanship rather than take your chances to have a pop at goal….run into the area with enough pace and clip something to go down and you’re given a clear shot at goal from the resulting penalty…..the top teams now buy the best at cheating as well…..

[ludo21]

"One of my main issues with VAR is the ' well there was contact, however minimal, so it is a penalty' etc... No surprise that there are more and more incidences of players diving to the floor at the slightest touch or instigating contact. Ben White yesterday v Brighton did an horrendus fall to the ground clutching his face that deserved a red card. Also watched some of Norwich v Ipswich... the Norwich striker, Sargeant, was in on goal with just the keeper to beat but clearly left a trailing foot to make contact with the defender behind him and went down. Fucking idiot wasn't even in the penalty area (was in the D)... didn't get his 'foul' and missed his chance to score. Looked a dead cert foul on tv but the slow motion showed the ref was spot on, the player instigated it. No VAR in the championship and the ref had a great game in a heated local derby. Had VAR reviewed that incident I can imagine a red card being given as there was contact (instigated by the attacker) which would have been a travesty."

[BRANDED]

its not subjective if it follows the word of the rule. Ultimately the rules should create a fair game and a fair result. My feeling is relying on good decisions by the officials is the wrong way to look at it UNLESS a player or team is simulating or cheating. Unfortunately so many key decisions are marginal .

[zico]

"They have to re-write the rules to make it black and white. Problem is many rules are subjective but in the days before VAR they were subjective for just the man in the middle. Now it's also the idiot at Stockley Park to two people ""having an opinion"". I'm not one for accidental handball being an offence by the way and not advocating this but if handball was just handball regardless of deliberate or not or arm position it would be far easier to tell."

[dax47988]

People are probably too shocked that a dodgy decision has gone our way............

[Coffee]

:-) (They're checking the replay)

[stewie griffin]

Interesting silence this week

[RootsRadical]

"At best the Ref & VAR were Homers. Let them / Gimmares get away with countless fouls then booked Soucek for his first offence. The reckless Burn lunge at Kudos that denied a goal scoring opportunity was deemed fair, not even checked by VAR. Seen many players sent off for less. 2nd penalty is never ever a penalty no matter what law or interpretation of it is cited, if anything it's a foul on Phillips. Scandalous decision!"

[frank_booth]

Havertz just got booted by Lewis in the exact same manner as Gordon and Phillips yesterday. Wasn’t even a foul. Fucking joke of a league.

[DukeofDevo]

"irisiris95 7:16 Sun Mar 31 Clattenburg in the MoS says no Pen, Gordon initiated contact! If the ref couldn’t see that even after looking at it on screen he shouldn’t be officiating! Having said that taking off Antonio again and bringing in the ineffective Phillips gave our opponents the initiative again Moyes as said it didn’t work so hopefully that’s the last we see of Phillips!"

[DukeofDevo]

"irisiris95 7:16 Sun Mar 31 Clattenburg in the MoS says no Pen, Gordon initiated contact! If the ref couldn’t see that even after looking at it on screen he shouldn’t be officiating! Having said that taking off Antonio again and bringing in the ineffective Phillips gave our opponents the initiative again Moyes as said it didn’t work so hopefully that’s the last we see of Phillips!"

[irisiris95]

The officiating is a total farce now. Biased rubbish. VAR just adds another layer of drama now which does my head in. And for the record I was ok with the first penalty but the second never. The game's done

[RBshorty]

100 Bent Ref’s.!

[zico]

"Three sixty - From the Rules of the Game. In the rules it states - Careless is when a player shows a lack of attention or consideration when making a challenge or acts without precaution. No disciplinary sanction is needed • Reckless is when a player acts with disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, an opponent and must be cautioned • Using excessive force is when a player exceeds the necessary use of force and/or endangers the safety of an opponent and must be sent off"