• The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...

    Get involved!

Competition Is It Match Fixing?

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

Are Referee's Reffing Us Out of The Premier League?


  • Total voters
    151
It’s not pure corruption, I think it’s a combination of bias and incompetence.

It’s easy to make calls against us because we are shit and no one feels we are robbed because there seems to be a common sentiment that if a team plays poorly then they deserve to lose, regardless of expecting fair refereeing.

PL refs are allowed to be shit and are backed up by the refs association. Problem stems from the ridiculous “clear and obvious” rule, which allows 2 refs to give different calls on 2 identical pushes in the back, and they can both somehow say they are right.

This sets up the stage for them to call the same play differently for whichever teams they want and they have the excuses ready for it.
 
It certainly feels like we are biased against yes.

One thing to bear in mind is that VAR is there to try and correct absolute errors by the referee, not enforce perfect consistency across all games. So for debatable soft fouls the VAR sides with the ref. Which usually means we get screwed.
 
Lol we were a tag along to that. All the top 6 had prints over it.

Spurs are worth money to the prem. They don’t want us down.

 
None of us can provide any evidence of match fixing or corruption. But that doesn't mean it isn't happening.
We've seen it happen in other leagues on a large scale. Italy being the prime example.
Just two examples;

And I bet my bollocks to a barn dance there is more that goes on that we never find out about.

If you are a player and somebody comes to you offering £1 million pound to give away a penalty or an own goal, moneys into an untraceable account. Are you telling me every play is going to resist that? You put human nature and a fat wodge of money up against professionalism and principle and the former usually wins.

Betting is huge global business.

As for refereeing/officials I think there could easily be a corruption case, but I also think that refs are influenced by many factors. How many times have you seen it in a game where the home crowd is baying at the referee after he makes a call they disagree with and seconds later he gives one the other way?

I believe officials are clearly influenced by the crowd, influenced by the size of the clubs they are reffing and influenced by the narrative. I don't think this can be disputed.

And there is even proof of this. Remember Clattenburg coming out after he retired on the "battle of the bridge" and talking about how and why he reffed that game the way he did?


You can't show me three identical pushing incidents Ekiteke, Dragusin, Gabriel. Two goals given against us and one dissallowed for us and tell me its not suspect. They have the benefit of infinite replays and a million different angles if they choose to use them.

It happens too frequently in the PL to be dismissed. Look at the Cunha penalty at the weekend.

Too many instances for it just to be "bad luck" or "good luck"

And as for the bollox that it all evens out, does it fuck.

There is also the pressure that certain clubs and fanbases exert due to their size. Liverpool are renowned for raking the PGMOL over the coals and there was a period where every week they were being issued a grovelling apology by the PGMOL. You would have to be fairly thick or niave as fuck to think that doesn't impact the men and women in black and the guy in the VAR van come match day. Of course no concidence whatsoever that Liverpool won the league that season with decision after decision after decision.

I'm not saying that its the only factor in them winning it, they were also a fucking good side. But how many games when they were struggling did they suddenly get a soft pen and turn the game on its head.

You need a lot of luck and the rub of the green to win a Premier league. And officials are a huge part of that.
 
Last edited:
Just to create drama?

Drama is worth billions to them

And they aren’t risking shit. They’re untouchable and they know it

The drama of spurs getting relegated isn’t worth billions to anyone. Go track how many people tune in to our games .. I bet it’s fucking less!

Just a stupid nonsensical motive for widespread corruption. And of course they risk shit, if there’s a single whistleblower and it got in to the press then they’d all lose their jobs .. and be done for match fixing!
 
It certainly feels like we are biased against yes.

One thing to bear in mind is that VAR is there to try and correct absolute errors by the referee, not enforce perfect consistency across all games. So for debatable soft fouls the VAR sides with the ref. Which usually means we get screwed.

That's a whole other bug bear.
Refs not giving penalties because they have NFI, and then VAR not even bothering to check because they "assume" it was seen by their mate and their mate must never make mistakes cause he's their mate.

I personally would swap associations with European leagues and kick every last British ref abroad.
They can't act in an unbias manner so they cannot be allowed to ref here.

See how their bias and ineptitude does in Turkey or Greece.
They'd get lynched.
 
The drama of spurs getting relegated isn’t worth billions to anyone. Go track how many people tune in to our games .. I bet it’s fucking less!

Just a stupid nonsensical motive for widespread corruption. And of course they risk shit, if there’s a single whistleblower and it got in to the press then they’d all lose their jobs .. and be done for match fixing!


Sky have a load of Championship games now don't they?

What would happen to Sky subscriptions, the viewing figures and advertising revenue for Spurs games in the Championship?

:gallashmm:
 
Last edited:
The drama of spurs getting relegated isn’t worth billions to anyone. Go track how many people tune in to our games .. I bet it’s fucking less!

Just a stupid nonsensical motive for widespread corruption. And of course they risk shit, if there’s a single whistleblower and it got in to the press then they’d all lose their jobs .. and be done for match fixing!
The drama of us being in a relegation battle is a great way to sell nothing games and create attention for meaningless games

A whistleblower could come out and nothing would happen. Clattenburg essentially admitted they were helping Leicester win the league because everyone loved the story
 
Some examples as to why I think we're being cheated.

Watch Paquette push VDV into KWP before pulling VDV back.
Result - goal disallowed.

Red
G8oZTthXQAAI9uc.jpg


not red
virgil-van-dijk-tackle-on-solanke-no-foul-v0-3xr7wVWPwRtTTFySkOnhtEmrgh5Bx2JSM8eP8UOCEXA.jpg


Goal
hq720.jpg


Not a goal
images


Goal

HCVMq1dWoAEgFvQ.jpg



You only need to watch a full 90 minute match to see how bias against us the refereeing is.
Within 5 minutes of the kick off yesterday, the ref gave a free kick against RKM after he was held back by Bassey and then didn't give anything when their RB used both hands to drag Gray down.
Opening 5 minutes.
And it happens all match every match in the PL.
No we are just an awful team.
Definitely the worst coached in the PL.
The only reason we are not bottom is that we have a slight edge in individual quality vs the other shit teams.
 
There's no conspiracy but there is definitely bias against us. The three push decisions show that. I don't subscribe to 'if we just played better we wouldn't have to rely on referee decisions'. Woolwich could have caved if we got to 2-2 and Liverpool probably don't beat us if the Ekitike goal doesn't stand.
 
I don't believe its on purpose or deliberate match fixing. But there is very obviously a massive bias going against us.

We know the media and pundits are against us but this year it feels like this has massively crept into the PGMOL. I can't compare to all other 19 teams in the league but its a fact that we are being refereed totally different to Woolwich. Its gone beyond embarrassing and at the stage where you could easily convince yourself that its being done deliberately. I'm not there yet, I just think its a mixture of bias and momentum.

Romero gets booked for things Gabriel doesn't get booked for. Raya gets frees for things Vicario doesn't. We get red cards alot for stuff other teams don't. We get goals given against us that get disallowed when we score the same goals. We don't get any penalties even though we have conceded plenty of soft penatlies (Bentancur away to Newcastle being the most extreme example).

I don't think its deliberate or match fixing. I think its just momentum and bias. Its easy to give the decision against spurs every time atm. Everyone is enjoying the mess we are in and its easy to give decisions against us that keep playing into that narrative. Referees act on instinct. Gabriel goes down and Peter Banks immediately whistles for a free out, we all know if that is the other way around then the goal gets given. Peter Banks won't admit that but I guarantee you his instinct and momentum is to allow the goal if its Woolwich scoring against spurs. Its just the easy thing to do right now. Declan Rice is wresting a player yesterday and because of that his arm is in an unnatural position when he handballs it - 2 reasons to give a penalty.

Does a referee want to punish declan rice? He's prefer not to. If its a not 100% conclusive then they'll let Rice away with it. Its the easy thing to do. If that is Romero, Bentancur or any other spurs player? Its given as a penalty every single time. He might even give Romero two yellow cards for both offenses because it suits the narrative! The PGMOL are totally biased and once you have a reputation against you then you are fucked and right now we are fucked. Its easy to give every 50/50 decisions against us and thats what has been happening all season.

I guarantee you if we play chelsea yesterday and but in the same performance Woolwich put in. We'd have conceded 2 penalties, have had atleast one of the goals disallowed and no chance they send a player off for 2 quick bookings against us. And you guessed it - we lose to chelsea at home. Suits the narrative. Match fixing? I don't think so. But referees allowing biases to effect them? Yes.
Yeah this is it - it’s easy to give decisions against us in a way you just can’t get other sides.

If Jose was our manager he would be going ape shit over this inconsistency - but who is here currently that will moan about it? It’s all too easy and again shows there is fuck all leadership in any capacity at the club
 
There's no conspiracy but there is definitely bias against us. The three push decisions show that. I don't subscribe to 'if we just played better we wouldn't have to rely on referee decisions'. Woolwich could have caved if we got to 2-2 and Liverpool probably don't beat us if the Ekitike goal doesn't stand.
Yeah with what you are describing it stops being a conspiracy because they aren't activley working together against us, and more just systemic bias.

I think it just boils down to a lot of officials really not liking our club for whatever reason, maybe they see our fanbase as entitled or consider us arrogant or something. I don't know

I do sometimes wonder if the Jewish angle of our club comes into it, Events in recent times have highlighted how wide spread anti-semitism is in this country. But even that feels a little far fetched.

There is some systemic bias against us there though. It's palpable.
 
There's no conspiracy but there is definitely bias against us. The three push decisions show that. I don't subscribe to 'if we just played better we wouldn't have to rely on referee decisions'. Woolwich could have caved if we got to 2-2 and Liverpool probably don't beat us if the Ekitike goal doesn't stand.

I would argue that if a large number of match officials are bias against us, then that's technically a conspiracy.
Maybe not designed to get us relegated, but it's a general effort to shit on us for a joint belief.
 
None of us can provide any evidence of match fixing or corruption. But that doesn't mean it isn't happening.
We've seen it happen in other leagues on a large scale. Italy being the prime example.
Just two examples;

And I bet my bollocks to a barn dance there is more that goes on that we never find out about.

If you are a player and somebody comes to you offering £1 million pound to give away a penalty or an own goal, moneys into an untraceable account. Are you telling me every play is going to resist that? You put human nature and a fat wodge of money up against professionalism and principle and the former usually wins.

Betting is huge global business.

As for refereeing/officials I think there could easily be a corruption case, but I also think that refs are influenced by many factors. How many times have you seen it in a game where the home crowd is baying at the referee after he makes a call they disagree with and seconds later he gives one the other way?

I believe officials are clearly influenced by the crowd, influenced by the size of the clubs they are reffing and influenced by the narrative. I don't think this can be disputed.

And there is even proof of this. Remember Clattenburg coming out after he retired on the "battle of the bridge" and talking about how and why he reffed that game the way he did?


You can't show me three identical pushing incidents Ekiteke, Dragusin, Gabriel. Two goals given against us and one dissallowed for us and tell me its not suspect. They have the benefit of infinite replays and a million different angles if they choose to use them.

It happens too frequently in the PL to be dismissed. Look at the Cunha penalty at the weekend.

Too many instances for it just to be "bad luck" or "good luck"

And as for the bollox that it all evens out, does it fuck.

There is also the pressure that certain clubs and fanbases exert due to their size. Liverpool are renowned for raking the PGMOL over the coals and there was a period where every week they were being issued a grovelling apology by the PGMOL. You would have to be fairly thick or niave as fuck to think that doesn't impact the men and women in black and the guy in the VAR van come match day. Of course no concidence whatsoever that Liverpool won the league that season with decision after decision after decision.

I'm not saying that its the only factor in them winning it, they were also a fucking good side. But how many games when they were struggling did they suddenly get a soft pen and turn the game on its head.

You need a lot of luck and the rub of the green to win a Premier league. And officials are a huge part of that.
Probably shouldn’t say it but I always had suspicions of Lloris especially in those seasons we were challenging. Some of those goals he let in against Chelsea and Woolwich in particular didn’t look right. Thought it at the time and still have that nagging feeling something went on there. Mistake is mistake but a couple of the goals looked Hans seagers like. That Sanches goal at whl was suspicious as fuck for me. It’s more than possible certain clubs and groups pay certain players off the record. I’m sure of it.
 
Back
Top