Match officials: Bent, incompetent or just trying to do their best.

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If Forrest (or any other Club) believes there is a conflict of interest they have the opportunity to raise it as a concern, the officials will then be swapped, this happens with other matches and has resulted in officials being moved to different games. It's really not that hard.

PL clubs shouldn't have to raise such a concern, PGMOL need to use some fucking common sense to hire someone who has a direct conflict of interest in a match, why is that so difficult to grasp? Happens in every other walk of life, in every other job but why not the PGMOL?
 
how do you know the officials will be swapped? you're speculating. This is the official on VAR we are talking about here and not the on field referee where this has actually happened.

This all stinks tbh. Apparently last season they swpped the referee of an Ipswich game because he was a Sheffield Wednesday fan who were competing for promotion with Ipswich and they only did so because Ipswich requested them to do so. I mean, are you telling me they were not aware of this fact prior to the request? or that they thought it was perfectly fine? fucking stinks.

Yeah exactly I don't know why he's trying to argue against such an OBVIOUS issue lol, a child will tell you that if you have officials that support a team and you're involved in a match which can inadvertently change your teams fortunes, there's going to be some bias there.
 
how do you know the officials will be swapped? you're speculating. This is the official on VAR we are talking about here and not the on field referee where this has actually happened.

This all stinks tbh. Apparently last season they swpped the referee of an Ipswich game because he was a Sheffield Wednesday fan who were competing for promotion with Ipswich and they only did so because Ipswich requested them to do so. I mean, are you telling me they were not aware of this fact prior to the request? or that they thought it was perfectly fine? fucking stinks.
Because every Ref has already declared who they support, this has been done to avoid a conflict of interest and is used every single game when allocating the ref. It is also done to avoid any conspiracy theorists making it an issue and the news being about the ref rather than the game, it actually helps them. But it still doesn't stop the tin foil-hatted football fans. Anthony Tailor is listed as an Altrimham fan but BOTH City and Utd fans claim he supports their rival loooool!!! Despite the fact that Altrimham FC have come out and confirmed he's a season ticket holder had has been for many, many years.

Swapping, selecting refs for games and checking them against who they support happens every single game. Now I don't know if this same allocation happens for those working on VAR but that should really matter because it's the ref who makes the calls not VAR.

Your last para is just confirming that a club has the right to raise a concern and that upon hearing the concern it swapped out an official, you're literally giving an example of a successful outcome for all those concerned, he was swapped.
 
PL clubs shouldn't have to raise such a concern, PGMOL need to use some fucking common sense to hire someone who has a direct conflict of interest in a match, why is that so difficult to grasp? Happens in every other walk of life, in every other job but why not the PGMOL?
Mate EVERY official has to divulge who they support, the PGMOL check this against every game they assign a ref to.
 
Mate EVERY official has to divulge who they support, the PGMOL check this against every game they assign a ref to.

That's literally THE point, if they know who they support then why are they hiring those officials for matches that conflict with the team they support and have the power to make decisions that benefit their own team?
 
That's literally THE point, if they know who they support then why are they hiring those officials for matches that conflict with the team they support and have the power to make decisions that benefit their own team?
I have no idea if those vetting the list included those on VAR that day or not, I can only assume not, possibly because they are on VAR and not the ref, VAR doesn't make decisions, the ref does. (how VAR is operated though is a joke).
 
I have no idea if those vetting the list included those on VAR that day or not, I can only assume not, possibly because they are on VAR and not the ref, VAR doesn't make decisions, the ref does. (how VAR is operated though is a joke).

They don't but that can intervene and recommend the ref look at the incident again

Case in point the Forest pens against Everton.
 
My feeling is that this whole "things even out over the course of the season" has become a self fulfilling prophecy and the officials have actually started trying to make up for perceived mistakes and injustices in favour or against certain teams and doing it when they play other teams.

They for sure officiate to narratives and to avoid pressure from the likes of Klopp and Arseteta.

It's a shit show and has somehow got worse from VAR. Before VAR I was ok accepting that sometimes they just make mistakes.

When the final league positions are known they'll give us one or two soft pens against an already relegated Sheffield Utd to balance the books.

Two quick things. I’ve noticed all journalists rallying around to condemn forest and their statement. They’re scared of the PL.

and Clattenberg still a cunt. There’s a surprise.

They did the same thing with the Sissoko handball. But I think in this case they were afraid of death threats from the dipper plastics.
 
So were all of them Luton fans too? Or did Atwell drug them or did he have a sawn-off shotgun held at their heads?

Even if there was a team of 3 people making decisions how does that negate the fact that there's still a conflict of interest in the match? I'll answer for you, it doesn't

The more you argue the more you make yourself look stupid, no idea why you're just arguing the toss and just throwing random shit out there.
 
I would love to go back to pre var days where refs and linesmen made all decisions definitively...then at least we know there will be human error which we're all used to...waiting before you can celebrate a goal which is given offside because someone has a slightly longer nose..apologies to Rashford..
The game has lost so much of its spontaneity....
I wasn’t so pleased with the spontaneity at the 91 final

- Forest goal given when defender barged out of the wall where the ball went (obv the plan)

- Lineker goal given offside (clearly on)

- Lineker pen saved with keeper 2 yds off line

All of those were clear and obv errors and were obv to 100m watching live

VAR is a lot better, where it isn’t it’s the implementation. Like the morons disallowing Dippers goal at WHL although priceless for shots and giggles
 
To make progress, the next stage seems clear.



  1. Appoint an independent review of each game to assess the performance of the match officials.
  2. Set clear KPIs to ensure they are within acceptable standards.
  3. Set appropriate punishments for officials that are in breach.
  4. Punish players/teams for clear breaches of on field rules that were not correctly officiated. For example, bans/suspensions for players committing serious foul play.


Essentially, you might get away with it in the game, but there will be consequences after the fact.
 
Even if there was a team of 3 people making decisions how does that negate the fact that there's still a conflict of interest in the match? I'll answer for you, it doesn't

The more you argue the more you make yourself look stupid, no idea why you're just arguing the toss and just throwing random shit out there.
What random shit am I throwing out there?

Refs are selected for games based on the knowledge of whom they support, something they have to confirm at the beginning of every season. This is done to avoid conflicts of interests.

There are numerous cases of officials being moved as a consequence. The are also other cases where refs haven’t refereed games where they have been selected on the basis that his match has a club also in a relegation battle with his rival team and thefore might be seen to affect the outcome of the relegation battle.

In addition to this every club also has the right to raise a concern about a ref and perceived bias before the game and there arse cases where the referee has been moved off the game.

I don’t know if this protocol exists for the VAR officials, I’m assuming it doesn’t and that makes sense because they don’t make decisions, the ref does and the VAR officials of which there are a total 5 (atheists VAR officials who is current or ex-ref, 3 assistants and a video technician) work together, so would all have to be in on it for any bias to be applied.

The owner of Nottingham Forest whose facing allegations of drug trafficking, who has in Greece been accused of match fixing, who routinely accuses match officials of match fixing in post match statements that are basically childish rants, who only a couple of weeks ago came onto the pitch rowing with officials, kicked football onto the pitch to get a match stopped, then instigated a full scale pitch invasion, who hires Clattenburg as some kind of bad decision mouthpiece, whose sacked 19 managers in 6yrs is seen to be the poor hard done by club owner and is right to accuse the match officials as corrupt.

Bloody hell, the world has truly gone fucking mad.
 
What random shit am I throwing out there?

Refs are selected for games based on the knowledge of whom they support, something they have to confirm at the beginning of every season. This is done to avoid conflicts of interests.

There are numerous cases of officials being moved as a consequence. The are also other cases where refs haven’t refereed games where they have been selected on the basis that his match has a club also in a relegation battle with his rival team and thefore might be seen to affect the outcome of the relegation battle.

In addition to this every club also has the right to raise a concern about a ref and perceived bias before the game and there arse cases where the referee has been moved off the game.

I don’t know if this protocol exists for the VAR officials, I’m assuming it doesn’t and that makes sense because they don’t make decisions, the ref does and the VAR officials of which there are a total 5 (atheists VAR officials who is current or ex-ref, 3 assistants and a video technician) work together, so would all have to be in on it for any bias to be applied.

The owner of Nottingham Forest whose facing allegations of drug trafficking, who has in Greece been accused of match fixing, who routinely accuses match officials of match fixing in post match statements that are basically childish rants, who only a couple of weeks ago came onto the pitch rowing with officials, kicked football onto the pitch to get a match stopped, then instigated a full scale pitch invasion, who hires Clattenburg as some kind of bad decision mouthpiece, whose sacked 19 managers in 6yrs is seen to be the poor hard done by club owner and is right to accuse the match officials as corrupt.

Bloody hell, the world has truly gone fucking mad.
There are a lot of weird owners in the PL, this guy seems to be right up there. Unfortunately, I can’t blame clubs for speaking out. It’s shameful behaviour from the club, I don’t like it, and they are risking some pretty severe consequences, but the standards are so poor, especially from VAR.

Regarding the Forest* game, 2nd penalty would have resulted in a soft handball, few really would have complained because they have been given already many times in recent years.

The first and third incidents should have been penalties, referees aren’t perfect, and mistakes like this are specifically why VAR was brought in. The first is soft but a foul, the third clear, yet no intervention. It’s like VAR officials in England are scared of contradicting these top referees who come across as members of an old boys club, immune from criticism, tweaking officiating precedents every year, changing their tune as the season progresses and often applying the rules to some, why allowing others to foul and cheat at will. If no one complains nothing is going to change.

Edit: Forest, not Forrest Gump…
 
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What random shit am I throwing out there?

Refs are selected for games based on the knowledge of whom they support, something they have to confirm at the beginning of every season. This is done to avoid conflicts of interests.

There are numerous cases of officials being moved as a consequence. The are also other cases where refs haven’t refereed games where they have been selected on the basis that his match has a club also in a relegation battle with his rival team and thefore might be seen to affect the outcome of the relegation battle.

In addition to this every club also has the right to raise a concern about a ref and perceived bias before the game and there arse cases where the referee has been moved off the game.

I don’t know if this protocol exists for the VAR officials, I’m assuming it doesn’t and that makes sense because they don’t make decisions, the ref does and the VAR officials of which there are a total 5 (atheists VAR officials who is current or ex-ref, 3 assistants and a video technician) work together, so would all have to be in on it for any bias to be applied.

The owner of Nottingham Forest whose facing allegations of drug trafficking, who has in Greece been accused of match fixing, who routinely accuses match officials of match fixing in post match statements that are basically childish rants, who only a couple of weeks ago came onto the pitch rowing with officials, kicked football onto the pitch to get a match stopped, then instigated a full scale pitch invasion, who hires Clattenburg as some kind of bad decision mouthpiece, whose sacked 19 managers in 6yrs is seen to be the poor hard done by club owner and is right to accuse the match officials as corrupt.

Bloody hell, the world has truly gone fucking mad.

What a load of mental gymnastic waffle, all you've done is collated the last 2 pages of your nonsense in a load of paragraphs in one post.

I know you stubbornly won't let go of your point about how badly Forest have approached this but like I said 2 things can be true, at the end of the day no referee or VAR team member should be near a match which they can influence preceedings and no they can't make decisions but they can recommend that ref to look at an incident again.

This is where the issue lies, Forest had 3 legit pen shouts, even if you don't think 2 of them were pens then the 3rd one most definately was, the referee said that Young got the ball but in the replay it's clear he didn't touch it so it's a foul and a red card, this is where VAR normally come in and suggest that the ref watch it again, that's literally how the system is meant to fucking work.

If you watch the video release of our match against Chelsea to get a clear understanding of how the system works, Michael Oliver didn't see the Romero incident until his VAR team recommended him to watch it again on the monitor, now you tell me is that not an example of how they can influence an outcome of a match, yes or no?


View: https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1724525107605819561?t=jMh73Xod1f-UzvmVIZIdtA&s=19

Look how proactive VAR is here, they virtually give that pen and the red card to Romero themselves, now bearing in mind in the Forest/Everton match the ref didn't go to the screen not once.

Now do you realise how a VAR assistant who supports a direct rival can have an influence on things and direct an entire narrative of a football match? ...so the questions remain:

Why wasn't those decisions called despite clear evidence that the 3rd incident completely contradicted what the referees said?

Why is their a fan of a rival team who is on the VAR allowed to participate in a match and have a direct influence of how a match is called?

Is there little wonder why people think it looks like something fishy is going on and if not then it's general recklessness and rank incompetence to even think that there is nothing wrong with that.

I can't believe someone is sat on here outright defending the PGMOL to the hilt when they've been utter dogshit and an embarrassment since they've come into the PL, you're acting like that dog nonce Dermot fucking Gallagher just doing your best to ignore any shred of evidence put before you because it doesn't suit your anti Forest narrative, weird why someone would go to so much lengths to try and defend PGMOL.
 
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