Well, he must have a tinfoil hat as well?
Imagine this most measured of men saying this much? What is he thinking underneath?
3 Likes
He probably already seen decisions going Cheaters way in the last few games…
Must be frustrating for a guy who works so hard to win… to lose out the way he has
2 Likes
The Chelsea non-red and the discussion below about the relative lack of red cards in the Premier League is interesting.
1 Like
That article made my blood boil. In every issue debated, their experts demonstrated that these are judgement calls where there are people who supposedly know what they are talking about on different sides of the issue. They incorrectly frame these subjective decisions as being right or wrong, and present managers complaining about decisions that went against them as evidence of there being controversy, even when their own experts don’t have a problem with the decision.
These people are addicted to the controversy and are committed to sustaining it.
2 Likes
Yeah much of the article was quite rubbish, but the part about the red cards is interesting. I would love to find out possible explanations for that phenomenon.
I think it is mostly the thing we always say when talking about whether foreign players will cope here…the refs let things go here that would be penalized more harshly elsewhere.
I think they pointed out that rate of yellow cards is not too far off the rest of the leagues, so I don’t think it’s so much of that as opposed to the other old canard about referees being too reluctant to “ruin the spectacle”.
I think that still follows though…if you give yellow cards where refs in other leagues give reds then that props up the yellow card stats. I am sure the “reffing the occasion” is part of it though. We know from hearing older refs speak that it is in their head in a way that impacts their decision making and continental refs don’t seem to give two shits about it.
1 Like
I think that this essentially comes down to the huge sums of money involved in the Premier League, and the pressure this places on referees to not ruin ‘the product’.
1 Like
Seems like the same format every game, no yellow cards then one for nothing worse than what happened for the previous 60 mins and then they tally up each side.
2 Likes
Everyone knows that if you let one borderline yellow go you are required to just reflexively book the next player who commits a foul no matter how rinky dink it is. It’s just the rules.
2 Likes
Only just seen that article. Quite telling imo.
It struck me the other day that Kavanagh hasn’t reffed us in the PL for a while now, since February to be exact. Unusual for a ‘top’ referee not to get one of our games for so long. Shades of Coote a few years back when he exposed himself as the cheat that he is and by all accounts we did demand answers from the PL.
2 Likes
Tierney still gets games with Merseyside teams though…
I know, so does Taylor. I’m not saying the club demanded not to be reffed by any manc referees, but it might have raised concerns about Kavanagh and quite rightly if that was the case.
That said, knowing how submissive the club are it’s unlikely.
Best here I think. We need bastards on the pitch?
What can’t go on is the constant tarnishment by match officials to the game we’ve all grown up to love.
Telling a referee he’s fucking shit at his job isn’t a threat nor an “attack”, in the real world you wouldn’t survive in a job like referee’s do so I only encourage players & coaches to carry on and even go 1 further and report officiating failures to whoever will listen (not the cowards at the FA)
Without players, there is no football. Without fans there is no football but believe you me football can survive without the FA or match officials.
This is a major part on why you have those at the top, there is a certain type of mentality.
I’ve mentioned this a lot, VAR helps shift the blame a lot but all the decisions on Sunday were on Michael Oliver bar the Saka thing and that’s a technology issue.
All of which effected the result.
Put this in the post-match Arsenal thread as well
Hitting the players chest before his hand is the reason for no penalty… apparently…!
And?
I said it rested with Michael Oliver, sadly once he gives that pen it’s a pen because it’s in technical terms a foul and VAR won’t overturn even though it’s harsh, if Oliver rules Elliott or the handball a foul again they remain pens.