Excellent point. If we can spend billions bringing in the best players from all over the world, why can’t we spend a relative pittance on bringing in the best officials?
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These ex-footballers that suddenly become expert TV pundits overnight all have differing opinions and viewpoints on contentious decisions in every game… why is that… because they have been there and done it…
Surely by allowing a single individual in Stockley Park with no ninety minute hands on footballing expertise to have the power of judge, jury and even executioner is the biggest problem in this VAR debacle… Why not form odd number judging panels of three, five or seven to control the events of a game… there are plenty of ex-footballers, referees, linesmen etc that would jump at the chance to be well paid to sit in a studio on a cold winters afternoon offering experienced decision making votes to draw an ultimate conclusion to contentious decisions…
At least the fans would be getting a more measured and hopefully consistent balance in all this…!
I’m wondering about the relevance (no, not even competence) of FA and EPL at this point.
They can’t fight racism
They don’t have pool of competent match officials
They can’t even make use of technology
What the hell are they doing???
Big IF there.
If he was unsighted? Okay, let’s play this scenario out…
- The ref did not see it as a player was in his line of vision (assumption)
- But he knows full well after the fact that a collision of some sort has happened as a player is clutching his knee on the field.
- A voice in his earpiece says that offside is being checked as potentially could be a penalty situation
- The check completes, and says it’s offside so no penalty check to be made
The on field ref can assume the VAR ref would alert him to review if he thought the collision was worth noticing. So the blame in this situation is mostly at the VAR ref.
Some reports say the VAR ref was too busy with offside to review the challenge. But this is stupid and makes no sense as after the offside decision was given, the game was still stopped longer for treatment. What was the VAR ref doing then? Off to the toilet?
Sheer incompetence is the best explanation. The laws already account for (1) serious foul play and (2) Violent conduct.
If offside, then (2) should be checked.
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We should tell the pl we don’t want any more filthy manc refs or officials involved in our games in the future.
I thought the blame lies squarely with the VAR.
Isn’t it a case of him not even considering the serious rough play aspect, when he absolutely should have??
So really, it’s all just a big whoopsie…
FMD
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That’ll just prompt them to appoint more of them, not less. What exactly are we going to do? We can’t refuse to play just because we don’t approve of the officials.
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At any rate, had the VAR done his job properly that wouldn’t have prevented the injury.
Just a fucking massive shit sandwich from whichever way you look at it.
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Injuries happen in football. Thanks the nature of it. Every time any player steps on the pitch, there is a chance it might be the last time. It’s shit than Van Dijk got injured, but it won’t be the last time we are left ruing the loss of an important player.
It’s the unpunished nature of the challenge that creates the sense of injustice. Pickford has put Van Dijk out for months and he absolutely got away with it.
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I am not enjoying the taste of this shit sandwich at all, I can tell you that.
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At least we have those -2 points to console ourselves with.
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In Olivers defense it was all down to VAR and that Coonte bloke yesterday. The VAR officials have been advised to ask the ref go to monitor in debatable situations and he never did.
I have to say that I’ve never felt so bad about football as a sport than now. Never have I questioned my love for the sport like this.
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Frankly, that is bollox
Dont read comments?
Or read them and understand the level of vitriol aimed at our players.
Understand agendas and how those agendas mitigate against the club.
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In the offside it is the technology and the tolerance allowed that needs looking at. My understanding is that there are 5 people looking at each game including techies. I don’t for one second believe the official draws the lines. The software does that…
It’s all about the margin of error allowed which at the moment appears to be zero. I can’t believe that the point of the ball leaving the boot and the line being applied is synchronised to the millisecond…
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I suggest we send all referee’s to Barnard Castle. Coote however should never referee again…
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I had the same thought. If we’re obsessing about millimetres, should we also be obsessing about microseconds? Unless you can have absolute confidence in freezing the picture at the exact microsecond the ball leaves the boot, you can’t have confidence in any line drawn.
And in any (frame) rate, if you are obsessing with the rule to this autistic level, then the spirit of the rule is being forgotten. We don’t need lines to the millimetre to see if a player is offside. If you would have to spend three minutes trying to draw a line to a players fingernail to judge if he’s off, he is bloody onside.
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Even more, how is a player in game, able to adjudge the offside rule so as to stay within the rules of the game, when it is subject to such a high level of digital analysis. No player can assess being onside to this degree of scrutiny in real time.
And it lays a mark for that game itself. The richarlison tackle doesn’t happen in the same game when such things are not allowed to continue without any consequences.
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I’d go the other way and actually say this is still a people problem. When you’ve got people that don’t understand those margins you end up with fucked up decicions.
They’ve tried to turn a grey worlld into a black and white one.
Overall i still thibk the process is completely fucked up.
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