I watch some SPL games and the standard of officiating in those is appalling. I watched one Rangers game last season and Morelos was hacked down every time he got the ball and most times there wasn’t even a foul given.
However bad you think the EPL refs are, they are probably the best available so therefore it must come down to the training and support they get. However, I really believe it is an unenviable task and a lot of the criticism is unfair and viewed through the multi tinted glasses of the spectators.
Steven Gerrard (claret & blue tint) said Salah fouled Mings for the penalty. An Everton fan friend said Salah dived as usual (blue tint) and on Bluemoon they called it as a very soft penalty and yet further evidence of referees favouring us as they never get them when Sterling is similarly fouled (sky blue tint). We all of course thought it was a clear penalty (red tint). They really can’t win and get criticism whatever decision they give.
However, PL refs are generally truly horrible imo. You watch games in Spain, Germany or France, you’ll see errors as well of course, and debatable decisions (and the refs will obviously get roasted for committing them). But there is a level of consistency in refereeing which is simply far better than in the PL.
You’d never see a scandal like for instance the penalty given by Moss in favour of Cheaty the other day, which then doesn’t get overturned by VAR. Never. Even in the Swiss league, with complete amateurs refereeing games, you’ll never see anything like that. Only in the PL you’ll find that level of incompetence.
I honestly don’t know where that comes from (once you leave aside any conspiration theory, or corruption claims, which don’t hold ground imo). Maybe it’s because they get these strange instructions and definitions, like for instance the ‘clear and obvious error’ being needed for VAR to intervene. This is so stupid… how do you define ‘clear and obvious error’? A foul is a foul, that is all, and should be called at all times. And yet, it happens in the richest league in the world, with the most means to provide good refereeing, and with fully professional and best paid refs in the world.
I don’t believe Moss is to blame for that. I am pretty certain the assistant flagged it. If Moss didn’t see it clearly which I doubt, he can hardly over rule. He has to give it and hope that VAR makes the correct decision which in this case it didn’t…how many times was it looked at in ultra slow mo though from different angles and it still wasn’t totally clear if it touched his upper arm or not…
It was also noticeable that the offender initially directed his protests at the linesman…
I don’t blame Moss directly, but it’s the decision process which is fucked up. Moss can’t see it, fair enough. But as you say, the linesman waves his flag. If he trusts his linesman, he absolutely has to give it. As he doesn’t, VAR has to step in and to call the penalty. That doesn’t happen. Why? Even by their warped definition of ‘clear and obvious error’, it’s as clear as obvious as it gets. But somehow, the ref at VAR decides that he can’t call the penalty. Why?
I don’t buy for one moment their explications after the game by the way. They argued that at that moment, they couldn’t find the right camera angle to see that it hadn’t hit Moutinho’s arm. It’s a really poor excuse imo.
The annoying thing with that kind of error is that it hands weight to the talk about corruption in the game. And honestly, in this case, I can’t blame anyone wanting to raise the subject.
I would, he’s a fat fucker and constantly not up with play.
Now I carry a bit of extra winter timber, but I’m not a professional ref being paid £70k a year… Moss is an embarrasment how he is constantly blowing and 20 yards behind play. How can you ref a game you can’t see.
You always bring up bias but in this case it’s easy to be objective.
The main complaint of the day was how useless Atwell was at stopping Villa’s time-wasting. So I’ve just opened up the game and tried to pick some goal kicks out and time how long it took for the ball to come back into play.
Martinez takes 2-3x as long to take a goal kick when Villa are drawing as he does when Villa are losing. You’re looking at about 25 seconds for the ball to come back into play when it’s 0-0, but under 10 when it’s 1-0 (as low as 6 or 7 seconds). Jota clattered him late on, hurting Martinez’ hand, and yet he still only took 13 seconds to take the goal kick.
Alisson takes less than 10 seconds every time as far as I can tell.
The incident in which Atwell speaks to Martinez about his time-wasting took 55 seconds. Nearly a full minute of the game lost in a single incident. That might not be a game altering moment on its own but it was one of the poorest pieces of refereeing I’ve seen this season.
The referees have a hard job, but keeping the game moving along isn’t difficult. It was very obvious early on in the game what Villa were trying to do and it would’ve been very easy to stop it. The ball should be in play for as long as possible, simple.
Tbf the French league is worse. Neymar gets booked for doing too many skills and a ref tripped over a player and booked him for accidentally tripping the ref. Scenes if that happened in the prem.
