It’s nothing new. We had a very volatile thread on TIA mockingly called the conspiracy thread where me and others attempted to explain how bias (unconscious and conscious) works and got the piss taken out of us. This year a ref comes out and admits how (at least during the Fergie years) United used to benefit from the sort of bias we described in that thread and were mocked for.
5 Likes
I think it’s entirely plausible that Abu Dhabi have bribed a ref or two, who in turn have gone to influence other referees.
Anyone who has worked anywhere knows how culture can be created and can take hold.
Let’s face it Abu Dhabi have a secret police, who quite probably used coercion or bribes to get City off the CL ban.
It’s conceivable that they also used this to get at referees, who let’s face it wouldn’t need much encouragement, with a view to destroying the club that’s been their nearest competitor for a few seasons.
It’s pretty galling that a club that should have been banned from the CL and probably bribed their way back into it, might have bribed us out of it.
2 Likes
So we labelled City fans delusional for implying the footballing authorities have been conspiring against them in Europe and in the League.
Now we think the same is happening to us, so who is right then?
3 Likes
They’re not mutually exclusive.
But what’s the basis for City’s fans conspiracies?
2 Likes
TIA one isn’t there anymore, but I am sure trawling through that City thread should give you what you need.
1 Like
City complaints revolved around an attempt to hold them to account for not only breaking the rules but from lying about breaking the rules. They would have been punished, as they justifiably deserved, if they hadn’t lied about it long enough to get off on a technicality.
Liverpool as a club and as a city have been at war with authority figures since Hillsborough. We’ve been painted as the guilty party and gobshites who won’t accept our own “guilt” for so long by the media over and over again that to this day we are still battling ignorant prejudice and outright hatred. We are literally still pursuing justice against guilty parties that includes the football authorities. In an “us vs them” we are the them for the establishment in this country.
That’s just scratching the surface.
7 Likes
Sure. I think I’m familiar with them. The reason I asked was that if you were to set them out you’d see how the grievances of the respective fan bases are not really comparable.
6 Likes
This assessment is worthy of being in this thread also. All very relevant to the conversation.
Really interesting look at how FSG sets up their spending. Some various perspectives after reading of all this. They are quite financially prudent, but our payroll has also ballooned after paying incentives to players. It also appears we may not have much money to spend this summer if we don’t move a significant piece.
1 Like
But the end result is the same, respective fan bases feeling its a concerted effort from the applicable authorities to pre define the end result.
Football is tribal, its to be expected, over the last 3 seasons, the brilliance of this team has raised similar discussions from the opposition, hell its what made going to the Caf and Blue Moon that much sweeter.
Bias is inherent in human beings so yeah, conscious/unconscious bias could play a part with some officials, but I dont see it going further than that.
The lack of accountability and transparency and complete incompetence of those in charge of football just make me sceptical at them pulling something like this off.
Each to their own though, but I’d rather we spend more time talking about the shit we can change.
3 Likes
I don’t know what City fans complain about. We/Klopp have just one grievance against the PL and that is the biased (if you consider the worst) or inconsistent (if you consider the best) refereeing.
- Don’t you yourself have misgivings about some decisions against us?
- Isn’t it well documented how inconsistent VAR/referring has been?
- Isn’t almost all the managers complaining about inconsistencies?
Absolutely spot on.
1 Like
Don’t know where you live, or what your association with the city or the club is.
But if you know anything of the history of the city, or of LFC, you would know that this city is singled out within England by the authorities, in football and outside football, by the media, and by other fans.
I’m not going into the detail of what happened over Hillsborough, nor what has happened with referees for at least a decade.
The incidents this season are clear and are well documented. Referees have taken at least 10 points off us in matches against Everton, WBA, Brighton, Newcastle and Leicester.
Manchester City are owned by people who have major cards to play in terms of influencing things that can help their success. They have money, they have businesses who spend money on advertising and thus can influence the media, and they have their own secret police.
No way do people like that not influence things off the pitch to help on it. The type of people they are is clear from the disgusting way people are treated in their country.
LFC was the single biggest threat to City’s dominance. We emerged, well run and punching above our financial weight, and they were languishing. They couldn’t better us by outspending us, so they’ve done something off the pitch to help on it.
No other club in England, including Manchester United, is benefitting from refs the way City are, and City are the only club who I can’t even think of a decision that has gone against them. That is evidence enough.
I don’t want to be confrontational, but I am a bit offended that you come on here and argue so vehemently in defence of a club like City, with their disgusting owners and vile support base, when LFC has so clearly suffered from referees this season, and when our manager is going through a difficult time personally, yet has to also contend with his job being undermined by cheating.
3 Likes
Bro, didn’t mean to offend anyone, I am not defending City, and I am as frustrated as the next fan on the poor officiating in the game.
All I was pointing out is all fans perceive things from the point of view of who they support that is all, as I said football is tribal thats the reality.
My personal opinion is just that, mine, I believe the officiating is bad because of how incompetent those at the top are in dealing with it, there is 0 accountability and a lack of transparency.
For the record, I dont like City as a club, they and a few other clubs that have ruined the game by doping their way to the top.
We have gone toe to toe with them doing things the right way and got our rewards over the last 3 seasons. I would never entertain the notion that the blood, sweat and tears we have gone through to get here was done with the help of anyone outside the players, coaching staff, owners and fans.
So yeah apologies if the post came across differently.
Won’t derail this thread any further.
3 Likes
Just because two parties say the same thing doesn’t mean both are wrong or both are right. Never understand when people say things like this.
3 Likes
Spot on. The only thing one can ever do in life is worry about the shit you have control over. Feeling aggrieved and exasperated with the bullshit officiating is at the end of the day a waste of time - it is beyond our control. This holds true even if you think only 10% of this season going shit is on us. All we can do is work on that 10%,
2 Likes
It actually goes further back than that, to Heysel (we got the blame for English clubs being barred from European competition) in football and to the refusal of Derek Hatton and the “Loony Left” to kowtow to their Tory overlords in the early to mid 1980s. The city and the club have been largely vilified ever since.
Broadly speaking, however, your post is spot on. 
6 Likes
You’ve the right to your view and you are right that we should mainly focus on what we can control.
But if officials weren’t capable of making the difference between winning things or not, Fergie wouldn’t have spent so much time trying to coerce them. Do you remember him and his stopwatch?
Maguire has been bleating on about referees after yesterday, yet our boys say nothing.
Just please don’t underestimate the way LFC gets the worst of it, nor what leads to it.
5 Likes
Please, don’t get me started on that c#@t Derek Hatton!!
1 Like
If you don’t think refs screw LFC over you really don’t watch the games.
How many times do people have to explain why and how LFC is singled out, and outline examples of how decisions differ for us versus other clubs.
5 Likes
I haven’t (am not) saying the referees are biased or out to screw us. I saying the refereeing isn’t competent and inconsistencies are the main issues.