It’s the Yorkshire Boys Club. They all follow Rotherham, Barnsley, and Doncaster don’t ya know?!
2 Likes
I’m not 100% sure about that. Jürgen was asked in his press conference whether the club would be calling for a replay or not, and he refused to say one way or another, having consulted someone off to the side first.
Completely agree, but the only issue is, where are the consequences for them in a replay? They still face no consequences.
Virgil van Dijk on the Tottenham game:
“Yes the points are gone for good, but there is nothing stopping us from using the positives and the biggest one for me was definitely the way that we stuck together.”
“The result went against us, but in many ways this was Liverpool at its defiant and determined best.”
11 Likes
To add to my general annoyance at referees, my team won 6-4 in 6-a-side last night but at the end of the game the referee said it was 5-5 draw. Fuming.
2 Likes
PGMOL currently taking notes…
3 Likes
Are you suggesting corruption or incompetance?
I think the old bastard can’t remember the events of a 1 hour football match 
1 Like
There’s a £150k job waiting for him at PGMOL 
1 Like
Step 1) Bring in semi automated offside.
Step 2) Every Prem ground that doesn’t have a screen in the stadium, have one installed. (New Premier League ruling)
Step 3) Direct feed from VAR displayed on screen of the automated decision so the on field ref and literally everybody watching (inside the ground) and at home can see.
No room for mis-communcation, didn’t hear this didn’t catch that. Then and only then can the game restart.
If you’re not gonna do the above, shut down VAR because ultimately it’s not doing what it was brought in to do.
Well… the hits just keep on coming - We have got this guy at the weekend 
Anthony Taylor labelled ‘Barcelona’s man of the match’ after more questionable decisions
Porto were left fuming with Premier League official Anthony Taylor following a number of questionable decisions during their Champions League defeat to Barcelona
Premier League referee Anthony Taylor was branded Barcelona’s ‘man of the match’ following the Catalans’ stormy win away to Porto.
The Portuguese giants had two strong penalty shouts turned down, including one in the 77th minute for handball against Joao Cancelo. Taylor had pointed to the spot, only to overrule his own decision after being asked to watch the replay by VAR. Forward Eustaquio was deemed to have controlled the ball in the build-up with the help of his left arm.
Fans were left unhappy with Taylor’s display, with one declaring him “Barcelona’s man of the match”. Another, referring to the handball call, fumed: “Why was this penalty not awarded against Barcelona? Please don’t tell me the Porto guy used his hand cos I can’t see any here. Joao Cancelo had the intention of using his hand which he did. England ref Anthony Taylor once again at it.”
A third raged: “Anthony Taylor & Stuart Attwell [the VAR] get it absolutely wrong AGAIN. We are told above the shirt sleeve line is NOT handball. Ball clearly hits Porto player above shirt sleeve line. How long are you going to inflict these pair of absolute incompetent buffoons on us?”
A fourth asked: “Bro, what the hell is Anthony Taylor on lately? The amount of wrong decisions he has done is beyond dumb for someone on his level.”
5 Likes
The red cards are a distraction. They are both somewhere between disappointing to bad, but unremarkable when compared to decisions across all other games with nothing close to enough justification to rescind them.
If we’re looking for evidence of how a badly reffed game compounded the VAR issue I’d be looking at the non-penalty on Gomez and the Mo and Robbo bookings. I think the fact these all occurred in the second half, in the period we’re questioning whether the mental state of the ref was right, further adds to the consequence of the VAR fuck that needs to be examined.
These are meaningfully different scenarios. You are trying to compare how long after an incident it takes for a VAR review to start (when the ball next goes dead) vs what happens after the VAR has reviewed the incident and the game restarted on the direction of the ref.
England was hiding behind the protocol that states that the window for VAR review after an incident in question is the time between the ball next going dead and the referee restarting the game. Once the latter has happened the window is over and VAR cannot offer any advice on the incident. But even that comes with caveats. The issue is what those caveats are is not clear. They clearly havent been game planned, because doing so requires you have a risk management plan in place, which in turns requires you understand your technical/process limitations and where it produces risk, and the PGMOL have consistently shown they dont think of VAR in that way (the appropriate way). Furthermore, while there are examples of a VAR intervening after the window was closed (i.e. doing the right thing), example being the France goal in the group stages of the last world cup, the officials involved were sanctioned for doing it because it was against protocol. I think that is the important context for why a VAR official would have taken the decision England did. But that doesnt excuse it. It just identifies that the remedy to this is so much bigger than outlined in the PGMOL response
As bad as everyone involved was on Saturday, this is very much a case of where lack of clear and effective leadership from the PGMOL seems to be a problem.
This is where I can believe ego plays a huge role, because they’ve seen VAR as a challenge to their authority/credibility from the start, as opposed to being a tool to improve their performances.
1 Like
There are 4 scenarios:
- He’s just that bad and the VAR incident had no impact on him
- Knowledge of what happened on his watch put him in an emotional state not fit to manage the second half and just spiraled out of control
- He knew he was likely going to be looked at for trying to even up the game and considered himself too good and too honest to referee a game like that so made a conscious effort to make sure he couldnt be accused of just giving stuff to liverpool
- He thought the best way to defuse the furor was to facilitate Spurs winning by a big enough margin that people would overlook the importance of a single goal, but Spurs just could not comply with their part of the mission
1 Like
Judge for yourself:
https://twitter.com/ayodeji_haryour/status/1709810494125625437
4 Likes
Taylor gave the penalty for Cancelo’s hand ball then over ruled it after seeing replays of the way the Porto lad brought the ball down earlier, which he deemed as hand ball. Looks debatable whether he actually uses his arm from these angles, and even if he did it seems high up which is sometimes allowed. Maybe there are better angles? Not sure on that one, but it’s clear that focusing on Cancelo is not remotely the point seeing as Taylor agreed that was a handball offense.
1 Like
Don’t see a handball by Estaquaio at all there, Pen should’ve stood.
Another BS rule where they’re always changing the rules, top of the sleeve, cut of the sleeve, in line with the pit this that.
Is it this? https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2022/02/18070308/new-handball-282x300.png
Or is it what it should be? https://www.hungarianfootball.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/No-handball.png
The issue is when you extend your arm out in front of you to control on the top area…the sleeves naturally roll backwards…making the room shorter for what is deemed legal.
1 Like
You do understand they are not using the literal sleeve line, right? Like if a player rolled up his sleeves it would make him more susceptible to handballs? Or if someone was wearing long sleeves they could catch the ball in their arms?
1 Like
They’re probably up to their old tricks using freeze frames again and if you pause it 7 seconds in…here
, from this angle (assuming this is what Taylor has been shown) it looks as though more of the ball is on the flesh (for me I believe this is what swayed his decision to overrule his original decision) but we’ve all played the game & have a bit of common sense to know this is a not a handball offence
2 Likes
They also appear to be shit scared of VAR becoming an entirely separate entity to their referees fraternity… As in, our jobs will be at risk here.!
1 Like