Yeah, this is a bullshit decision. Why wasn’t Tierney deselected after his non-award of a penalty?
1 Like
Seriously!!
No doubt all the poor decisions against us will be similarly dealt with…
2 Likes
What? That can’t be true surely? 
2 Likes
1 Like
Well to be fair, there is that little phrase in the article:
Refereeing body PGMOL say they rotate their Select Group 1 officials regularly, with three referees on EFL games each week.
Maybe it’s just the Murdoch press counting 2+2=5 while trying to make a mountain out of a molehill and attempting to apply pressure on anyone not chastising LFC. It wouldn’t be the first time, they are very efficient at this game.
2 Likes
This got me thinking…
I think there is a broad consensus that refereeing in the prem is below par. Would a possible solution be to start being in the referees from around the word? As far as I am aware all of the referee’s currently used are ‘home grown talent’ where as the players they are officiating are the cream of the crop from around the world. Just as with the playing staff an injection of foreign talent should see standards rise all round. More than enough money around to make this happen, may have an issue with celebrity refs but I’m willing to take that risk.
Please sign below if you agree.
1 Like
Can’t see it ever happening to be honest with you. It would be very divisive - imagine the outrage when a foreign ref makes a mistake. At the end of the day, refereeing will always come down to a set of subjective decisions, and that will always cause debate.
On a side note, I’ve not seen enough of the refs abroad to firmly say if ours are the worst. I tend to be cautious with that as I don’t watch anywhere as much European (or further afield) footy, compared to the PL, and then we watch for consistency even more closely .
1 Like
I don’t think it comes down to the individuals, but more to the general frame in which they find themselves operating. If you look at CL games, the general frame of refereeing seems quite consistent, and as a result, the refereeing of CL games is vastly superior to the one practiced in the PL. And that’s with refs coming from lower leagues from all over Europe, in which the speed of the game is slower. English referees whistling CL games don’t generally have big problems as far as I’m aware.
That makes me think that the problem in England comes from the ref organisation, ie. Mike Riley. Not enough clarity for the refs leads to inconsistency in their decision-making. And that’s the major problem imo.
3 Likes
Are there any Welsh refs in the Prem or football league? I was wondering this on Sunday when the Cardiff fans were singing “same old English, always cheating”?
I googled it, but they all seem to officiate in Welsh leagues. As we have Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham playing in English football I thought we might have a number of Welsh officials?
1 Like
You could argue, to maintain neutrality, the referee should be neither English or Welsh.
1 Like
Maintenance of neutrality is dependent on neutrality actually existing…
1 Like
I think it is the opposite. The desire for consistency is what makes refereeing impossible. The tendency for fans and pundits to pick two different incidents and rail about they had different outcomes is part of what ruins the game. A focus on superficial similarities while ignoring the large number of differences that can reasonable result in a different treatment of them. To tamp down on that the refs have all their leeway to apply “common sense” removed by being told to stick within very well defined guidance for applying a law. Handball is a great example. It’s like porn in that you cannot describe the requirements for it being deliberate, but you know it when you see it. yet, the refs have had it described to them what is required for it to be “deliberate”, and it results in absurd series of differentials they have to make resulting often in decisions that appear absurd when viewed with common sense but have applied the guidance correctly.
this is not a uniquely premier league thing, but I think the commercial success of our league means the focus on the associated punditry makes it worse.
It’s not barred but I dont know any off the top of my head. Shit, the last I can recall was Clive Thomas. He was one of the top refs in the world through the 70s, but cannot think of another since. Maybe that’s Clive famously led to the Czechs knocking out the Dutch in the 76 Euros and then controversially disallowed a Zico screamer in the 78 world cup because he blew the final whistle while the ball was in the air on its way to being volleyed in an all time great world cup goal 
2 Likes
I think what winds a lot of fans up… is the same referee being inconsistent across games…!
His logic and common sense should remain identical… but depending upon their mood or what side of the bed they rolled out of… is what leads to some decisions being given in one game, but not in his next game…
Thinking penalties, fouls, handballs… it is as though the referee instead of reading the room (stadium), becomes a dick for the sake of it…
Agree fully with the pundits looking for incidents to match their narrative though…
but we should all know they are all not much cop in their punditry roles
1 Like
This is so true. No two incidents are ever identical despite what some fans may believe and no decision is ever 100% right or wrong. The particular colour specs a fan is wearing distorts their perceptions of the same incident and then perceives the ref’s decision as wholly right or wrong.
The Salah penalty against Villa is the classic case…100% of our fans would say it was a clear penalty. Stevie G was indignant and said Salah fouled their player… 
1 Like
?? As opposed to the ‘accidental’ porn that happens? 
I’d forgotten about Clive Thomas. I’ll always love him for disallowing Brian Hamilton’s winning goal in the 77 Semi Final against Everton.
Although by the time he’d disallowed it I was lying on the floor in our house after kicking the wall barefooted thinking we’d lost at the death. 
1 Like
Clive Thomas…still remembered with affection by all Everton fans
I don’t know where he stored all the brown envelopes he was supposed to have received.
He has always maintained he didn’t blow for offside but another offence. Anyway we definitely got away with one…I was at that game and remember it well.
Poor old Bryan Hamilton was on the wrong end of another Thomas decision, and again it was while wearing blue in an FA Cup semi-final. The all-Merseyside derby was entering its final stages and, with the teams locked at two goals apiece in a titanic tussle at Maine Road, Bryan Hamilton turned in what appeared to be a late winner for Everton. However, to almost universal puzzlement in the stadium, the goal was disallowed for some unspecified reason. After the game Clive Thomas refused to clarify the reason for disallowing an almost certain late winner, saying only that the decision was not because of offside.
At various points in time Thomas has implied that he blew up for handball against Hamilton that he allegedly ‘sensed’ rather than saw or else simply refused to talk about the incident whatsoever.
2 Likes
Everton 2 Liverpool 2 - 23 April 1977 - FA Cup Semi-Final - YouTube
I was there as well… just a nipper mind :0)
I grew up thinking the Welsh referee disallowed the Hamilton goal because we had
Joey Bites Ya Legs Jones (another Welshman) in our side… :0)
EDIT: Imagine trying to play on that pitch eh… When men were men.!
2 Likes
Clive Thomas is about as popular with Evertonians as he is with Brazil fans. Blowing the whistle just as they were about to score the winning goal in the 1978 World Cup finals. I love the way he just marches off the pitch pointing at his watch.
4 Likes