So are simple mistakes. I think that would be more likely than agendas.
How do you explain mistakes when there is a video referee and you can quite often (such as tonight for example) tell instantly and obviously from the video what the correct decision is?
This is where this argument falls down for me. The whole premise of match fixing or bent officiating being unlikely or ridiculous is based on it not being the most reasonable explanation for an incorrect decision. It is also based on the (factually misplaced) belief that this sort of thing can't possibly happen in high level proffesional sport so should be dismissed as a possibility.
Pre-VAR this was a quite valid line of thought as officials had to make decisions based on live action, many of which without the benefit of a reply were open to interpretation. Now however they have the benefit of endless video replays, yet are making WORSE decisions than the ones they were making pre-VAR. And they are making them every single week. Far far too often to write off as one off freak incidents. They are also routinely getting things wrong where there is little or no room for interpretation.
This leaves you with a choice of explanations that either the referees (somehow) don't know the rules, or they do and are choosing at some level to get them wrong or missinterpret them.
The explanation of it being a "mistake" is no longer the most reasonable, as if you can see the decision you have made was a mistake on a replay and chose to still make it anyway, it is no longer a mistake, it is you deliberately choosing to be wrong. You can therefore only believe it is a mistake if you also believe that someone employed to officiate the rules of football at the highest level, doesn't know the rules of football...and that by some miracle coincidence, nearly every top level official in the country falls into this category, despite the fact that even your average casual football fan can grasp the rules quite easily.
Even if you believe this is happening by accident somehow, nearly every week, you then have to explain why nothing is being done about it when it is very clearly a big problem and damaging the integrity of the game by changing the results of matches...and despite a system being in place in VAR specifically to make it impossible for this to happen. A system which you cannot blame in itself as it is based on video replays. i.e. factual visual evidence. There is no possible way to argue that giving someone access to video replays makes it more likely that they will not correctly see what happened. This is where the idea referees are just cowards becomes weak for me. If that were the case the officiating would have become better with VAR, not worse, as the video evidence would give them more strength of conviction, not encourage them to take the easy option.
Meanwhile, the belief (regardless of VAR) that football at this level can't involve bent officiating is just completely flawed, as we know from testimonies from the likes of Clattenberg, that referees will happily referee a game to suit a narrative. Clattengerg literally told everyone he did this for the infamous Chelsea vs Spurs game where he repeatedly refused to red card Tottenham players despite the fact he could easily have ended up deciding the winners of the entire Premier League by doing so. He literally admitted that he deliberately did not apply the rules correctly for this game...and this is just what someone is happy to publicly admit. This was not an irrelevant incident. If Hazard hadn't scored a worldie in spite of Clattenberg exempting Tottenham form the rules, it could have led directly to Tottenham falsely winning the league. We have one incident currently being investigated for strange betting patterns, where the referee yellow carded a player for time wasting while their team was 4-1 up...just another inexplicably stupid mistake and amazing coincidence? We know of games in the Champions League where it has been proven match fixing took place and involved the officials. Whether anyone likes it or not, it is just a fact that it happens and the only argument is to how often and to what extent it does.
I don't believe there is any anti United agenda as opposed to United being caught up in it the same as most teams are, but I do think at this point to think these things are happening by accident over and over again, despite the frankly unbelievable level of incompetence and layers of incompetence that would require, is borderline lunacy. It is absolutely bent as feck, imo. There is too much money involved and too many ridiculous coincidences for it not to be.
