Martin Atkinson

fecking absolute shit of a refereeing performance. Atkinson should retire for the good of the game.

But where the hell was the VAR today? Whoever that twat is, he's also paid to do his job too.
 
kps88 said:
I blame VAR more than him. The whole point of VAR is to save refs from the sort of criticism he's getting right now. What the feck was the VAR ref doing? He barely spent ten seconds on that last appeal.
Click to expand...
He's a cretin. The free kick he gave for zoumas dive right in front of him was ridiculous. Nobody's going over like that
 
laughtersassassin said:


Be has always disliked Us/Ronaldo.

Wants to make some kind of statement by not giving him anything
Click to expand...


He also let Burnley players kick the shit out of Everton last week which led to multiple injuries, he's a bad ref in general.
 
kps88 said:
I blame VAR more than him. The whole point of VAR is to save refs from the sort of criticism he's getting right now. What the feck was the VAR ref doing? He barely spent ten seconds on that last appeal.
Click to expand...

He shouldn’t be absolved of criticism because of VAR, it’s a shocking decision. He should have called it on the field. It’s just poor officiating.
 
Idxomer said:
He also let Burnley players kick the shit out of Everton last week which led to multiple injuries, he's a bad ref in general.
Click to expand...

Agreed but today was something different than bad it seemed.

Had decided that Us or Ronaldo weren't getting penalities and had no intention of reviewing his calls in the monitor.

Criminal
 
Refs want to stand out these days, they want to be talked about online and get their name in the papers. There are jobs in media to be had after they hang up the whistle and if they are a well-known "character" it'll be easier to get one.
 
El Zoido said:
He shouldn’t be absolved of criticism because of VAR, it’s a shocking decision. He should have called it on the field. It’s just poor officiating.
Click to expand...
100% true. For big decisions like pen appeals, he should have the courage to check it by himself even if the VAR refs tells him nothing.
It feels like VAR is being applied with the idea of refs protecting themselves rather making the correct decisions
 
laughtersassassin said:


Be has always disliked Us/Ronaldo.

Wants to make some kind of statement by not giving him anything
Click to expand...


I was thinking during the match back to that Portsmouth game. It's crazy how it's always the same couple of referees that consistently make shit decisions. Dean, Atkinson. Then you have the rest that are pretty standard from game to game and referee like normal referees.
 
He is diabolical — the decrepit old bat.
 
Shambolic referring performance from him today, got so many decisions wrong.

1. Zouma foul on Pogba - he let the play go on for an advantage which did not materialize, he should've brought it back for a freekick and a booking for zouma, neither of which happened.
2. Exact same situation happens in West Hams favour and he brings play back for a freekick
3. 1st foul on Ronaldo I sort of get, I think it was a 50/50 so I'm not surprised a penalty wasn't given
4. 2nd found on Ronaldo was a clear as you can get, 100% nailed on penalty and i'm shocked VAR did not even intervene! I'm curious if this is brought up on MOTD2 tonight.

Apparently he was terrible in the Everton Burnley game on Monday night too, here is what Gary Neville said:

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/spo.../gary-neville-right-martin-atkinsons-21566689

It's high time referee's are accountable for their poor performances on the pitch but as we all know, the absolutely nothing will happen and the referee's union will do everything in their power to shield their refs.
 
hellhunter said:
Isn't it a bit remarkable that Luckhurst choses such direct words?
Click to expand...
Luckhurst has also been early on it with details on player contracts and signings.

Not difficult to believe that he’s acting as a mouth piece for someone in the club in return. It’s a fairly common arrangement, United have kept journalists at an arms length in recent years and I’m not sure it’s been the right approach. Pleased to see we’re working better in that respect.
 
He's just a bad ref,and typically just makes it up as he goes along.

I mean he somehow managed to think AWB was fouled when slid into their player.

I'll never forget that incident when Sunderland were playing, I wasn't to say Arsenal, and a Sunderland striker was being pulled back on the edge of the box by the last man, only to shrug off the challenge and score, but Atkinson blew up early and gave a free kick and then gave the defender a yellow card (because apparently literally scoring a goal wasn't enough to prove it was a clear goal scoring opportunity)
 
Schmeichel's Cartwheel said:
He’s a Leeds fan & has shown “incompetence” basically every time he’s reffed us. I actually think we have a case requesting to the PL that he not ref us again.

There was a period where he reffed every game with us & Chelsea & gave them every decision. For about 3 straight seasons.
Click to expand...

The only thing I could say in his defence which is often forgotten is he was the ref when Owen scored the winner against City about 3 mins after the alloted time for no apparent reason :lol:. Just a terrible ref. I think he's swayed too often by a home crowd
 
Cutch said:
The only thing I could say in his defence which is often forgotten is he was the ref when Owen scored the winner against City about 3 mins after the alloted time for no apparent reason :lol:. Just a terrible ref. I think he's swayed too often by a home crowd
Click to expand...

He's probably trying to make up for that ever since

The FA Cup semi-final a couple of years ago he allowed Chelsea to kick lumps out of us and we couldn't even make a tackle back. A perfect game to show how a game can be heavily influenced.
 
Last edited:
marktan said:
I was thinking during the match back to that Portsmouth game. It's crazy how it's always the same couple of referees that consistently make shit decisions. Dean, Atkinson. Then you have the rest that are pretty standard from game to game and referee like normal referees.
Click to expand...
Oliver. Hate that fecker
 
redshaw said:
He's probably trying to make up for that ever since
Click to expand...

I genuinely think this is the case certainly for a few seasons as there was that much made of it at the time. Every game he had United that followed he blew the whistle up the very second full time elapsed. Howard webb was similar, not sure when we actually benefitted from him but everything since went completely the other way
 
Annihilate Now! said:
He's just a bad ref,and typically just makes it up as he goes along.

I mean he somehow managed to think AWB was fouled when slid into their player.

I'll never forget that incident when Sunderland were playing, I wasn't to say Arsenal, and a Sunderland striker was being pulled back on the edge of the box by the last man, only to shrug off the challenge and score, but Atkinson blew up early and gave a free kick and then gave the defender a yellow card (because apparently literally scoring a goal wasn't enough to prove it was a clear goal scoring opportunity)
Click to expand...

Do you mean when it was a possible penalty for them? That was due to them being offside, AWB didn't get a freekick.
 
He was so bad it was like that sketch on balls of steel where they had the lad being a fake ref in some five aside game, calling offside when it was being used and giving frees to the tackler and so on. That is how bad Athkinson was today.

Google it if you want a laugh.

edit:
 
pratyush_utd said:
To be honest he said West Ham player put his leg where the tackle was. But AWB did catch West Ham player
Click to expand...

Yeah he did catch him but it would be hard to justify giving a pen for making contact with someone the player doesn't even realize is behind him.
 
Dwazza Gunnar Solskjær said:
Yeah he did catch him but it would be hard to justify giving a pen for making contact with someone the player doesn't even realize is behind him.
Click to expand...
Yeah but i have seen them given. 3 penalty today not given and 2 were against us. So i would say we were more unlucky.
 
laughtersassassin said:


Be has always disliked Us/Ronaldo.

Wants to make some kind of statement by not giving him anything
Click to expand...

13 years ago, with those two matches he reffed between us and Chelsea in 2009/10 in between, and I can't believe the old fecker is still deemed capable of officiating top flight matches. He's been an appalling referee for well over a decade.
 
Last edited:
Atkinson is, was, and always will be a cnut. Firmly believe he hates us as well as being a cnut too.I am amazed he is still reffing top games.
 
Why is a Leeds United fan reffing our games anyway? Thought if you supported a rival club, you could not ref the games of a rival team.
 
Adcuth said:
There should be a department in the LMA that checks out possible errors made by refs and either bans or fines them for incompetence. They go unpunished constantly even when the ramifications to the team on the shirty end of the stick can be massive. Also we should be able to hear the conversation between refs, players and officials. Would stop a lot of controversy.
Click to expand...

100% refs should be mic'd up. Even if the audio isn't made available until after the match. They should have to endure post match interviews. Adding some accountability would go a long way to improving the officiating.
 
Shane88 said:
Refs want to stand out these days, they want to be talked about online and get their name in the papers. There are jobs in media to be had after they hang up the whistle and if they are a well-known "character" it'll be easier to get one.
Click to expand...

None of that makes any sense.
 
PieCrust said:
100% refs should be mic'd up. Even if the audio isn't made available until after the match. They should have to endure post match interviews. Adding some accountability would go a long way to improving the officiating.
Click to expand...
I really don't see how this would improve the officiating.

What good would it do to anyone if Atkinson did an interview after the game today and said "I think he went down too easy", "I think he was looking for it"?

The people asking for refs to be forced into TV interviews I think are just playing out some revenge fantasy, where every ref they hate gets publicly humiliated and grilled as payback for their poor decisions.
 
Atkinson is a fecking idiot, I couldn't believe what I was watching today. I knew as soon as he didn't give that last pen that it would cost us the game. Thankfully Noble bottling the pen saved Atkinson some serious backlash.

I think some referees like to be contrary so they can tell themselves they're smarter than everyone else. Everyone in the stadium knew that last foul on Ronaldo was a pen, in Atkinson's mind if he gives the pen he's just like everyone else, he's one the sheep following the crowd. By waving it on he's telling the world "look at my big set of bollocks making a big contraversial call rather than just giving the easy decision. I'm too smart to get fooled by these players going to ground, Ronaldo may have fooled the rest of you but not me, I see the game on a level that you don't".

VAR is a joke too, if they're getting decisions like that wrong then I honestly don't see the point in it.
 
PieCrust said:
100% refs should be mic'd up. Even if the audio isn't made available until after the match. They should have to endure post match interviews. Adding some accountability would go a long way to improving the officiating.
Click to expand...

Mic'd up why? and interviewing afterwards would probably increase the amount of shite they have to take for simply doing their job. Maybe they need to be suspended from duties after a blatant error? Or maybe the managers can card them and bring some entertainment to the game :D
 
He'ss clearly biased. A ref by nature can not be influenced by bias or at least minimize it to the point where it doesn't effect his refereeing. Imagine an umpire in cricket being biased and not giving someone out when its blatantly obvious and then when the team reviews it, his 3rd umpire mate covers for him and doesnt show the decision making process. He should be demoted to the championship. He is clearly not fulfilling his role as a referee
 
Red_toad said:
Mic'd up why? and interviewing afterwards would probably increase the amount of shite they have to take for simply doing their job. Maybe they need to be suspended from duties after a blatant error? Or maybe the managers can card them and bring some entertainment to the game :D
Click to expand...
Because ref's in rugby are mic'd up. Everyone knows why they give a foul or why they don't. Its transparent. Here in football Atkinson can hide behind VAR and VAR can hide behind Atkinson.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.