VAR, Refs and Linesmen | General Discussion

Looks like a flinch to me. Robertson grabs his arm and he automatically reacts to throw his grip off him. Maybe 10 game bans for both and call it even?
I'm afraid that Casemiro will get banned for that. Even Evra.

Without joking around, I don't see Robertson doing anything before.

After all the work the FA has done recently to enforce the respect and authority of their officials you just know a scouse campaign will see them fold and throw it all away.
T-shirts for everyone.
 
This is exactly it. Var is good if it eradicates mistakes. If there will always be mistakes then let it run the way it used to. Least then we can celebrate goals at the time not wait to see what if. Sick of mini celebration then var review then a second cheesy celebration

I didn't even celebrate Rashford's goal against Liverpool earlier in the season because I was convinced VaR would chalk it off for offside! fecking hate it...!
 
The thing is if a layman can see it, a professional should also.

Too many times VAR/refereeing errors are justified by many posters as "mistakes". These same posters have no problem calling Italian or Spanish refs corrupt, but PL refs are not corrupt just incompetent. :wenger:

When PL referees are going to prison for match fixing, or taking hidden payments from big clubs for 'consulting', then we can start calling them corrupt. As of today, they're just shit.

VAR is a great tool. If we had no VAR the referees would still be making mistakes every week, the only difference is which mistakes and how well highlighted they are. Sort the referees out and VAR will start working too.
 
For anyone who still thinks VAR has improved football I urge you to watch some national league matches.

The Wrexham v Notts County match today was massively improved without the cold, dead hand of VAR slowing everything down and still leaving fans feeling hard done by at the end of it all.

A few tight offsides called incorrectly didn’t bother anyone (because, you know, getting offside calls correct every time is difficult) but when that flag stayed down the fans got to enjoy every second of the subsequent play and eventual goal, in the moment, the way it should always be enjoyed.

It’s actually beyond depressing how we’ve left that all behind because of a generation of cry-babies who demand infallibility from match day officials. Shame on all of you.
 
For anyone who still thinks VAR has improved football I urge you to watch some national league matches.

The Wrexham v Notts County match today was massively improved without the cold, dead hand of VAR slowing everything down and still leaving fans feeling hard done by at the end of it all.

A few tight offsides called incorrectly didn’t bother anyone (because, you know, getting offside calls correct every time is difficult) but when that flag stayed down the fans got to enjoy every second of the subsequent play and eventual goal, in the moment, the way it should always be enjoyed.

It’s actually beyond depressing how we’ve left that all behind because of a generation of cry-babies who demand infallibility from match day officials. Shame on all of you.
Hear hear. Can’t agree more. VAR has killed instant emotion and joy
 
For anyone who still thinks VAR has improved football I urge you to watch some national league matches.

The Wrexham v Notts County match today was massively improved without the cold, dead hand of VAR slowing everything down and still leaving fans feeling hard done by at the end of it all.

A few tight offsides called incorrectly didn’t bother anyone (because, you know, getting offside calls correct every time is difficult) but when that flag stayed down the fans got to enjoy every second of the subsequent play and eventual goal, in the moment, the way it should always be enjoyed.

It’s actually beyond depressing how we’ve left that all behind because of a generation of cry-babies who demand infallibility from match day officials. Shame on all of you.
VAR is a load of shite, obviously, but it doesn't make sense to go back, now that it's been implemented. If only as a matter of optics, it would be a retrograde step. They have to deliver a better, more fluid system and one that actually works,, without this neurotic, vacillating desire for human intervention. One of the technologies that's being tested now is the automatic offside system, where all decisions are made automatically, contemporaneously and in-line. If that's done correctly, I can't see how it could be a bad thing.
 
It’s also killed the majority of week long pain by things being called offside when it wasn’t
The game goes on. It’s a fast paced action sport. Can’t just moan about a wrong offside decision, get on and play the game. The sport is for the fans and the fans are being shafted
 
For anyone who still thinks VAR has improved football I urge you to watch some national league matches.

The Wrexham v Notts County match today was massively improved without the cold, dead hand of VAR slowing everything down and still leaving fans feeling hard done by at the end of it all.

A few tight offsides called incorrectly didn’t bother anyone (because, you know, getting offside calls correct every time is difficult) but when that flag stayed down the fans got to enjoy every second of the subsequent play and eventual goal, in the moment, the way it should always be enjoyed.
I mean this is just your entirely preconceived notions dictating what you thought. It wasn’t a few offside calls - there were at least 6 wrong ones against Wrexham - 2 of which stopped Wrexham being through on goal - and Phil Parkinson definitely got bothered about it because he quite literally got booked moaning about it. There was also a goal that shouldn’t have stood. So you - who is totally anti-VAR thought it was fantastic how wonderful the pace of the game was despite all the wrong decisions and me - who is pro VAR in certain situations watched it thinking how utterly shite the decision making was as Wrexham were wrongly called offside time and time again. Nobody was changing their mind based on that game - it’s the same sodding debate - to what extent should the flow of the game be disrupted in the pursuit of correct decisions. If the argument is look how great football is without VAR then that’s instantly disputed by there being a better game on Sunday with VAR.
 
The game goes on. It’s a fast paced action sport. Can’t just moan about a wrong offside decision, get on and play the game. The sport is for the fans and the fans are being shafted
No, when it comes down to top 4, a title race, it’s millions of dollars plus all the anguish it’s heart breaking. Way worse than 30 seconds of mystery
 
I mean this is just your entirely preconceived notions dictating what you thought. It wasn’t a few offside calls - there were at least 6 wrong ones against Wrexham - 2 of which stopped Wrexham being through on goal - and Phil Parkinson definitely got bothered about it because he quite literally got booked moaning about it. There was also a goal that shouldn’t have stood. So you - who is totally anti-VAR thought it was fantastic how wonderful the pace of the game was despite all the wrong decisions and me - who is pro VAR in certain situations watched it thinking how utterly shite the decision making was as Wrexham were wrongly called offside time and time again. Nobody was changing their mind based on that game - it’s the same sodding debate - to what extent should the flow of the game be disrupted in the pursuit of correct decisions. If the argument is look how great football is without VAR then that’s instantly disputed by there being a better game on Sunday with VAR.

Fair enough. Takes all sorts, I guess. If I had any dog in the fight today it was Wrexham, so the offside calls should have annoyed me but not one of them did. I think a lot of that is because it’s immediately blown up, before play develops. So you’re only denied a promising position in the vast majority of incorrect offside calls. And, as I said, I’ve never been too fussed by linesmen getting offside wrong because it’s so tough to get right and - to their credit - whatever mistakes they make are almost always on tight calls.

And the flip side of that is the excitement of watching a player eventually beat the offside trap, see the flag stay down in real time, and immediately be 100% invested in the subsequent play. Instead of this awful fecking parallel universe bullshit we watch in VAR matches. Where the striker simultaneously is and isn’t offside, both at once. And you never find out which reality we’re living in until after the goal is “scored” and then we’ve sat through a tedious VAR review. Schrodinger’s Linesman. Feck that shit.
 
VAR is a load of shite, obviously, but it doesn't make sense to go back, now that it's been implemented. If only as a matter of optics, it would be a retrograde step. They have to deliver a better, more fluid system and one that actually works,, without this neurotic, vacillating desire for human intervention. One of the technologies that's being tested now is the automatic offside system, where all decisions are made automatically, contemporaneously and in-line. If that's done correctly, I can't see how it could be a bad thing.

I’d be on board with that. They could reveal the decision by having some dude run down the side line, with something in his hand he could raise after the tech has instantaneously decided that the striker is offside. Maybe a flag?
 
Fair enough. Takes all sorts, I guess. If I had any dog in the fight today it was Wrexham, so the offside calls should have annoyed me but not one of them did. I think a lot of that is because it’s immediately blown up, before play develops. So you’re only denied a promising position in the vast majority of incorrect offside calls. And, as I said, I’ve never been too fussed by linesmen getting offside wrong because it’s so tough to get right and - to their credit - whatever mistakes they make are almost always on tight calls.

And the flip side of that is the excitement of watching a player eventually beat the offside trap, see the flag stay down in real time, and immediately be 100% invested in the subsequent play. Instead of this awful fecking parallel universe bullshit we watch in VAR matches. Where the striker simultaneously is and isn’t offside, both at once. And you never find out which reality we’re living in until after the goal is “scored” and then we’ve sat through a tedious VAR review. Schrodinger’s Linesman. Feck that shit.
Meh. The offsides will be much quicker next year with the semi-automation. I don’t really care with letting the game carry on for 5 seconds to then call it back in tight situations. The big VAR issue is around the tolerance level of where VAR should intervene outside of offside and the consistency of that tolerance level which has been ridiculous this season. Definitely open to the idea of scrapping it completely for everything else - but weirdly enough a game where they got offsides wrong constantly to the extent the commentators were laughing in disbelief didn’t make me think I want some of this officiating for United games.
 
No, when it comes down to top 4, a title race, it’s millions of dollars plus all the anguish it’s heart breaking. Way worse than 30 seconds of mystery
So your first thought is it’s because of money. If football wasn’t so amazing for all those decades before the money wouldn’t be there anyway, and now they’ve fecked it.
 
Meh. The offsides will be much quicker next year with the semi-automation. I don’t really care with letting the game carry on for 5 seconds to then call it back in tight situations. The big VAR issue is around the tolerance level of where VAR should intervene outside of offside and the consistency of that tolerance level which has been ridiculous this season. Definitely open to the idea of scrapping it completely for everything else - but weirdly enough a game where they got offsides wrong constantly to the extent the commentators were laughing in disbelief didn’t make me think I want some of this officiating for United games.

I was being glib in my response to @Brophs but if we are going all in on VAR offsides and it’s possible to get (close to) instantaneous decisions then maybe we could have some sort of offside flag/klaxon/whatever to let everyone watching know whether the attacking player is offside or not before they score the goal? That surely mustn’t be beyond the realms of the technology? Obviously particularly important for the poor bastards who pay to go to the game and are kept in the dark for far too long with any tight offside call in the era of VAR.

Although I guess we’ll still get snarled in this awful phases of play confusion a few times each season. Which surely can’t be automated and will need human intervention before a final decision. So that will still be as annoying as feck but ho hum, baby steps. All I know for sure is that the current system is a ball ache.
 
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So your first thought is it’s because of money. If football wasn’t so amazing for all those decades before the money wouldn’t be there anyway, and now they’ve fecked it.
No, my first thought was my original post about goals not being rewarded wrongfully cause if a poor linesman call.
If all you care about is results, football could be watched on Ceefax.
A) it’s available anymore
B) I’m American
 
Absent psychological assessments being done on these British referees, it seems to me they suffer from prima donna syndrome. We're at a point where something needs to be done about the disease so that we can cure it.

No panacea for sure, EPL officials should consider bringing on more women referees. A few are referee's assistants and seem to be doing a decent job of it.
 
Referee Michael Salisbury has been dropped for the next round of Premier League fixtures.

Salisbury was the VAR official who failed to intervene and award Brighton a second-half penalty during last Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Tottenham.

Refereeing body PGMOL admitted an error had been made and apologised to the Seagulls for not giving the spot-kick.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65242346
 
Referee Michael Salisbury has been dropped for the next round of Premier League fixtures.

Salisbury was the VAR official who failed to intervene and award Brighton a second-half penalty during last Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Tottenham.

Refereeing body PGMOL admitted an error had been made and apologised to the Seagulls for not giving the spot-kick.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65242346
It’s good that we can draw a line under this and move on.
 
Referee Michael Salisbury has been dropped for the next round of Premier League fixtures.

Salisbury was the VAR official who failed to intervene and award Brighton a second-half penalty during last Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Tottenham.

Refereeing body PGMOL admitted an error had been made and apologised to the Seagulls for not giving the spot-kick.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65242346
The punishment for officials is far less critical than the impact of those calls on the team and players. There has to be stricter punishment
 
I know everyone was up in arms about the Mitoma penalty and they've received, but for me it's less obvious than the one Sancho was denied against Newcastle, or the one Weghorst wasn't given against Nottingham.

Is it mainly media attention that's driving the PGMOL to apologise for poor decisions, or are they genuinely admitting their mistakes?
 
I know everyone was up in arms about the Mitoma penalty and they've received, but for me it's less obvious than the one Sancho was denied against Newcastle, or the one Weghorst wasn't given against Nottingham.

Is it mainly media attention that's driving the PGMOL to apologise for poor decisions, or are they genuinely admitting their mistakes?

Good point. Especially re the Sancho and Weghorst feck ups. Not sure the Mitoma one was less obvious but it certainly wasn’t more obvious.

The PGMOL have apologised to Brighton three times already this season!
 
Absent psychological assessments being done on these British referees, it seems to me they suffer from prima donna syndrome. We're at a point where something needs to be done about the disease so that we can cure it.

No panacea for sure, EPL officials should consider bringing on more women referees. A few are referee's assistants and seem to be doing a decent job of it.
Very much doubt that it would actually make much difference to the overall standard - I'm sure that there'll be the same mix of good and bad female officials as male ones.

Although I do certainly think it would improve some of the behaviour of the players on the field, and would reduce the amount of vocal criticism of (female) officials by the media and managers in the press.

As I don't think you'd get as many male players going right up shouting and screaming at female officials as much as they do male ones. And definitely think most of the male commentators, pundits, managers, players would limit their criticism of female officials in the media in fear of being accused of sexism. Though whether that's actually a good thing or not I'm not sure, as female officials should be just as open to criticism, and held just as accountable for mistakes, as the male ones - but can definitely see people being very wary of doing so for fear of repercussions and losing their jobs.
 
Very much doubt that it would actually make much difference to the overall standard - I'm sure that there'll be the same mix of good and bad female officials as male ones.

Although I do certainly think it would improve some of the behaviour of the players on the field, and would reduce the amount of vocal criticism of (female) officials by the media and managers in the press.

As I don't think you'd get as many male players going right up shouting and screaming at female officials as much as they do male ones. And definitely think most of the male commentators, pundits, managers, players would limit their criticism of female officials in the media in fear of being accused of sexism. Though whether that's actually a good thing or not I'm not sure, as female officials should be just as open to criticism, and held just as accountable for mistakes, as the male ones - but can definitely see people being very wary of doing so for fear of repercussions and losing their jobs.

Points well taken. Still, there's no obvious justification for seeing as few female referees as we do at this level -- which happens to be zero. If it's a case of only the best and brightest being allowed to referee PL matches, we neither see women nor do we see men of African or some other non-white descent. Yet it cannot be that only white men are the best and brightest capable of refereeing a PL match.
 
Points well taken. Still, there's no obvious justification for seeing as few female referees as we do at this level -- which happens to be zero. If it's a case of only the best and brightest being allowed to referee PL matches, we neither see women nor do we see men of African or some other non-white descent. Yet it cannot be that only white men are the best and brightest capable of refereeing a PL match.
It's not just at the elite (PL) level. You don't really see them in the EFL or NL either. So could the low numbers of representation be anything to do with the amount of abuse that the refs have to deal with at the lower / amateur levels as they progress through the system? And which one's cope with it better / suffer least personal abuse and therefore continue on with it as a career?

Having earlier said that the professionals - players, managers, pundits, journalists, etc - would definitely be a lot more wary of being critical or abusive towards female officials - I very much doubt that that applies to the amateurs and ranting parents / fans that you have to cope with at the lowest levels early in a refs career. Maybe those venomous and hostile conditions put off a lot of officials from carrying on if they suffer regular sexist / racist abuse?
 
Casemiro gets sent off for that. And just to add some salt to the wound, Fernandes gets a bullshit yellow.
 
That was a ridulous decision to give a handball and yellow card against Bruno for that, it was a worse decision than the Sociadad penalty one.
 
We always lose our stride when the opposition gets cheap calls, Sevilla have gained lots of confidence because they're now being allowed by the referee to play their game with impunity.
 
Can you believe Bruno is going to miss the 2nd leg for that?
 
I'm not sure how var doesn't send the ref to the screen there. If he keeps his decision fair enough but he needs a second look.
 
This season in particular feels like we've been plagued with horrible decisions. I thought the Sociedad penalty and the Casemiro sending off was bad, but this one takes the cake.

I take it we can't appeal yellows in Europe?