Why are referees such twats?

I think it was George Carlin who said that you don’t need a formal conspiracy when powerful people’s interests converge.

In footballing terms, the fact that video technology and/or some kind of an ‘appeal’ based system is perfectly accessible, yet no representative from any of the big clubs have supported its introduction whatsoever, speaks volumes.

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Swansea v Chelski

Costa floored, but play acting as if he’ll never play again…twat.

But what can the Ref do but card the opposition?

Even 5 live questioning his regular play acting…and surprise surprise Costa has made a miraculous recovery…ffs!

Edit : Justice. Swansea pull 2 back in as many mins!

Costa dives,rather than score. He’s on a yellow but Mariner doesn’t book him. Should have been sent off for a second yellow.

Questions need to be asked about Reffing standards after this weekend.

I’ve got used to them being twats, I’d just like them to be consistent twats.

Too many of them love themselves.

Huge debate on refeering standards and diving (Costa) on R5 606 now

Chelsea have done very nicely from refs in recent seasons.

Some clubs seem luckier than others.

The problem with statements like Halsey is you wonder how far the culture of corruption might go, should it exist.

Leicester were awarded a lot of penalties last year, and yes, they were a great story. You do wonder how much the PL might favour the narrative over the actual.

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/elfmeterschuetzen/wettbewerb/GB1/plus/?saison_id=2015

Didn’t that happen to Costa earlier in the season, he was already on a yellow and should have got another one for diving or absuing the ref. Ref didn’t give, probably didn’t want to “ruin the game”.

Then Costa pops up and scores the winner!!

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Ah yes, here we go, against West Ham

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No, no, no - that can’t be right - I’ve been assured that these things even themselves out. :smile:

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Leicester were awarded 13 penalties.

We got four!

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You’d almost think there was a conspiracy to make sure Leicester won the title and we didn’t…

:lou_wink:

:lou_is_a_flirt:

Yes, I do believe that there was a secret edict that went out to referees last season, telling them to make sure they gave every potential penalty to Leicester, because the Premier League (or maybe the FA) were desperate to see some team other than one of the usual suspects winning the title. Acutally, now I come to think of it, it’s far more likely that the Premier League and the FA were workng together on this, using their apparent mutual antipathy and inability to work together as a convenient smokescreen. Bllimey.

Now then, where’s the rolly-eyes-total-fucking-loony emoji gone? I need it right now.

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That aside…some refs do love to get involved and help the script along a bit.

I always think sport has enough drama without MotD editors or officials trying to create a plot line.

There is little worse than Motson advising us that the bloke coming up for a corner hasn’t scored all season, and wouldn’t it be amazing if he got the winner…

Closest rival was Watford. 7 pens awarded.

What price fairy story? Six more pens, apparently :lou_sunglasses:

I suggest nothing except it’s a wonderful story which scotches the myth that the highest wage bill wins the Prem. A lovely, marketable story :lou_lol:

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Its an interesting one because whilst I was delighted to see them win it, there’s an element of frustration there now because it goes some way to scotching the *actual* reality of how much of a brick wall to the top 4 a club like ours faces.

What with us improving and improving season after season, yet not being able to keep hold of any of our star performers and finally coming back down to lower mid-table with a bit of a bump (as, to be honest, we probably will this season), a fair few fans of other clubs and neutrals had begun to sympathise with our plight in that whilst we might not win a trophy, we were at least proving to the world of football just how utterly impossible it is for a smaller club to slowly and steadily build up and challenge the might and the money of the big six.

Now that Leicester’s season is ‘in the bank’, you get the feeling that the big guns can effortlessly let their wallets dominate the league for years to come with the ‘well what about Leicester?! hur hur hur’ excuse always available when people inevitably complain about the Premier League becoming completely stratified and hierarchical.

Having said all that, I don’t believe that refs were actively instructed to favour them.

Hey, I don’t think refs are actively instructed to favour the big clubs, they just face enormous pressure from footballing world to do so.

Like I say, I’m pretty confident that deep down, many fans of the big clubs do actually know this full well (they’re just ungrateful for it because they compare their fortunes to those of other big clubs). But as I say, if they weren’t getting the aggregate benefit of it then we’d have seen video replays introduced a long time ago. Every argument against video officiating essentially amounts to an argument in favour of a random selection of incorrect decisions thrown into a match. If you’re better than someone at anything, you want to reduce variance and reduce the luck factor in order to leave your superior skill as the only variable. As such, if refs were totally fair and unbiased, the big clubs and the powers that be in football would be the main beneficiaries of video technology eliminating the luck factor of random incorrect decisions and be pushing for its introduction. In fact it would probably be here already.

But scoping out Red Cafe last season at United’s lowest ebb I distinctly remember two or three threads expressing frustration that their players (and Old Trafford crowd) weren’t putting as much pressure on refs as they used to - and how much they missed that aspect of Ferguson’s do-anything-to-win mentality.

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Ok, Pap, accepting that maybe you’re being tongue-in-cheek with all this, but knowing that you’re not adverse to the odd conspiracy theory, I’ll bite and make a couple of points:

  1. It was actually Man City (8) – not Watford (7) – that finished second in the penalty count, 5 behind Leicester (13).

  2. If you take into account penalties awarded AGAINST both teams – Leicester (4), Man City (1) – then the difference in net terms, so to speak, is just 2 in Leicester’s favour.

Imo, the above contains very little evidence to suggest that referees were part of some Big Conspiracy behind Leicester winning the Prem League for marketing purposes.

Instead, I suggest the main reason Leicester won a lot of penalties was their fast-breaking style of play and the fact that the speedy James Vardy was very good at getting his ankles clipped and quite good at diving – something for which he was sent off towards the end of the season. Perhaps the dumb referee forgot to read his conspiracy script that day? :lou_wink_2:

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Maybe it was looking like too much of a procession, Halo.

The evil game fixers at the PL perhaps knew of the impending Spurs collapse. Needed to make it look good :lou_sunglasses:

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