Football is broken

[Nick Bateman]

One sees clear evidence that the Premier League is corrupt in the Cardiff-Chelsea match today.

Regardless of whether this was a good result for Fulham (it's not because we cannot win any of our games), one should want to see fair play at all levels and this clearly was not.

Referee Craig Pawson proceeded to engineer Chelsea's recovery from defeat after Cardiff had genuinely deserved the lead.  He ignored two penalty appeals, one which certainly looked obvious, then booked a Chelsea player he should have sent off.  With the aid of a linesman, Chelsea equalized with a goal at least 2 yards offside.  This is not opinion, simply fact!

Many on this board will have little sympathy for Neil Warnock, and his team have profitted from doidgy decisions in the past, but two wrongs do not make a right.

Incidently, Pawson was the official who cheated Fulham against Liverpool with a DIVE by Mané giving them all three points.  proves there is no policing of these refs who continue to cheat teams left, right and centre, week in, week out!

[YankeeJim]

Lets see, Cardiff, Chelsea and Nick Bateman.
Which ones inspire the most love, fellow Fulham fans?

[ffcne]

Who cares about poor old Cardiff.
We have had bad decisions all season.
From the first game when should have had a penalty.

[Wingnut]

Who cares about poor old Cardiff.
We have had bad decisions all season.
From the first game when should have had a penalty.

A penalty against Palace?

[ffcne]

Who cares about poor old Cardiff.
We have had bad decisions all season.
From the first game when should have had a penalty.

A penalty against Palace?

Yes.

[Robbie]

Hopefully VAR should help to clear a lot of this up.

City's first goal yesterday ... three players in front of our keeper and offside but apparently not getting in the way of play!

[Camel Club]

No love whatsoever for Cardiff but the sorts of decisions that were made today for Chelsea's equaliser can only be explained as either breathtaking incompetence or corruption.  It will be interesting to see how VAR will be utilised to disproportionately benefit the top clubs.

[JoelH5]

I was delighted. Would love to see Cardiff go down with us.

[Sgt Fulham]

I was delighted. Would love to see Cardiff go down with us.

Me too, though the post isn't really about Cardiff per se. More about big team bias which is a problem.

[Nero]

The trouble with VAR you still have a bunch of incompetent officials looking at it

[Woolly Mammoth]

It's corruption, because it's impossible for officials at that level to make so many errors of judgement. They are not even close errors.

[Nick Bateman]

The trouble with VAR you still have a bunch of incompetent officials looking at it

True.  Incompetant or simply corrupt.  They are the same beast.

Problem is do we want football in the Premier League to always be this way?  To rely on having a neutral referee and linesman to be allowed to compete?  It was never this way when I was younger, we could appreciate the skills and efforts of other teams and not believe that teams like Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool are in FALSE positions aided and abetted by the FA to the eternal detriment of the game we want to enjoy.

Neil Warnock said it succinctly here.  They are indeed "the worst refs in the world".  Fulham fans already have suffered from these career cheats, one hopes they will be exposed one day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47765542

[bobbo]

I honestly do not believe they cheat, they're just not up to it.

[Dodgin]

Like Cardiff or not, the decisions were shocking and the three points may well have saved them from the drop.

[Andy S]

I think you have to be exceptionally good to cheat in most fields. Football is played at such a fast pace it is almost impossible to referee the game without assistance. Camera replays do the game no favours and put referees under a lot of pressure. There were three completely wrong decisions in the Cardiff v Chelsea game. Cardiff are playing a lot better than we are at the moment so I wish them well. They are only 50/50 to survive at the minute. If they deserve to they will

[Nick Bateman]

If one sees Chelsea every week DIVING and cheating and the referees rewarding them, one can put 2 + 2 together and deduce this is how the FA wish things to be.  They will only make an "error" in Chelsea's favour, just as they will do likewise to Fulham and Cardiff against us.  The officials are consistant in making these 'mistakes' for the Chelseas and Arsenals every single match. 

And I for one knew Liverpool would get a penalty at the first opportunity after we equalised to harm their title bid (and boost our chance of survival).  They did and it was Craig Pawson the same man who robbed Cardiff today.

[Woolly Mammoth]

I honestly do not believe they cheat, they're just not up to it.

I would like to agree with you, but Referees and Lino's do look the other way, which in my book is tantamount to cheating.

[toshes mate]

I was delighted. Would love to see Cardiff go down with us.

Provided teams are promoted and relegated on merit then all is fair in love and war, but it is, IMO, short sighted not to see the underlying malaise of officials influencing the outcome of far too many PL and EFL games.  The same malaise is also appearing in other sports and it is always detrimental to the overall experience when it is so blatantly incorrect and uncorrected.  As someone else has pointed out four City players appeared to be offside when their first goal went in, more than enough for 'other sides' to see a flag raised when its against their interests.  Does it happen often enough to be construed as somthing other than just luck?  As a neutral looking in on other games and other sports it is getting to look that way to me.  And we know how important money is in almost all sport too.  Put the two together and you should be disturbed if nothing else.

[Nick Bateman]

I was delighted. Would love to see Cardiff go down with us.

Provided teams are promoted and relegated on merit then all is fair in love and war, but it is, IMO, short sighted not to see the underlying malaise of officials influencing the outcome of far too many PL and EFL games.  The same malaise is also appearing in other sports and it is always detrimental to the overall experience when it is so blatantly incorrect and uncorrected.  As someone else has pointed out four City players appeared to be offside when their first goal went in, more than enough for 'other sides' to see a flag raised when its against their interests.  Does it happen often enough to be construed as somthing other than just luck?  As a neutral looking in on other games and other sports it is getting to look that way to me.  And we know how important money is in almost all sport too.  Put the two together and you should be disturbed if nothing else.

Quite correct.

When one sees videos of 'thuggish' defenders trying to hack George Best down, and he doesn't go down, one compares this to the likes of Hazard & Willam who are lauded adjulation and rewarded for basically "cheating".  One even saw Raheem Sterling try his hand several times, ref Kevin Friend resisted until the fourth time he went down cheaply (he also failed to book Sterling for a crude foul after booking 2 Fulham players for barely touching City 'divers').

I talk to many people who do not like football and they state it is the diving and acting that puts them off most.  One cannot find fault with their argument and one is embarassed to be an admirer of our sport sometimes.  Such is the state of the 'modern' (broken) game.

[Moltobueno]

pretty delusional topic. mistakes happen, no reason to cry about it - it's not like the FA will now nullify the result because of an upset supporter...

whats worse imo, is diving - and i can still remember the kamara dive on begovic. so by that logic fulham is cheating aswell.