We must never complain about bad reffering again

[Nick Bateman]

I do not agree that over a few games or a season, these things even themselves out, it does not, it's a fallacy, like saying referees are human and make mistakes, it is not mistakes, they deliberately pretend they did not see an incident, because they lack bottle. If they made as many mistakes as they do, they would not be refereeing at that level, no they are not mistakes, they are frightened of the big calls, so if they haven't the courage why do they referee. The answer is that they get well paid for avoiding making a decision, it's a comfort zone, and the person to blame for this culture is the head of the referees association which I believe is a Mike Riley or something similar, but correct me if I am wrong.
The plain and simple answer is that it is negligence and incompetence, and nothing to do with not seeing an incident, and that is failing to take responsibility for their own decisions. That is why that along with VAR and the obscene money earnt by average players, football is eating itself from within, and with some big clubs built on sand, will eventually collapse like a pack of cards, if and when sponsors pull out fans stop attending matches due to prices and football on many channels, the bottom will eventually fall out with football leaving a wasteland of regrets and the demise of once called big rich clubs, who spent most of their years using a cheque book as a crutch when the banks call in their debts.

I agree Mammoth. Riley is at the helm allowing the worst refereeing in the history of the English game. It's as deliberate as Sky TV's absence from any Fulham home games, and when they do show us (away) they have someone from Leyton Orient to represent Fulham's opinion on their panel. The commentators are also at it as well, describing blatant "dives" as fouls.

One feels football has become now like WWE, but without the realism. Yesterday's ref was fairer than most Fulham have had this season, he only allowed Swansea to time-waste too much.

[Andy S]

We will always complain when decisions are wrong and that won't change. Every supporter wants to win and fairly and by a decent score. Not in the 93rd minute unless we have to

[Jim©]

I'm not sure why people are even debating the Odoi one. He wins the ball and about half a second later Ayew sudddenly goes down after contact with his OWN player. That's why Ayew was livid, he thought the contact was from Odoi.

I though Neeskens got upended, and it was either a defender trying to be clever to take him out or the defender knew absolutely nothing about it.

[toshes mate]

On the question of luck, assuming good and bad versions can be readily and easily identified and separated into two distinct camps, then it will only even out when you reach infinity if that were even possible.  Other than for that infinite moment outcomes are entirely random.

On the question of the pressure upon referees and their ability to deal with it, then we should remember it is simply employment in a job with rules and traits thoroughly engrained upon all those participating long before they get to games in the top leagues.  The non-conformers to these standards are long gone.  The referee is assessed on how he or she deals with contention and not on the decision making that caused the problem, even when it is a 'howler' (see VAR matters for a quick review of how little a problem 'howlers' are seen to be). 

If we had a lot less box ticking and a lot more striving to be obvious-to-all-better then we might see improvements all round, but given current methods this is about as good as it is ever going to get although I fear it is doomed to get much, much worse without change.

[AnOldBrownie]

The reffing was shite for both sides.    Tom Cairney got taken down, and the player ONLY got Tom's legs and no ball at all.  Player didn't even get a yellow.


We can complain, but reffing in general with certain refs is going to be crap.