23 Apr 2024 17:57:54


Lets Be Rational has written an article entitled, Has PGMOL turned into an impossible-to-overthrow dictatorship?

1.) 23 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 19:08:01
Ya think, LBR?

2.) 23 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 19:46:33
I'm happy to die on this hill, but VAR isn't the issue. There is a huge lack of competency from officials, top to bottom. the officials make basic errors, whether that's communication or failing to have the balls to overturn something.

The powers that be put officials in games they shouldn't be in. How many times have we argued about Manchester refs. They may not be biased but it opens up the question.

The rules are vague so open to interpretation. Handball being the main one.

offside is black and white but i don't think the tech is foolproof. Its reliant on taking measurements when the ball is played but frame rates make it impossible to be accurate. So there is no element of wiggle room as officials are told to keep their flags down. So you can't have the equivalent of umpires call.

The tech can help them, but PGMOL need to get their house in order.

{Ed025's Note - i think your right WYred, the referees are incompetent fools who are using VAR as a crutch mate..

3.) 23 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 20:49:25
Ed25, a former referee in Mike Dean saying that he decided to not alert a fellow referee to a wrong call in a match via VAR because he doesn't want him to get "more grief". The match referee also happens to be his friend Anthony Taylor. It just show the state of refereeing in this league. Its beyond a joke.

{Ed025's Note - it really is mfahmee, its no wonder people are calling it corruption mate when you hear stories like this , they dont know their arse from their elbow at the PGMOL and its become a total joke..

4.) 23 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 20:52:14
I think people are to quick to scream corruption after every var call is incorrect. They give the refs to much credit, there not smart enough to make a correct call never mind be able to hide thousands of pounds of bungs. Incompetence is the word people should be using, and it highlights the incompetence of the PGMOL for not getting the structure right at the top. Webb is out of his depth, the team of “elite” refs are all out of their league and it’s just the brown stuff rolling down hill and the fans have to suffer.

5.) 23 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 21:13:43
PGMOL is a limited company, so it would be interesting if any aggrieved party took them to court for failing to provide a service with reasonable care and skill.

6.) 23 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 21:21:51
Andy, I just think it's time to call it out in more drastic ways. If not, as I write, it is only get worse before it gets better.

Corruption is a strong word to use, it holds a lot of significance. Incompetence can more easily be swept under the carpet. It's all in the ways we challenge these decisions, and the words used simply hold a lot of power.

I don't necessarily call every decision corrupt - but the way PGMOL handles every case, openly make mistakes and then in secrecy make sure that no one is punished or held responsible, sweeping everything away, what else are we going to call it.
When you see the pundits and journalists being well paid by the mainstream to time and time again side with PGMOL, to not call out the glaringly obvious mistakes, I think corruption is a fair term to use. They are literally getting paid to take part in a machinery that decides who wins and who don't, a lot of economical structures rely on these decisions, and those keeping quiet only add to worsen the conditions.

As I write, not until especially the pundits and journalists grow a pair and quit their comfortable positions, will I trust it to get better.

{Ed002's Note - There is no corruption - an overused and misunderstood word. Who is paying them all off?}

7.) 23 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 21:44:48
At least Nottingham Forest has discovered that VAR is, in fact, Eric Morecambe.
Cup of tea, Ern?

Seriously though, I agree with Ed002. There is too much incompetence and too many incompetents for it to be corruption.

I'd do away with it tomorrow.

8.) 23 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 21:55:19
No-one can explain to me why VAR is not run by Artificial Intelligence.

9.) 23 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 22:19:38
@Ron At times I think it is run by Artificial Unintelligence.

10.) 23 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 22:44:35
Money doesn't have to change hands for something to be corrupt or corrupted.
The Tories are currently corrupt in their ability to tell the truth, propose sensibly policy or not stoke fake culture wars.

11.) 23 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 22:49:37
Refs don’t need to run VAR. It should not be used for “interpretation”. That’s the on field refs job.
It should be used for line calls and handballs.

If it hits the hand in the box it’s a penalty.
Fouls -ref looks at the screen.

12.) 24 Apr 2024
24 Apr 2024 04:56:51
It's a multi-clown circus of inconsistency and incompetency in equal measures.

I'd like to go back to the "win some lose some" decisions in football and be done w VAR. We can have video review on a Monday to either clear or award red cards. I'd bring in the CL offside AI to replace VAR.

But as we all know it's here to stay. What is it year 5 or so now. it should be seamless by now just catching seismic errors and not used for picking gnat rubbish out of black pepper.

13.) 24 Apr 2024
24 Apr 2024 06:44:00
"If it hits the hand in the box it’s a penalty. "

Ron it is not always that simple. What if a skillful player is able to kick the ball into the defenders hand, or the attacker pushes the players hand into the ball.

However, i guess i am being pedantic and I suspect your argument is that clearer rules are needed, as well as appropriate application.

I would argue another use of tech would help here, instead of running over to a screen on the opposite side of the pitch, is there another form of tech the ref can carry to get a quicker look?

I would love to have refs with a microphone to get clarification on things. Also to stop players crowding the ref.

14.) 24 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 22:06:18
Ed02, by now it is such a big machinery and so much money is being thrown around, I wouldn't even know where to begin.

It might just be the unfairness of it all, that makes me and others take words like corruption and dictatorship and misconduct etc. in use. I don't claim to know everything that is happening, I'm not saying PGMOL are the literal meaning of a dictatorship, and I don't want to go all out on conspiracies that I don't know the half of. But I don't know a single supporter of football who isn't sick to death about the current status of the game, and the way rules are being bent and swept away to fit some of these absurd narratives. And I think that the fact that no one is happy about it, yet it only seems to get worse, there just just has to be some kind of sinister favouritism or fraudulence going on.

Maybe if the pundits and journalists, who's voices could have a big impact, weren't siding with these absurdities meanwhile being paid decent money (I'm not saying they're bribed), it would sit better with me. But the fact that money seem to at least have the possibility of playing a huge role in all of this, the word corruption is just what springs to mind.

Words hold a lot of power, and as I say, I think more drastic words need to be taken into use if anything needs to get better.

{Ed002's Note - So who is paying PGMOL to be corrupt?}

15.) 24 Apr 2024
23 Apr 2024 22:31:12
I’ve never thought there to be corruption ed2, gross incompetence yes but not out right corruption. However, that statement that forest released has suggested corruption. Did Clattenburg have anything to do with that statement because if so what would lead him to make a thinly veiled suggestion of corruption by stating that they warned about the var being a Luton fan. What else can be interpreted from that particular line of the statement, and why on earth would a former ref suggest that the var would not be impartial, is it from past experience?

{Ed002's Note - I am not aware of Forest suggesting anyone is paying off anyone to be corrupt. You seem to be struggling to understand the words you are using.}

16.) 24 Apr 2024
24 Apr 2024 00:10:18
If it's not corrupt refs, then they're just useless, Ed002 and something needs to change very quickly.

{Ed002's Note - IF you think it is corruption, please share who is paying them.}

17.) 24 Apr 2024
24 Apr 2024 09:49:02
You do not need to pay everyone off for corruption to work, just pay enough of them. Look at the Chicago White Sox.

Referees jetting off to the UAE on Etihad airlines to referee games during this season? Was that for free? Would it be deemed fair and proper conduct in any other vocation?

However, I am falling on the side of incompetence. I don’t want to believe it is corruption.

18.) 24 Apr 2024
24 Apr 2024 10:03:08
Ed002, no one knows for sure as it's all just speculation and accusation. But if i was to start digging, i would start with referees who go to Saudi Arabia and UAE, only to return and immediately officiate prem clubs linked to those nations. I would also investigate 'insider trading' in the betting industry. Is it coincidental that Sly's pundits fail to speak out about the heinous decisions week in and week out, and that same organisation is heavily invested in gambling? We all know about players taking money to throw matches and gambling on the outcomes, would it not be feasible for this to go higher up the chain? There's buffoons that run things on a daily basis in all walks of life. Too many screwups and they get replaced. That happens in every single industry on the planet except politics and football.

19.) 24 Apr 2024
24 Apr 2024 14:10:31
So who is paying enough of them?