Refereeing in the Prem

The standard is really quite poor at the moment. We’ve always had 2/3 really good refs who regularly got top international games. What have we got now? Maybe Michael Oliver?

And VAR has done very little to level things up and address bias because of how and when VAR is used. Bad decisions are still taken in the first instance that favour big clubs. VAR often seems to sit on its hands when bad decisions go against small clubs - nothing to see here. VAR seem more likely to intervene when a big club makes a fuss (at least when it comes to checking in the first place). So the same human biases that led to problems in the first place still persist.

We were also told this season would be different and it would need a “proper” foul to give a pen, not the kind of “there was contact” s**t we had last season. But we’re still seeing a spate of “manufactured contact” pens.

Maybe with a better cohort of refs it would be better, but I doubt it. The time has come to scrap the whole system. Just automate offside by putting a sensor in each players “sports bra” and the ball. Beside fixing offside, VAR offers nothing.

Posted By: Under soil heating, Dec 12, 08:33:08