Is there a level of corruption in the league right now?

[the golden visionary]

That Ayling hand ball wasn't given because it was "too high on the arm" and, yes, it was checked by VAR.

Wish I was joking.

They just make the rules up as they go to suit what they want the decision to be.

Ahh the old 'to high on the arm' or "for Everton "

 

[brigadier]

Any competition that has rule changes week by week and the participants are only told the rule alteration after the incident has happened is a total farce, one step away from wrestling.

 

[deipnosophist]

Is a LOT of money involved? If yes, then there is corruption. It's a pretty basic syllogism

 

[Seathestars]

I’m beginning to wonder if the prem is football’s equivalent of wrestling, staged. VAR helps them to stage it.
Look at the offside a few days ago, his sleeve FFS, the lines aren’t even parallel / straight

 

[deipnosophist]

This season, there has been an 'all points bulletin' to officials that "Man U is to get every 50/50 call'. Last season it was the RS.
It's bent as all {poor language removed}

 

[Curtis]

Is there a systematic bias that favors the sky six? I believe so but at the same time it's not a sinister cabal run by a bond Villians type with a cat deliberating on who wins. I see as more subtle and latent just baked in the game itself. I honestly don't think they're is a conscious effort to disenfranchise the rest of the league. Its just more likely for a ref to side with a team of prestige due to ingrained recognition. At least that's my outlook

 

[Death]

Is there a systematic bias that favors the sky six? I believe so but at the same time it's not a sinister cabal run by a bond Villians type with a cat deliberating on who wins. I see as more subtle and latent just baked in the game itself. I honestly don't think they're is a conscious effort to disenfranchise the rest of the league. Its just more likely for a ref to side with a team of prestige due to ingrained recognition. At least that's my outlook

Possibly true i think but also when you bring VAR into it when a ref has all the time and replays and gives a dodgey decision. You have to ask if thats more of a subtle subconscious bias guiding them. Or if they are consciously desperate to get to big team over the line.

 

[Deleted member 48881]

Yeah some results just don't make sense, lots of dirty stuff going on.

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

I personally think VAR is a good thing in the long term as it takes some of the emotion and pressure out of the call and makes it a bit more objective. They just need to iron out the vagaries that the new technology has thrown up, like when is a handball not a handball.

 

[Tipp blue]

The decisions that United have been getting for the past 18 months are ridiculous. Penalty after penalty for obvious dives.. a penalty given after the final whistle.. Gilfi called offside despite it being an own goal by Maguire, numours ball to hand given as penalties that we certainly never get.
It's blatantly obvious that there is a campaign to get United back at the top. The team they have is not good they have 1 top class player Fernandes, Rashford you'd say is very good as is Pogba when he turns up, other than that the rest of the team is bang average.

 

[Curtis]

Possibly true i think but also when you bring VAR into it when a ref has all the time and replays and gives a dodgey decision. You have to ask if thats more of a subtle subconscious bias guiding them. Or if they are consciously desperate to get to big team over the line.

In the case of VAR what you posit is completely valid. as in theory they have ample time to deliberate but another factor that needs to be applied is gross incompetence. Some of these refs are just incapable of sound decision making despite further time to mull things over.. Also the rules themselves are so nebulous in conjunction with ineptness creates chaos as well.
I think a benefit of the doubt exists more for individual players than the teams themselves, like the Olympic diving team of EPL , Salah , Mane, and Rashford. So if there is an actual active willingness to aid the top teams what is the hierarchy when two top six teams play? Is there a chart that's referred to? In the Southampton, Man U game , they made an atrocious VAR decision that benefited Man U but the call didn't alter the fate of the game. So for me even with VAR I feel innate bias is stil the presiding influence in conjuction with unqualified officials.

 

[Wolf8312]

Well there's a couple of things there. Firstly I didn't mean always as in 'every single time', I meant always as in 'it will never change'. There will always be challenges where the referee has to make a subjective call as to whether it's a foul or not. Secondly, the last line; I think this is just plain wrong. Of course you think you can tell whether it's a foul or not, because you're making up your own mind. That doesn't mean you're objectively 'right' though, or that everyone would agree with you. Of course there are clear-cut cases where everyone can see that it/is isn't a foul, and in 99% of cases the referees call these too, but there are instances in every single game where the call is borderline, sometimes you get them sometimes you don't. It's why you get terms like 'soft', the inference being that the decision wasn't wrong as such, but then it wasn't necessarily right either, it just comes down to your viewpoint.

I think the problem is they are enforcing the rules selectively whenever it suits them.

If they want to make off-sides that occur at the atomic level bookable, or give penalties for 'ball to hand' offenses then fine but it should be enforced consistently and isn't being.

I was not talking about 50/50's but about decisions the entire football world, from fans down to pundits, players and even the refs themselves are unanimous in saying are just wrong.

When a decision is too close to be called, it should not be called IMO. A finger or armpit being offside is not ambiguous it is just plain ridiculous!

I think your refusal to entertain the possibility of corruption in football is wishful thinking personally, though my father won't have it either!

The truth is though neither of us can know for sure.

 

[barneygumble]

I’m beginning to wonder if the prem is football’s equivalent of wrestling, staged. VAR helps them to stage it.
Look at the offside a few days ago, his sleeve FFS, the lines aren’t even parallel / straight
View attachment 116683

I don’t even support Southampton and it makes me angry.

It would help if they actually knew their own rules. How can an unplayable part of the body, be classed as offside?

Ive said It before, Hawkeye works, as its robotically based. But unless they get VAR functioning on a robotic only level, it’ll always be flawed.

Footbalk governing body isn’t soft. It’s another way to manipulate the game for their own benefit.

 

[Dom1878]

For offsides they can surely change the technology. Webbing of microchips in the ball/boots and base offside purely on boots. Surely can be done - I remember this method was one of the proposed solutions for goal line technology.

But even if not as complex above, they need to refine offside to head/boots only.

 

[Lanolin]

I think the problem is they are enforcing the rules selectively whenever it suits them.

If they want to make off-sides that occur at the atomic level bookable, or give penalties for 'ball to hand' offenses then fine but it should be enforced consistently and isn't being.

I was not talking about 50/50's but about decisions the entire football world, from fans down to pundits, players and even the refs themselves are unanimous in saying are just wrong.

When a decision is too close to be called, it should not be called IMO. A finger or armpit being offside is not ambiguous it is just plain ridiculous!

I think your refusal to entertain the possibility of corruption in football is wishful thinking personally, though my father won't have it either!

The truth is though neither of us can know for sure.

I don't know what you're talking about here to be honest, you seem to have gone off on a weird tangent. People getting booked for offside?! And who said I don't believe there's corruption in football?! Of course there is. I just don't believe that the corruption involves referees being bribed to give penalties.