Death Threats for Refs

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i was never one who wanted VAR, i just had the feeling it would cause as many problems as it 'cures' but, due to the statement that it was to be used only 'for clear and obvious errors' i figured if it cured some/all of the cheating and diving then it will be worth the odd stoppage along the way.

instead it has turned into a 'would not be obvious under a feckin microscope/every time a goal is scored/may be a penalty shout/etc etc' whine fest for the pundits and the public alike...offside used to be offside, it was never the easiest of the rules to comprehend but the refs and linesmans understood it all, handball was if the hand was used to gain control of the ball...now we seem to have players who are in an offside position but they are not classed as being offside and if they are not interfering with play they are not offside or if the play is moved to the next phase they are not offside and how the holy hell can someone be millimeters offside ffs?...handball is no longer a penalty unless the arm is in an 'unatural position' or there was not enough distance between the ball being struck and the hand or if the ball bounced off some other part of the body then onto the hand, no mention of using the hands to gain control of the ball...the game is going to pot and the refs (who whined about people having a go at them because sky pundits were showing 1000 different angles in super-mega slow motion) have continued to show strong bias if and when required to make sure they get a couple of mentions during the game.

time for a massive rethink of how to use VAR if we are keeping it.

I reckon as video replays are here to stay, I cannot see them being banned, other sports use them effectively...what is it about football authorities that completely fcuk up what is relatively simple?

Although no sport can accommodate idiots like Mike Dean ( or the one we had at the weekend)..it needs sorting.
 
Anyone sending death threats to a ref wants to take a long hard look at themselves, utterly pathetic. They make mistakes, of course they do, they are human. I always tell my players the ref will make less mistakes than they will in a 90 minute match, and without a ref there is no match. Imagine if refs decided to strike over something like this, would make an interesting statement.

Having said the above I do believe refereeing standards have dropped. In my opinion the reason for that is the utter contempt they are held in by players and managers. Why would anyone good want the hassle! Players berate refs endlessly and managers scream blue murder from the touch line. The amount of times you see managers waiting to demand answers from a ref after the final whistle is ludicrous. It wasnt like this years ago, refs and players would talk to each other, now players just abuse and intimidate the ref constantly. In that environment decent people wont want to ref or run the line. We used to say things even themselves out over a season, and you should take the rough with the smooth, but now when something goes against you all the good fortune is forgotten.

Another thing, while I am on one, far too many players cheat and far too many managers condone it. Going down easy, rolling around screaming, pinching 5 yards at throw ins, timewasting, obstruction at corners, etc etc. With teams carrying on like this refs need eyes in the back of their heads. I honestly think the modern day player and coach contribute to poor quality decisions by refs. Far too little respect inside of football anymore.
 
Mike Dean is the sort of twat who would get battered on nights out fairly regularly if he went on like he does on TV. He obviously doesn’t deserve death threats but after those two disastrous sending offs in a week being rescinded, why is he not partaking in Premier League games at his request? Any ****er else would have been demoted
 
Anyone see Lincoln’s penalty v Gillingham? Makes a mockery when we aren’t getting stonewallers
Just on a minute in

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As much as it pains me to say it with him being a mag, I think Michael Oliver managed the City and Liverpool game really well (other than the penalty, but I guess there was contact).

Whenever I see Mike Oliver I just remember Joe Hart planting a slight head but on him during the Manchester derby and him doing absolutely nothing about it. there's an episode on My sporting life on talkSPORT with Mark Clattenburg. He has an ego but it's worth a listen about why.
 
Whenever I see Mike Oliver I just remember Joe Hart planting a slight head but on him during the Manchester derby and him doing absolutely nothing about it. there's an episode on My sporting life on talkSPORT with Mark Clattenburg. He has an ego but it's worth a listen about why.
I think he’s got better over time though. I can’t stand Clattenburg, I know someone who’s reffed him while he was playing and he was a grade a ****.

Not forgetting this... <laugh>

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The thing to me is that theres always been crap, incompetent refs, anyone of a certain age supporting a North Eastern team will shudder remembering Telford Mills, but there's just more and more of them these days. The can screw up regularly yet nothing is done about them. I don't condone death threats to Dean, but his arrogance is astounding. Has no one from the refs management ever pulled him to one side and told him to ream it back a bit? There's nothing wrong about making a mistake and over turning it if VAR shows it, yet he's refused to do it twice in a couple of matches. Yet he's probably not the worst there's been. Graham Poll, Andre Marriner, Kevin Friend, Graham Barr, it just seens ad one retires another one steps up to make the High profile cock ups. The blame has to be down to the way the referees association is ran and how they train new refs. Until that changes it'll just keep going the way it is.
 
VAR is turning out to be a total pigs breakfast, the latest rule changes don't help either, why do they have to keep changing them, the off-side rule used to be plain and simple, now its so complicated its ridiculous. The goal line technology is fine, the rest needs to be changed or scrapped altogether.
Amother thing about the rule changes is that they happen mid season. So teams benefit and gain points early in the season, then the rule changes and VAR stops a team from winning a game despite the identical scenarios earlier on the season.
Goal line tech is the only thing that’s been done right as you say. Offside could easily be “referees adjudication real time” for those that are so close. Like an “umpires call” in the cricket. If he puts his flag up, it’s offside, if not, then he’s not!

as for that red card for the “elbow”. Complete accident and you can see that. The West Ham player didn’t have to make such a meal of it mind (wasn’t mitrovic but mitrovic did try to intervene)

but you can damn right guarantee that, had that been a SAFC defender, he’d probably get his bam extended for appealing against it
 
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we should have had a pen on Saturday but i would like to shout and ball at that ref but that's all, they have their reasons o Nien could have been sent off in the 2nd half so they seem to even up over a season. i hope VAR is gone when we get back to the premier league though. the diving by players is appalling now though, slightest touch Marco said it is momemtum/speed the players are running, bull they know just how to get 'caught' by an aponnent, touch their back, leg whatever and straight down. As for VAR has a goal ever been given with the offside rule when there is a 'dead heat' no i don't think so.
 
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AI will get to the stage where it will be making these calls before long, I would think.

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Death threats to a ****ing referee? It's football for ****'s sake. What's wrong with these people. Whatever happened to chanting "the referee's a ****er."

People really shouldn't have the access to players and referees that they have.
 
Yes I know we think the refs in our god forsaken league are awful.

Mike Dean, after viewing a replay on VAR sent off two players, not in the same game.

I believe both decisions have been reversed. He has received death threats, the police are investigating.

He has asked to not ref a league game at the weekend, is going to do a cup game in the next couple of days.

VAR, is supposed to make the refs have an easier time, in Dean's case it is making a fool of him. Nobody should have keyboard warriors making death threats about them.

VAR, guidance has to be issued to refs better than it is now. ATM it us messing up, hand balls, penalties, sending offs and offsides...yep it is all better now is it not.

Cricket, Rugby, Tennis all have it working only in football can the blazers mess it up.

I was always told if you have to think about a big decision you dont make it! They should just hit you straight away.
You could see he was undecided as it took 20 replays for him to make it.

Death threats as in any walk of life. Unacceptable. Immediate jail sentence.
 
VAR is great in theory, poor in practice.

We all know that a player's arm can be offside without him seeking to gain any advantage and being on the outer limits of interfering with play. Wiping out a brilliant goal in a Cup Final or title decider on the basis of a mathematical calculation, after a 5 minute delay, would be quite sad and against all of the joy of the game.

Football is mirroring society in general, whereby everyone is an expert who knows and demands their rights, but sometimes you just have to accept the fact that things aren't always 100% fair, grit your teeth and get on with things.
 
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I was always told if you have to think about a big decision you dont make it! They should just hit you straight away.
You could see he was undecided as it took 20 replays for him to make it.

Death threats as in any walk of life. Unacceptable. Immediate jail sentence.
<laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh>

Sorry!! I don't disagree with you, just the sheer idiocy that is our justice system will likely just say "don't do it again" as they don't have the balls to jail people when they deserve it. Seemingly the prisons are already overcrowded - my personal opinion, you break the law seriously enough, you lose any human rights you had. You get sardined in wherever you fit and that's that.
 
I've been threatening to murder Refs from the terraces,for over 50 years<laugh>
Football is,a game of opinions and despite the advances in both technology and their supposed status as professional still hasn't improved things since I started watching in the late 50s.
I've met some Premiership Refs socially and would class them all as self centred with the attitude it's all about them out on the pitch when in fact good Refs do a game without being noticed.
How that guy on Saturday failed to spot the handball is quite astonishing, in fact I think he did see it and completely bottled having to make what could have been a match winning decision.
It's amazing how they're on the whistle for easy infringements outside the penalty area but when it comes to the crunch they're found wanting.
Don't see any improvement in the standard of Refereeing in all the years I've been watching, but when you do see one having a good game it stands out like a saw thumb.

I to have been happily insulting Refs for many decades, and that has been socialy acceptable amongst Fans AND Referees during that time.

But as in so many other asspects of life, 'Social Media' has changed things.
Lockdown has only worsened the situation.
Now, instead of hurling abuse from the terraces it's possible to make it very personal if you wish to.

And the only answer I can think of involves restricting how social media can be used which would involve restrictions and provoke an altogether more wide ranging discussion.

So, on to Referee's.
I have a lot of sympthy for them, which makes me unusual reading most of the posts.
In my Youth I was required to Referee a couple of Games.
I assumed that this would be easy.
It wasn't.
I was not good at it.
The old expression, 'don't knock it till you have tried it' is very much in my mind.


As for VAR I confess to being massively in favour of it's intriduction for years.
I too regularly used the examples of Cricket, Rugby and Tennis to show how it could work well.
NOW, with the benefit of hindsight, I realise that I failed to take into account just how much more complicated the Rules of Footbal are than those of these other sports.
Take Tennis.
The ball is either in or out. A video replay will show which. Same for a fault.
Matters of bad behaviour happen out in the open and I can not recall video evidence ever being used.
And it's the same with cricket where the technology will give the correct answer.
Bad behavior is rare but is occasionaly caught on camera on the even rarer occasions that the Umpires miss it.
Both codes of Rugby seem to have it working smoothly for their rules and most importantly, the players and clubs accept the decisions.

So what different about football?
Players with 'balance problems' who fall over at the slightest touch.
Offside rules that can depend on how a groundsman cut the grass on his pitch.
The thickness of the leather on the boot.

I think that football referee's might have the hardest of jobs as there is so much scope for opinion.
I believe that the original intention on VAR was that it would only come into play if there had been a clear and obvious mistake that had an important effect on the game.
Perhap things might have been better had the 'powers that be' just left it at that.
 
I to have been happily insulting Refs for many decades, and that has been socialy acceptable amongst Fans AND Referees during that time.


Both codes of Rugby seem to have it working smoothly for their rules and most importantly, the players and clubs accept the decisions.

So what different about football?

I believe it's every fans right to question and insult the ref from the terraces, it's part of the game. I don't believe players should be confronting the ref, in all my years of playing I never argued with a referee, mentally cursed them, yes, but kept it to myself. Why is it that in Rugby, despite the obvious much greater level of physical contact, aggression and violence, nobody swears at or shouts at the ref? Especially not the managers and coaches! People say it's down to passion and the moment, sorry, for me it's just a lack of discipline and in a lot of cases, pure arrogance.

As for VAR, what a total shambles! Keep goal line tech., get rid of VAR.
 
I believe it's every fans right to question and insult the ref from the terraces, it's part of the game. I don't believe players should be confronting the ref, in all my years of playing I never argued with a referee, mentally cursed them, yes, but kept it to myself. Why is it that in Rugby, despite the obvious much greater level of physical contact, aggression and violence, nobody swears at or shouts at the ref? Especially not the managers and coaches! People say it's down to passion and the moment, sorry, for me it's just a lack of discipline and in a lot of cases, pure arrogance.

As for VAR, what a total shambles! Keep goal line tech., get rid of VAR.

I played Rugby to a moderate level and at Football I would turn out to fill in gaps when ever required.
Never argued with any Rugby Ref although on occasions I did ask afterwards in the Bar about some of his interpretations of a law.
However I confess to being in regular trouble playing Football.

There was another difference in the two games as well.
At Rugby, it was not at all unusual to be having a regular battle with a particular opponant.
After the game though the only argument we would have would be which of us was buying the other a drink.
This differed from my experiences on the Football field where I regularly observed on-field animosity carried on to 'behind the dressing room fighting'.
I read once that Rugby was a game for gentlement to behave like thugs whereas Football was a game for thugs to behave like gentlemen.
If this is true they each reverted to type after the game.