Is the league, for want of a better word, ‘bent’?

Just had a look at the Bluemoon thread on the cafe. This thread has made it onto there.

And what do you know, the replies are like what you’d read on here, but about us getting away with all sorts, paying refs etc etc etc.
What decisions are they using as evidence of City getting away with all sorts and paying refs?
 
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We have to stop the fucking excuses to try and paper over the cracks that we are playing like shit. Excuses are for losers. No way Fourmidables and Centurions would complain about stuff like this. It doesn't look good. Score more goals and concede less instead.
Excuses?
Of course we're playing shite, are mentally fragile, lacking tactical versatility and have players not at the required level, this is an additional discussion.
 
I not got the time to trawl through this thread

So are you saying City are treated just the same as every other team

That every other team in the last few matches have had the decisions we have had against us or similar?

If so can you tell me about them
You’re best not, and this is my final contribution too.

We get some stinkers, we also get some that go our way that fans of other clubs will look at as stinkers.

Other clubs fans have the exact same perception of how they are treated as some on here think we do. They also think their own clubs are always on the receiving end when they play us, or that we get the rub of the green due to brown envelopes and all that bollocks.

Not everyone can be right, but as I’ve said already there is no rational thinking from a football fan when it comes to such matters.
 
Well almost, but not entirely. Take the Wolves non-penalty for instance. The VAR team included a very experienced referee, albeit with a suspected bias against us, and similarly experienced colleagues. The advice given to them this season, for VAR intervention says:

The ‘Referee’s Call’ will stand unless, in the
opinion of the VAR, based upon the evidence readily available, that call is a clear and obvious error.

• VAR is not in place to re-referee incidents
• Clear evidence required to meet the high threshold for subjective interventions, taking into account what football expects
• Consistency of VAR is enhanced by applying a high threshold for intervention


So the VAR team took several minutes to conclude that the referee had made a clear and obvious error. However, the inexperienced but brave debutant PL referee knew better and he overruled his experienced and better qualified advisors, denying that an offence had occurred.

Bizarre, really, but on this occasion the VAR decision was in our favour. It's just that the referee decided for the first time in the PL this season to ignore it.

The referee was right in a way though, because in our case, decisions against City are "what football expects". Refer also to numerous other rogue decisions this season and over the years.

Yes, but when I say VAR I include the referee's decision in all that - If the VAR doesn't get you then the referee will and vice versa.
 
Excuses?
Of course we're playing shite, are mentally fragile, lacking tactical versatility and have players not at the required level, this is an additional discussion.

Yep, some posters can't see the difference in us playing poorly and in us getting bad decisions.
If you want to talk about City's form there are other threads for that - plus we shouldn't have to play that well that the bad decisions don't hamper us.
 
Clear and obvious error is the problem. Nothing was clear or obvious at the time without VAR

However it’s clear and obvious with VAR that the spurs player comes through Guehi.

And it must be clear and obvious that the ref didn’t see that since the goal was given as scored by the spurs player and no foul was given.
 
Gallagjer on ref watch. Here we go..
'They were looking at the offside, nocity players appealed'

VAR...'we check every goal for fouls'.

Corrupt as fuck
I've seen this a few times, no one appealed so it cant be a foul.

Encouraging players to shout and scream at the ref at every half chance just in case. We'll see an increase in abuse and harrassment of referees if this is the standard we're now going to apply.

Just to avoid saying that the ref and VAR made a bad decision.

Thats been a really standout thing about the last month. Not just the incredibly poor decisions that have gone against us but the refusal of Webb, PGMOL and parts of the media to admit they made a mistake. Its weird and I do think something is up.
 
You’re best not, and this is my final contribution too.

We get some stinkers, we also get some that go our way that fans of other clubs will look at as stinkers.

Other clubs fans have the exact same perception of how they are treated as some on here think we do. They also think their own clubs are always on the receiving end when they play us, or that we get the rub of the green due to brown envelopes and all that bollocks.

Not everyone can be right, but as I’ve said already there is no rational thinking from a football fan when it comes to such matters.
I agree.


the league is not bent but incompetent, all teams get terrible calls against them, our officials are vastly inept or underqualified to perform their duties, but I do think it is right after a consistant run of 6 straight games of very poor decisions that have affected the top of the table that our staff call out this, and other players and managers are welcome to do the same when it happens to them.

Same Moyes was correct to call his booking fucking sad, we are being officiated by clowns.
 
Don't forget we were on the right side of VAR against Brighton when Doku was cleaned out. The question was, though, how the fuck was it not given straight away by the referee who was five yards away with a totally clear view of it?
 
Answer his specific points Langley. The agenda is also evident in games we aren't even involved in - the agenda being what is commercially beneficial for the pl. Alas ,that involves one of utd, liverpool and arsenal doing well.
That's why other teams get bent decisions against them too, and it looks widespread. That said, the analysis and efforts to rule against City, or the lack of effort to find for them, is clear. I used to just put it down to the subjectivety of the ref and var official. Clearly we're not popular and our rise and spending, removed us from being anyone's "second favourite team" long ago. I imagine finding officials to officiate us without their own subjective bias, is extremely difficult. However, I'm now leaning towards it being more deep rooted than that. An institutionalised Cityism.

Don't bother. It's just obfuscation. It didn't even make any sense.
 
VAR decisions are a one way street in a City.game.
Thats the crux of it for me. We now KNOW that if it goes to VAR we are not getting the decision in approx 80-90% of the calls, and that those decisions will defy logic. Thats probably since the beginning of December as far as I can see.
 
To paraphrase the immortal bard: If I ever self-aggrandise so much as to announce that I am no longer going to post in a thread, then shoot me.
 
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Yep, some posters can't see the difference in us playing poorly and in us getting bad decisions.
If you want to talk about City's form there are other threads for that - plus we shouldn't have to play that well that the bad decisions don't hamper us.
They must have been pulling their hair out in 22/23, when we were just too good to be reined in by their deliberate interventions.
 
Yes, but when I say VAR I include the referee's decision in all that - If the VAR doesn't get you then the referee will and vice versa.

Tag-team officialdom - Howard Webb's PGMOL solution to to every debatable topic.

If the refereee can't find a reason to punish, then bring in VAR to confuse/delay/pass the buck, and if all else fails, make up a new " reason not necessarily within the LOTG " and pass back.

Referee then looks at monitor for endless period before totally ignoring advice from VAR official, and carry on with original decision.

Outcome - 5-6 minutes delay to game, frustration to both sets of fans, before convincing 1 set of fans that the whole system is corrupt.

This is supposed to be fucking progress !
 
I'd pay good money to see Pep come to a press conference with a dossier of the bad decisions and reel them off, Benitez-style.
 
It amazes me that we buy 2 excellent players in the January transfer window, 1 of them wanted by Liverpool, and straight away the media start a negative crusade against us.
"Why is the result of the charges taking so long"
"Look at how much Manchester City have spent again" etc etc etc.
It just looks a little suspect that in almost exactly the same time frame (January) that all these decisions have started to go against us.
It's as if it's connected.
Maybe the powers that be really are desperate for an Arsenal title win this season and City improving their squad in January made them a little fearful of a title race getting a little too close for comfort
 

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