Referees’ Performances | 2024/2025

[eyalluvitt]

Because Salah has too win the golden boot at all costs.
Premier league are sick of Haaland being so famous and playing for city at the same time.
Unbelievable decision to take that goal off him

Mo (held Liverpool to ransom for 450 grand a week) Salah, they’ll never print that

 

[willipp]

No I disagree.

VAR framed at as we can’t see if it was handball or not. VAR should have said we saw no handball.

Exactly this. The question shouldn’t be can you rule out if he hand balled it. It should be did he handball it? The answer on evidence is no he didn’t, give the goal.

 

[eyalluvitt]

When he first came over he was a good ref in the games I saw. It is clear that he has been 'coached' to comply to the pl way.

He lived next door to fat Ange on Ramsay st , small world

 

[balotellishaircut]

So you want a system where referees make no decisions whatsoever and everything is left to VAR's 5 minutes process?
God help us!

God help us if fans like you are sticking up for that referee decision last night.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

So you want a system where referees make no decisions whatsoever and everything is left to VAR's 5 minutes process?
God help us!

I think the hope is that the Ref doesn’t make a decision based on evidence NO-ONE can see or find after 5 minutes of repeated slo-mo review.

One of my problems, post-VAR, is that Refs are not making decisions and asking VAR to see if they missed anything “clear and obvious.” The “non-decision” has become the default, because they don’t want to make a decision that is then overturned (be cause they were wrong!), but are willing to acquiesce to the VAR Review that sends them to the monitor to see the slo-mo “mistake” they “couldn’t be expected to have seen in real time.”

So, rather than having VAR be a 5 min waiting process, the game is usually still running and VAR RARELY finds anything in that time.

 

[Centurions]

Not one Spurs player asked for handball.

Since the ref had already blown for handball why would they?

That said, fuck knows how the ref could see it from his position with all of those bodies in the way and looking from the back of the action. If he'd allowed the goal then VAR would presumably have said there's no clear evidence that you're wrong and we'd have won 0-2 instead. Then Spurs would be complaining that it shouldn't have stood (not that it affected the points(. I don't think it was handball BTW but I can see VAR's viewpoint in this. I'm less sure of what the ref thought he was doing.

 

[Feed the Elk]

He blows the whistle after the cameras cut to Haaland celebrating (i.e. the time you would normally blow it to signal a goal) so you can't actually see his signal. But he doesn't move his whistle to his lips when he sees the 'handball.' The key for me is that literally no-one in the ground or the commentary team reacted as if the goal had been disallowed, just that they were going for the standard VAR check after a goal. The graphics team change the score to 2-0 and don't change it back until Spurs are nearly scoring up the other end. The commentary team then spent the four minutes talking as if they hadn't given the handball and were just making sure he didn't handle it, and then here's the exact conversation between the commentator and co-commentator:

"In the absence of conclusive evidence, the VAR official Graham Scott is going to agree with the referee's on field decision... ...Well this is interesting. Unless the referee immediately gave......That's obviously what he must have done Clive. Well a little bit of uncertainty there. Certainly Erling Haaland ran away and celebrated the goal. But maybe the referee actually blew for the foul and wanted it checked."

So a TV company with full access to a four-minute VAR discussion about a decision doesn't know what that initial decision was. At the very least, this indicates the level of shambolic, vague communication that led to that disallowed goal against Liverpool last season. At worst, it indicates them desperately looking for an excuse to disallow a goal and when they can't find one, just changing what the referee's initial decision was. "No, I blew for a free kick." This is why they need to be miked up. If he blew for a free kick, it should be immediately obvious to everyone. It shouldn't be the case that the referee blows a whistle and then everyone has to guess what it meant.

I think referees like to be proven right. They are generally very smug types who hide behind the letter of the law.

There is not a cat in hell’s chance he could have seen Haaland handle the ball - how on earth could he discern between Haaland and the two Tottenham defenders.

I don’t think it’s a conspiracy, it was very unlikely to changer the game, it was just a case of a referee being able to smugly sit in front of his boss, howard Webb, and say “from my point of view I saw Haaland handle the ball and no one can prove otherwise. So I’m right.”

Smug twat

 

[Feed the Elk]

I don't understand why the ref blew his whistle in the first place when it would always get reviewed by VAR anyway. But they saw no handball by Haaland so surely goal should've stood. Absolute farce of a decision.

You’re right. It’s the same with those marginal off sides. Just let it play out and then if it results in a goal, let the nonsense that is the current iteration of VAR, forensically analyse it

 

[.db.]

Commentary said it wasn't clear and obvious so they stuck with refs original decision.

Anyone recall the ref ruling out the goal when it happened? And if so why did we celebrate it?

Seems dodgy.

Yeah the ref disallowed the goal. On the VAR clip it shows ‘CHECKING DISALLOWED GOAL’ at the top.

So VAR has to find clear+obvious evidence that there was no handball, which there wasn’t any.

It’s the ref’s fault, how’s he seen that’s a hand ball from where he was?

 

[Feed the Elk]

Yeah the ref disallowed the goal. On the VAR clip it shows ‘CHECKING DISALLOWED GOAL’ at the top.

So VAR has to find clear+obvious evidence that there was no handball, which there wasn’t any.

It’s the ref’s fault, how’s he seen that’s a hand ball from where he was?

If that’s what the VAR clip showed then it shows they’re just guessing. Surely it should have said ‘checking potential handball’

 

[shemnel]

Yeah the ref disallowed the goal. On the VAR clip it shows ‘CHECKING DISALLOWED GOAL’ at the top.

So VAR has to find clear+obvious evidence that there was no handball, which there wasn’t any.

It’s the ref’s fault, how’s he seen that’s a hand ball from where he was?

i think he's panicked. I watched the footage again and i didn't notice before that the ref slips over a split second after the ball is bundled around between Haaland and the Spurs players. I think the ref panicked and sent it upstairs cos he fell over.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

I don't complain about officials much but that performance last night was absolutely spineless.

He kept giving free kicks seconds after the incident simply on the basis of how much a player complained.

Same reason our second goal was ruled out. He didn't see a handball or a foul; he ruled it out because Spurs confidently picked the ball up and demanded a free kick.

Again, I don't like blaming our shortcomings on a match official and I'm not enough of a victim to start a conspiracy theory so I can tell myself we're better than we are. But is it really so fucking hard to find referees who have a backbone without being a petty and egotistical twat?

 

[Paladin]

i think he's panicked. I watched the footage again and i didn't notice before that the ref slips over a split second after the ball is bundled around between Haaland and the Spurs players. I think the ref panicked and sent it upstairs cos he fell over.

Maybe, but you don't disallow a goal just in case there was an offence. The default position is to allow the goal, and let VAR have a look for a reason to overturn the decision.

 

[shemnel]

Maybe, but you don't disallow a goal just in case there was an offence. The default position is to allow the goal, and let VAR have a look for a reason to overturn the decision.

completely agree. Just trying to work out why he blew his whistle....

 

[Centurions]

If that’s what the VAR clip showed then it shows they’re just guessing. Surely it should have said ‘checking potential handball’

I 'think' that's only if it's a defender who potentially committed handballed.

They're definitely not guessing though as that was their verdict, "we can't tell from the video". 100% the refs fault, he couldn't possibly see, so should have let the goal stand and then ask VAR to check.

 

[Sky Blue]

Maddison gave way too many decisions to Spurs last night.

 

[mancboy]

The refs call made no sense. VAR said they couldn’t tell whether he had handballed it or not so they were right not to intervene.

It was entirely the refs fault.

while i agree with you on that point surely they could tell that TWO spurs players had handled it so if they dont give the goal it has to be a penalty?

 

[fierydan]

Commentary said it wasn't clear and obvious so they stuck with refs original decision.

Anyone recall the ref ruling out the goal when it happened? And if so why did we celebrate it?

Seems dodgy.

Whistle was blown after Haaland "scored"

 

[axlgod]

Should’ve just let the goal stand, then wait for a var review like all the other goals.
Which would’ve ended with us winning 2-0.

 

[Whether or not]

Yeah the ref disallowed the goal. On the VAR clip it shows ‘CHECKING DISALLOWED GOAL’ at the top.

So VAR has to find clear+obvious evidence that there was no handball, which there wasn’t any.

It’s the ref’s fault, how’s he seen that’s a hand ball from where he was?

That is the point, the ref couldn’t have seen it from where he was. Haaland was running directly towards me, and I could see hands and the ball bouncing, but I couldn’t say whose hand touched the ball. The ref was behind and to the side, so unless he could literally see through the bodies, he has simply guessed. Guessed wrong and then been backed up by the corrupt PGMOL, again.