Referees/Officials

[Terra Passenger]

I'm not sure the corruption we are dealing with in the UCL - in terms of refereeing is that blatant. I'm in no doubt that UEFA have a cash machine that they want to maximise - hence the totally unfair seeding system. You see widespread bias towards teams from the 'bigger countries' in the earlier rounds - it is clear UEFA want England, Spain, Germany and Italy represented in the latter stages to drive advertising revenues etc. There is clear bias as we have witnessed towards the bigger teams - probably because again UEFA profit from the likes of Real Madrid and Barca being in the high profile latter stages. The UCL is not purely a knockout football tournament it's a football equivalent of the Eurovision Song Contest - designed to rake cash in from all across Europe and the world - and an elite list of teams fulfill UEFAs requirements for marketing a final - FC Bayern versus Real Madrid works, Bucharest versus PSV does not. The list of finalists is notably more 'elite' in the Champions League era when compared to the European Cup era - for obvious reasons. I don't think there's too much evidence of referees being told to ensure specific results but they certainly do support a wider agenda of favouring specific teams or teams from particular countries. Last nights ref clearly favoured Barcelona but he couldn't; without it being too obvious - do sufficient- to influence the result - he did however, deny City a clear penalty, allowed Busquets to remain on the pitch when he could (and should) have earned 4 yellow cards - in a tighter game that could have influenced the result thankfully we had enough (last night) to win despite the ref.

I agree with most of this.

Nevertheless, I think that the assumption that tonight's ref had a bad game and wasn't intentionally referring the game in favor of Barca is the correct interpretation barring a lot of evidence otherwise.

Let's suppose that UEFA is totally corrupt.

Which would draw a bigger international crowd - Barca v. Madrid or City v. Barca (or Madrid)? I think that the latter would most likely draw a bigger audience.

Then, there's the conspiracy angle.

UEFA management met with all the officials prior to any match. And managed to keep these meetings secret. And they disclosed that whatever happens guys, a Barca/Madrid/maybe Bayern final must happen - we'll make much more money that way. And, oh by the way, we'll pay you more to make that happen (or maybe you won't referee a championship match if things don't go the way we want).

Or maybe such a meeting never occurred. But it was heavily implied. But for some reason, no ref, English refs included, reported this coercion.

Uh, what?

That's Collin Bell-tin hat stuff.

A Barca-City final would be a huge draw - hell, any of Barca/Madrid/Bayern v. City would be huge. Not clear at all why you'd favor Barca even if you were corrupt and just wanted the biggest draw possible for the final.

Tonight's official had a bad game - most dubious calls went in favor of Barca.

If he were on the take, no way we'd have won that game as he could easily have sent Sterling off and could have disallowed one of our goals, carding Kun for a hand ball.

 

[manchester blue]

I'm not naive.

Yes, you're correct.

The ref might have been biased - perhaps unconsciously so. This might well have affected his calls.

But to call the ref a cheater... that requires an entirely different level of proof.

If you show bias you cheat. He should make calls on what he sees not for which team he prefers. In the first 15 minutes he made biased decision after biased decision and then settled down to only a few biased ones. The fact he's got 24 pages, which I've not read all of, tells you about his performance.

 

[MarsLlama]

*Sniff*

Sometimes I use big words I don't fully understand just to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

 

[manchester blue]

Mostly people calling the ref a twat

That saved me ten minutes, cheers :)

 

[aguero93:20]

Or maybe such a meeting never occurred. But it was heavily implied. But for some reason, no ref, English refs included, reported this coercion.

You've no idea how many problems there are with the English referees set up do you?

 

[MarsLlama]

Dreadful performance from him. I don't think he was corrupt but he was biased in a way, probably subconsciously. The resonance of the game and the teams involved may have made it difficult for him to focus clearly and get decisions right.

Had Messi gone down needlessly in the box there's almost no chance he'd have been booked for diving.

Haha, not pulling you up on English language. Just that is a rag's favourite word so it's not used round 'ere unless you want to attract attention (if you don't already know). Any other synonym will do - giant, huge, colossal, gargantuan, goliath, mountainous etc. Just not that one.

Fixed :)

 

[Tugay One Cup]

Fixed :)

Don't say that, you'll set Terra off again.

 

[andyhinch]

Haha, not pulling you up on English language. Just that is a rag's favourite word so it's not used round 'ere unless you want to attract attention (if you don't already know). Any other synonym will do - giant, huge, colossal, gargantuan, goliath, mountainous etc. Just not that one.

That's a massive statement ;-)

 

[andyhinch]

Haha brilliant!

I thought everyone already knew you were a rag ;)

Ive never denied it ;-)

 

[Tanzeylee]

I'm not naive.

Yes, you're correct.

The ref might have been biased - perhaps unconsciously so. This might well have affected his calls.

But to call the ref a cheater... that requires an entirely different level of proof.

That the ref may be more used to continental games and would have referred in that vein - absolutely.

That the ref might admire Barca and may unconsciously have referred in their favor - maybe - the article you cite lends credence to that opinion.

That the ref was a cheat and intentionally made calls, knowing that the call was wrong, in favor of Barca... well maybe.... but that requires a ton of proof to back up which I've read nothing nearly enough to make this conclusion.

Moreover, that a ref who was corrupt was allowed to officiate, means that the entire UCL referring management chain is in on this as well.

Not sure how in hell Chelsea won a few years back in that case.

What's your job title at uefa is it gills fluffer by any chance