Standard of Refereeing

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

Why would Everton and Bournemouth get preferential treatment, then? The insinuation is obviously that "big teams" are getting favourable treatment, like Arteta speaking out, but why would they want to shaft us against the two teams I mentioned? You think they're doing it to stop us competing with Arsenal or something? They're just shit refs.

[Toronto Villa]

I don't go down the corruption line of thought, but every game at the moment seems to have the most blatant decision(s) go against Villa.

I do not think it’s a coincidence.

We know that there is corruption in the game, if this wasn’t the case we would not be 3 years down the road without Citeh being sanctioned.

The same people that are allowing/ facilitating this are the same people who are facilitating PGMOL to operate in a vacuum.

Fir you TV, I won’t bother arguing with you on this, you have made your mind up.

I mean sure. That’s fine. I just don't agree with their being some great conspiracy against us which you seem to be suggesting.

[Toronto Villa]

Why would Everton and Bournemouth get preferential treatment, then? The insinuation is obviously that "big teams" are getting favourable treatment, like Arteta speaking out, but why would they want to shaft us against the two teams I mentioned? You think they're doing it to stop us competing with Arsenal or something? They're just shit refs.

That’s literally all I am saying. The decisions were terrible. They didn’t give us what seemed very obvious decisions against two mid table sides. And we have also received favourable decisions over the season and the years. I’m simply saying officiating is really poor overall in the game and VAR has detrimentally affected the quality overall. It’s highly inconsistent.

[Brazilian Villain]

Why would Everton and Bournemouth get preferential treatment, then? The insinuation is obviously that "big teams" are getting favourable treatment, like Arteta speaking out, but why would they want to shaft us against the two teams I mentioned?

To make it easier for Yanited, Chelsea, and Liverpool to catch us. Everton and Bournemouth aren't a threat to the Sky cabal.

[LeonW]

So you think PGMOL have all got together in some dark room to screw Aston Villa?

No, I think that certain teams are getting preferential treatment and potential rivals are fair game.
We are collateral damage.

So in recent weeks that means Arsenal, Everton and Bournemouth with major decisions that have gone in their favour and against us. Let’s say we agree that top teams like Arsenal, loved by the football media and by the PL because they grow the global brand get favourable decisions. How are you explaining the decision Everton got at Villa Park and Bournemouth got yesterday?

For me, would those decisions that should have been made for the second booking against Garner and the push on Buendia been given if it was Arsenal or a Chelsea or Man City.

[Chris Harte]

In the Liverpool/Citeh game Marc Guéhi has just been booked and Liverpool awarded a free kick for a grab of the shirt of Mo Salah. Gary Neville's all "he's got a handfull of his shirt" and I feel like yelling at the screen "This nonsense goes on all the time unpunished". The lack of consistency is infuriating.

[Steve67]

That push on Buendia yesterday was as clear a penalty I’ve seen all season. Favourite to get to the rebound, blatantly pushed.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

So you think PGMOL have all got together in some dark room to screw Aston Villa?

No, I think that certain teams are getting preferential treatment and potential rivals are fair game.
We are collateral damage.

So in recent weeks that means Arsenal, Everton and Bournemouth with major decisions that have gone in their favour and against us. Let’s say we agree that top teams like Arsenal, loved by the football media and by the PL because they grow the global brand get favourable decisions. How are you explaining the decision Everton got at Villa Park and Bournemouth got yesterday?

Any game we play against the likes of B'mouth, Brentford and Everton are not played in isolation to the rest of the PL. If reins are placed on Villa in any game, the likely beneficiaries (in our current position) are likely to be those teams also going for CL football  which just happens to be the scab 6 teams. The system is screwed, it needs reform.

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

So when Newcastle got CL football, do you think they were trying to stop them with dodgy decisions against the likes of Crystal Palace, Fulham etc?

[Baldy]

99.99999999 % of football followers have an 'opinion' and can never agree after 6 replays and hours of reflection.

00.00000001 % of people are referees who make an instant 'decision' under extreme pressure.

All referees deserve our gratitude for taking on the most thankless job ever.

I think the standard of refereeing is excellent.   

[paul_e]

I'm not saying refs re out to get us or that there's some big conspiracy against us but we've now had 5 of the last 7 domestic games be influenced by poor officials.

Arsenal - not sending Merino off for a blatant 2nd yellow.
Spurs - no bookings for Tel and Palhinha because it was 'too early' in the game to uphold the laws.
Everton - no free kick and 2nd yellow for Garner, they scored almost immediately after.
Brentford - dodgy disallowed goal.
Bournemouth - denied a blatant penalty for a barge in the back.

Obviously spurs was in the cup and we were already 2 behind at Arsenal but for the other 3 the decisions clearly had an impact on the result and we could very easily have taken 9 points from those games if the refs had got those pivotal decisions correct. The club have to make some noise about it now because when combined with the utter fucking bullshit at Old Trafford this is really hurting us right now and it isn't evening out, when was the last time we got away with a major one or had some dodgy VAR call in our favour? There's a reason internet twats still go on about Sheffield United and it's because that's the last one anyone can think of.

[Mellin]

99.99999999 % of football followers have an 'opinion' and can never agree after 6 replays and hours of reflection.

00.00000001 % of people are referees who make an instant 'decision' under extreme pressure.

All referees deserve our gratitude for taking on the most thankless job ever.

I think the standard of refereeing is excellent.   

Yeah, that's the elephant in the room...in the main. A lot of it is subjective.

[paul_e]

It is subjective but you also have to consider precedence and what refs/pgmol have told clubs before the season started.

So, to use the most recent case as an example, if you decide not to give the push on Buendia that's ok, but you then can't give the one against Watkins later in the game. If pgmol had said they were going to start being more lenient on pushing then fine it's not a pen, but that doesn't tally up with the Watkins one still and there are plenty of incidents across the season where a push has been given as a foul so what is the criteria? If no one knows what is being considered as a foul and what isn't, and the line is blurred to fuck, then you can't call the standard excellent because there's entirely too much uncertainty for everyone.

What needs to desperately happen is for them to pick out a bunch of the key talking points from this season and put together a report of why x is a foul and y isn't and then follow it up with a "for 2026/27 we are going to focus on a,b and c as areas where we feel the laws aren't being followed correctly" and then every week follow up on that and explain how those guidelines have led to the decisions people are seeing, whilst also not being afraid to say "we got this one wrong".

I can't speak for everyone but personally I'd much rather see them hold their hands up and admit it was a mistake than have this circling the wagons bullshit we get everytime which is a huge part of why there's so little trust of referees. I'd be much more willing to accept controversial subjective opinions if I trusted the people making them.

[Somniloquism]

A few of the obvious pushes on our players (and a couple of others not given) have had commentators state "VAR have upheld the decision that there wasn't enough contact to cause the player to fall like that".

Not sure what that means exactly but it seems to be the go to statement.

[AV82EC]

There is no conspiracy against us, it’s just rank incompetence. The laws of the game interpreted seemingly differently week in week out, VAR causing uncertainty for on field officials and as Paul says above PGMOL being reactive rather than proactive in explaining decisions made by their officials. If they were a government department they’d be in special measures. I’ve been watching football since the early 90s and we’ve never had a group of officials (apart from that fat twat Phil Dowd) as incompetent as they are currently. What I would say in their defence is how FIFA are currently tinkering with the rulebook from season to season is not helping consistency and they need much better protocols about the use of and clarity of communication for VAR.

Other than that it’s all going swimmingly.