Post · bonfire.cafe

@mlawton It seems he made it a "free read" since then. Let me know if you can't access it, I may be able to make a PDF from it if you need.

https://tomkinstimes.substack.com/p/man-united-and-liverpool-treated

vruz

@vruz@mstdn.social replied · 5 days ago

@mlawton We can suspect this, you can suspect that. But all we can know for sure is that MCFC won, and that the refereeing performance helped to make the conditions favourable for that result.

#LFC

Mike Lawton

@mlawton@mstdn.social replied · 5 days ago

@vruz I actually thought Kavanagh called a pretty decent game on his own. He didn’t give the penalty, perhaps being unsure of contact, and allowing VAR the option. Fair. Awarding a penalty was justifiable, if harsh.

The AR advising a possible offside on Robbo, from his vantage & immediate thinking, was entirely justifiable.

But VAR disallowing the goal continues a trend of malpractice, having also recently upgraded VVD’s foul to a penalty, despite reasonable doubt as to location. Smells bad.

vruz

@vruz@mstdn.social replied · 5 days ago

@mlawton Yes, I mean refereeing in the broader sense of the process and decisions at every level.

Mike Lawton

@mlawton@mstdn.social replied · 5 days ago

@vruz I knew that was your sense too, but lacked the room in the post. (And I’m ranting!)

As for VAR, I would like to understand why some clubs always seem to benefit and others don’t. Why do some teams always get the same referee assignments? Why don’t we follow the example of rugby, which has no whiff of impropriety in their VAR system? How are VAR officials also peers with match officials? How are match officials graded?

It seems to me that the real problems are systemic, not personnel.