Is there a level of corruption in the league right now?

[KaiserEFC]

Certain clubs do get less impartial officiating

 

[Dublin blue 75]

On a tangent, how much of an issue are PED’s ?
There are certain high performing sides who rarely get injuries (barring those incurred in derbies..) and have players with incredibly low body fat - gaunt beyond belief in some cases - that indicate all might not be as it should be. Is the testing regime not as sophisticated as it needs to be ?

 

[LocalNative]

That’s one decision that’s gone for us, don’t let me write a list for Man Utd’s VAR decisions gone for them!

The penalty against Palace we got should also never have been given - but I take your point. The reason United get lots of penalties is because they have players who drive into the box with the ball (Rashford, Martial, Fernandes, Greenwood) - how often do you see any of our players do that?

It's just complete incompetence from the officials, I don't believe they understand the rules completely or can handle the pressure.

 

[Brisan123]

Officiating has always been poor till we take human error out.

I am more concerned with the new found amazing energy levels of teams that seem to go beyond gym work.

Doping is in every professional sport and in some amateur ones as well
Just to varying degrees

 

[johnjoeefc]

I'm very much one for conspiracy theories and the like but not for me this one. I think there may be a subconscious bias towards 'bigger clubs' when decisions are made. But actually suggesting that officials are being paid to make decisions in a teams favour to suit an agenda seems a bit far fetched for me.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

Good point, but not sure about whether thryre paying officials off, however there is definate corruption. Two things stick with me. Firstly, Last season when Brighton got that terrible penalty decision against us after it being reviewed by VAR 13 times, when only one look would tell you what we needed to know, I read an article in the Independent. That weekend and up to that point there had been several blantantly incorrect VAR decisions. The article was saying that in Italy where players, coaches, Owners and officaials had been jailed for corruption for many years since the 80's we would be niave to not consider the possibility of VAR being used corruptively in the premier league. Secondly Richard Scudamure who was a high ranking official in the FA at one point said in an interview on sky sports last year that the Premier Leagues objective is to make it the most competitive competiotion in the world and as a result the powers that be would like the winners to be rotated to make it more interesting. There is also the TV money. It is obvious something is not fair.

Pretty coincidental that VAR was introduced the season after City successfully defended their title by the skin of their teeth, the first team to have managed that in yonks.

 

[OneTrueLegend]

This is just after the Man Utd 9-0 Southampton game and again Manchester United get away with a few decisions, one handball, another offside, that was clearly not, and a penalty, also clearly not but it’s looking so repetitive for united, every other game they get decisions against them, if feels like they are paying the officials, it feels corrupt, what are your thoughts?

United complained about the refereeing in their Sheffield Utd game, so I think the referee on the pitch and for VAR have gone a bit soft on them.

 

[Bilko]

Anyone who doesn't think the biggest league in the world, with the biggest audience and most profit, isn't interfering where they can, is deluded in my personal opinion.

Elite players take home £400k+ and yet despite that being a big draw, there hasn't been a drugs ban for any Top Euro League for nearly 10 years. Certainly no that's published anyway. FIFA fixed two world cup hosts. It's rife.

Some of the officiating is just bizarre, and i'm fully convinced VAR is there, to sway "close" decisions. Look at some of the decisions in the past two seasons. The Mané one versus us, the Adams goal last night, they're goals, but it doesn't fit the agenda to have a team run away with the league, because it impacts viewing figures.

Good points, I'd like to think not but if anything Var seems to of highlighted the inconsistency between certain clubs.
No drug ban is actually remarkable.

 

[DanEFC92]

Amount of decisions that go their way is a joke.

 

[AsiaAsia82]

If I was technically capable Id put together a film showing all these examples and share it on YouTube. Obviously you have to avoid the relevant slander/libel by asking questions or people’s feedback. Maybe then it could be picked up by panorama or something and investigated.
I think anything else would involve a bias or interested party stopping the claims. YouTube is seen by the masses and whilst some will file it under conspiracy theorists and even sabotaged by Red activists I think this is the best way to get the view shared more widely.
Be ready for your house being bugged and emails to be hacked though

 

[AsiaAsia82]

One ploy that could be introduced is the ‘challenge’ for managers as per the NFL, where they can throw a towel on the pitch a certain number of times and the incident is referred to upstairs where the bias can be seen by all and sundry

 

[barneygumble]

Good points, I'd like to think not but if anything Var seems to of highlighted the inconsistency between certain clubs.
No drug ban is actually remarkable.

It's professional sport. Rugby, US Sports, Athletics all see people penalised for performance enhancing drugs.

Aside from the 1999-2001 Italian Nandralome situation, you've had a couple like Toure mistakingly doing it, or Ferdinand missing a test... but nothing significant, in arguably the most popular sport in the World and you know why, you can't damage the brand. When Liverpool and Man City went neck and neck a couple years ago, not one player from either side got injured for 5 months at full intensity.

The Premier League is guilty of far too many things, but they will never ever let another Man Utd monopoly happen again. It benefits them to have United in the title race as along with Liverpool they have the biggest global audience.

 

[Saint Domingo]

The media play a huge part too. Klopp or Solskjaer can talk about a completely minor incident (e.g the ridiculous ‘early whistle’ for half time against United). This then becomes the news agenda for the next week. If Sean Dyche says something the media are just like ‘ha ha stop your whining Dyche this is getting buried within 5 minutes of your press conference’.

Case in point the Anfield derby last season. DCL ran through on goal and Van Dijk tripped him from behind. VAR didn’t even look at it. We could have been 2-2 and them down to ten men. In the same game Alexander Arnold committed two red card tackles both conveniently overlooked. If that had occurred against Liverpool they’d still be talking about it today in every match preview in the hope of getting an advantage in the next derby. As it was us it was silenced immediately after the game.

 

[billytoffee]

You would hope that in this day and age that any instances of corruption would be identified and exposed quite easily.

The bias of both media and officials both on the pitch and off is very real.

Combined with the absolute incompetence of the on field and VAR officials - and it is this which makes us feel that corruption has to be playing a part!

So:
Corruption - not convinced.
Bias - absolutely.
Incompetence - of the highest order.

 

[Mkjjones]

You would hope that in this day and age that any instances of corruption would be identified and exposed quite easily.

The bias of both media and officials both on the pitch and off is very real.

Combined with the absolute incompetence of the on field and VAR officials - and it is this which makes us feel that corruption has to be playing a part!

So:
Corruption - not convinced.
Bias - absolutely.
Incompetence - of the highest order.

Maybe not in the Fa, but 100% corruption in UEFA.