Today’s Football 25/26 Season

[kenada_blue]

It's a contact sport. The day we started justifying penalties "because there is contact" was when we jumped the shark - and all because of this obsession with "consistency" because referees are unprepared to make judgement calls. If VAR led to consistency, you could accept it. But nobody will tell me it is anything other than a narrative tool designed to favour certain clubs...

There's contact and there's stepping on a players foot and not winning the ball. You don't have to scythe someone down to give a foul.

 

[Tommy Chong]

Finished 1-1… What a bloody yawn fest!

But I reckon Arsenal will take it now in the return match.

 

[Drico]

And I'm not even talking about this incident, specifically. I just feel that penalties are given too easily now - for diving. Give a penalty if a player is genuinely impeded/fouled. But all of this "there was contact" is guff - because it's not consistent. Virgil van Dijk had his arms all over Beto, I think it was, in the derby after their seventeenth-choice goalie fumbled a ball. Beto couldn't complete his run to score. That was a blatant penalty, but not a word was said. So "contact" isn't good enough when some sides are given pens for contact and others, like us, are laughed away if we even complain.

 

[kenada_blue]

If it sta


I’ve seen those given for less contact than that.
There’s no consistency though, the fact that it was originally given, and then the ref changed his decision, says it all…

I find it bizarre VAR got involved to overturn it.

Its not exactly one where the player has conned the ref, no contact, and a massive dive.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Not a good game of football

 

[Nymzee]

Sounds like I made a wise decision to skip the game

 

[Obes]

VAR should not be getting involved as it is not, in any way, a clear and obvious mistake by the ref to award a penalty.

But then the ref is weak as piss for, essentially, being swayed by VAR’s interference to overturn it. Grow a set of balls and have conviction in your original decision. Farcical, again.

 

[Drico]

There's contact and there's stepping on a players foot and not winning the ball. You don't have to scythe someone down to give a foul.

That's true. But the pendulum has swung too far. Any contact now is seen as fair game for a dive. All because refs won't make a judgement call. Look at the ref tonight. Afraid of his own shadow and wouldn't back his original judgement. Pathetic.

We demand refs are consistent - and scare them - yet VAR still exists when it is anything but. A farce.

 

[Taifi gorm]

View attachment images (3).mp4
Penalty....

 

[Drico]

Not a good game of football

Artetaball. Son of Moyes.

 

[Tommy Chong]

VAR should not be getting involved as it is not, in any way, a clear and obvious mistake by the ref to award a penalty.

But then the ref is weak as piss for, essentially, being swayed by VAR’s interference to overturn it. Grow a set of balls and have conviction in your original decision. Farcical, again.

To put it bluntly, the ref sh.t the bed.

Sounds like I made a wise decision to skip the game

2 soft penalties to tie the score at 1-1, with the biggest talking point of the match being, should there have been a third…
Yeah mate, you did yourself a favour by missing that rubbish.

 

[kenada_blue]

That's true. But the pendulum has swung too far. Any contact now is seen as fair game for a dive. All because refs won't make a judgement call. Look at the ref tonight. Afraid of his own shadow and wouldn't back his original judgement. Pathetic.

We demand refs are consistent - and scare them - yet VAR still exists when it is anything but. A farce.

They see grappling to an extent and collisions in the box as natural parts of a contact sport.

Anything involving tackles that miss the ball and give the player a brisk touch due to the speed of play they'll take notice.

Then its down to interpretation.

But I've always said that since VAR came in, id be telling any attacker to fall over in the box under any contact.

Issue for us is that we're rarely in those positions

 

[Taifi gorm]

Artetaball. Son of Moyes.

Latin Dyche. The anti-spice.

 

[RomanReigns]

Still baffled how we didn’t get a penalty against West Ham after all these pens given in the champions league

 

[Drico]

They see grappling to an extent and collisions in the box as natural parts of a contact sport.

Anything involving tackles that miss the ball and give the player a brisk touch due to the speed of play they'll take notice.

Then its down to interpretation.

But I've always said that since VAR came in, id be telling any attacker to fall over in the box under any contact.

Issue for us is that we're rarely in those positions

And there you are! You're dead right. Players are encouraged to dive. That's the bit I struggle with. I just don't get the obsession with somebody making a reasonable attempt to play the ball, missing, touching an opponent and yer man goes over like he's shot when a goal isn't even on. And getting a penalty for that. Disproportionate. Yet you can pull and drag a fella and stop him reaching a ball to score and get away with it. It's all in the eye of the beholder. I'd leave it to the refs and get rid of VAR. That should be kept purely for goal-line technology. The nonsense of offside by a toenail has to stop too. It eliminates goals from the game for no good reason (because offside was only supposed to stop goal-hanging). But when you eliminate goals from the game, you need to find them elsewhere. Hence, soft penalties for minimal contact.