The PL refs, where do they live and where did they grow up?

[an tha]

3 minutes ago, Chr15 said:

I remember talking to his brother in law who told me Worrall  was a man u fan. Could be utter shite of course.

From Warrington - every chance.

[Chr15]

2 hours ago, an tha said:

From Warrington - every chance.

Supposed to be from Wirral.  Same difference I guess. Loads of manc support in both places.

[Grinch]

Embarrassing. 

[Chairman Meow]

These ref threads are all a bit "powers that be". 

[Total Longo]

I had no idea that Code was a politician.

[VladimirIlyich]

11 hours ago, Chr15 said:

The FA have a history of appointing manc supporting referees for our games.  Anyone remember Joe Worrall way back in the 70's?

Yes I do. He was from Warrington and when he was appointed for our games he'd get a lift from his Liverpool supporting brother in law who worked with my Dad,and I knew him too. It was common knowledge he supported Man United yet reffed their games and some against us too.

[aws]

47 minutes ago, Total Longo said:

I had no idea that Code was a politician.

He's a cunthair away from owning all Norway. 

[BeefStroganoff]

1 hour ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

I am increasingly thinking a couple of years in the championship would be good for this club in the long run, purge the fan base of the glory hunters, tin hatters and Thomas Cook day trippers and generally toughen people up a bit. 

And you accuse this thread of hyperbole.

 

It just amazes me in the world we live in these days that people simply think "these things just cannot happen" The whole world is corrupt to a degree. If referees had some internal bias who is to stop them? No one questions them, they don't have to speak about it, they don't have to answer to anyone. So no one will ever know will they?

 

And if its not a big deal, why don't they get a mic like rugby? But they won't.

[Jennings]

You don't have to be from Manchester to hate Liverpool. So any ref *could* be biased against us. I just don't believe they are.

 

Martin Atkinson is from Yorkshire. He is the worst of the bunch. Not biased - just shite.

 

 

[Manny]

Said this in another thread, but I don't think referees are part of the Illuminati, or on Bill Gates' payroll, or launching chemtrails in their spare time, or having big meetings in Sky boardrooms where the PowerPoint slides are titled "Operation Level Playing Field" or anything like that. I do, however, think they're human, and subject to the same biases and behavioural flaws that we're all subject to.

 

Firstly, they see and hear all the shit that comes through pundits, the football press and likely social media - and there's really clear narratives in there. Some players are divers, some aren't; some players are honest, some aren't. It's just the way things are - look at social media: quite often Salah gets mentioned as a diver in completely unrelated posts - you know, the sort of thing where there's a discussion about the conditions at Anfield or something and somebody pipes up with "yeah the wind was strong at Anfield JUDGING FROM HOW MUCH IT BLEW SALAH OVER." And so on - it's just repeated and repeated and some of it must work its way into the eyes and ears of officials. I should stress - I really don't think they're not giving fouls against Salah because Jermaine Jenas or Rod Liddle or @efc1878nilsatis or @guardiolaholic are saying he's a diver. I just think that this kind of noise has a kind of aggregated subconsious effect, and when Salah does go down they give it just that bit extra scrutiny, and raise the threshold required for a foul just that little bit further, and over the course of 38 games those tiny shifts have a cumulative impact.

 

Secondly, they don't like being wrong and they don't like criticism. So when they get a call wrong the first instinct is to use VAR to prove themselves correct. All of the squiggly lines bullshit and replays of incidents - I've never been anything but convinced that you can use VAR to prove just about anything you want, and what the users want is to be proved right.

 

Thirdly, they like to be told how clever and impartial they are. So when there's a bizarre, "against the rules but not against the spirit of the game" call to be made they'll go down on the former because it means that they're proving their worth: "we're here to enforce the rules whether you like them or not; maybe you don't agree with the rules but that's probably because you either don't understand them, or you're too biased to notice" - and because of the tribal nature of football, there'll never be a consensus against that approach because there'll always be a group of fans who're the victim, and a group of fans revelling in the opposite. Who's involved changes week to week but the figures are always a constant: 90% of fans are laughing, 10% are outraged.

 

The TAA penalty is a classic example of this. Under no circumstances is that a penalty based on how that move developed in real time, but Calvert-Lewin's honesty is a complete given in The World of English Football, Kavanagh is determined to show that he's got a superior grasp of the rules than LFC players, fans or the general football public, and gives the penalty. When it's pointed out that he's probably wrong, he goes over to the monitor and doubles down on his decision. Then sage pundits and commentators twist themselves in knots to agree with such clever interpretation of the rules. LFC fans are outraged, but Everton fans, City fans, United fans - loads of them - are in complete agreement that the interpretation is correct and enjoy the rage.

 

They're all flawed as we all are, but that's the point of putting a system of accountability and transparency in place - to avoid those flaws actually materially affecting the outcome of their jobs. But PGMOL in this country doesn't believe in that - VAR, Elite Referees Panel, all of these things are introduced to ensure that they're never questioned and never accountable. And again - that's the reason they're not going to elite tournaments: because the infrastructure around them, under the guidance of a spineless toad like Mike Riley, is set up to give them a safe, cosy environment where they're free to operate how they've always operated and never be forced to change.

 

Sorry for the long post, but I'm fucking sick of this shit this season. None of the above excuses some of the lame performances we've seen - but when you see your team shafted regularly without any kind of question or cause to solve it, well, it makes you fucking stew.

[Jennings]

Good post @Manny.

[aws]

Agree with Manny 100%. 

[Total Longo]

39 minutes ago, Manny said:

Said this in another thread, but I don't think referees are part of the Illuminati, or on Bill Gates' payroll, or launching chemtrails in their spare time, or having big meetings in Sky boardrooms where the PowerPoint slides are titled "Operation Level Playing Field" or anything like that. I do, however, think they're human, and subject to the same biases and behavioural flaws that we're all subject to.

 

Firstly, they see and hear all the shit that comes through pundits, the football press and likely social media - and there's really clear narratives in there. Some players are divers, some aren't; some players are honest, some aren't. It's just the way things are - look at social media: quite often Salah gets mentioned as a diver in completely unrelated posts - you know, the sort of thing where there's a discussion about the conditions at Anfield or something and somebody pipes up with "yeah the wind was strong at Anfield JUDGING FROM HOW MUCH IT BLEW SALAH OVER." And so on - it's just repeated and repeated and some of it must work its way into the eyes and ears of officials. I should stress - I really don't think they're not giving fouls against Salah because Jermaine Jenas or Rod Liddle or @efc1878nilsatis or @guardiolaholic are saying he's a diver. I just think that this kind of noise has a kind of aggregated subconsious effect, and when Salah does go down they give it just that bit extra scrutiny, and raise the threshold required for a foul just that little bit further, and over the course of 38 games those tiny shifts have a cumulative impact.

 

Secondly, they don't like being wrong and they don't like criticism. So when they get a call wrong the first instinct is to use VAR to prove themselves correct. All of the squiggly lines bullshit and replays of incidents - I've never been anything but convinced that you can use VAR to prove just about anything you want, and what the users want is to be proved right.

 

Thirdly, they like to be told how clever and impartial they are. So when there's a bizarre, "against the rules but not against the spirit of the game" call to be made they'll go down on the former because it means that they're proving their worth: "we're here to enforce the rules whether you like them or not; maybe you don't agree with the rules but that's probably because you either don't understand them, or you're too biased to notice" - and because of the tribal nature of football, there'll never be a consensus against that approach because there'll always be a group of fans who're the victim, and a group of fans revelling in the opposite. Who's involved changes week to week but the figures are always a constant: 90% of fans are laughing, 10% are outraged.

 

The TAA penalty is a classic example of this. Under no circumstances is that a penalty based on how that move developed in real time, but Calvert-Lewin's honesty is a complete given in The World of English Football, Kavanagh is determined to show that he's got a superior grasp of the rules than LFC players, fans or the general football public, and gives the penalty. When it's pointed out that he's probably wrong, he goes over to the monitor and doubles down on his decision. Then sage pundits and commentators twist themselves in knots to agree with such clever interpretation of the rules. LFC fans are outraged, but Everton fans, City fans, United fans - loads of them - are in complete agreement that the interpretation is correct and enjoy the rage.

 

They're all flawed as we all are, but that's the point of putting a system of accountability and transparency in place - to avoid those flaws actually materially affecting the outcome of their jobs. But PGMOL in this country doesn't believe in that - VAR, Elite Referees Panel, all of these things are introduced to ensure that they're never questioned and never accountable. And again - that's the reason they're not going to elite tournaments: because the infrastructure around them, under the guidance of a spineless toad like Mike Riley, is set up to give them a safe, cosy environment where they're free to operate how they've always operated and never be forced to change.

 

Sorry for the long post, but I'm fucking sick of this shit this season. None of the above excuses some of the lame performances we've seen - but when you see your team shafted regularly without any kind of question or cause to solve it, well, it makes you fucking stew.

Absolutely bang on the money.

[lebron]

I agree with Manny's post too, to a certain degree. 

 

But; Mike Riley is the head of the referees. I suggest nothing is going to change until he's replaced.

Those of you old enough to have seen the game where Arsenal's invincibles streak ended will know why.

 

That he's handpicking the refs from Greater Manchester to be the his core of refs just makes it impossible to avoid them reffing our games.

 

What Sky has to gain from it (other than pleasing the huge Utd fanbase, and rile us - which again pleases most of the country), I don't know either.

[Code]

9 hours ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

I am increasingly thinking a couple of years in the championship would be good for this club in the long run, purge the fan base of the glory hunters, tin hatters and Thomas Cook day trippers and generally toughen people up a bit. 

What are you actually suggestions here?

 

How many of these do you want to get rid off?

[Jennings]

add:-

 

"Yes we are. So are all clubs, as the refs are inherently shit."

[Jennings]

You want us to get relegated?

 

I just don't have enough negs for this!

[Qwikage]

35 minutes ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

A spell in the championship would cleanse us of ;

Anyone who voted for 1 or 2.

Plus

Thomas cook tourists

People who film the corners or the Kop on their phones

People who arrive late and/or leave early

The moany old fuckers in the main stand.

People who can’t hack a defeat without coming on here to moan about the ref/FSG/the PL. it’s football, not the fucking Harlem Globe Trotters, sometimes you get beaten on merit. 

Our average gate would drop by 10,000 overnight ! 

 

Who died and made you sole arbiter of anyone's right to support us.

 

Utter tosh.

[Bjornebye]

49 minutes ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

A spell in the championship would cleanse us of ;

Anyone who voted for 1 or 2.

Plus

Thomas cook tourists

People who film the corners or the Kop on their phones

People who arrive late and/or leave early

The moany old fuckers in the main stand.

People who can’t hack a defeat without coming on here to moan about the ref/FSG/the PL. it’s football, not the fucking Harlem Globe Trotters, sometimes you get beaten on merit. 

Our average gate would drop by 10,000 overnight ! 

 

 

 

[Halcyon Days]

Just now, Colonel Kurtz said:

I’m saying that if we got relegated, it would toughen up the fan base and get rid of the whiners and mobile phone filmers.  Completely moot point as it’s never going to happen. 

We’ll always have moaners whatever league we’re in, it’s called passion and wanting to win all.the.fucking.time. Also OOT fans.... Without them we’re just Newcastle. A club who without an oil state backing them will never win a trophy in our lifetime. Na I’ll keep the whiners and world wide appeal thanks.

[VladimirIlyich]

59 minutes ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

A spell in the championship would cleanse us of ;

Anyone who voted for 1 or 2.

Plus

Thomas cook tourists

People who film the corners or the Kop on their phones

People who arrive late and/or leave early

The moany old fuckers in the main stand.

People who can’t hack a defeat without coming on here to moan about the ref/FSG/the PL. it’s football, not the fucking Harlem Globe Trotters, sometimes you get beaten on merit. 

Our average gate would drop by 10,000 overnight ! 

 

Bloody hell! After coming on here among a fairly hard core group of left wing Liverpool supporters espousing your tory beliefs you are now saying the club deserves to be relegated. You own a pub with a 'No Irish,No Blacks and No Scousers' sign too,dont you?

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

Shit stirring plain and simple.

[aRdja]

1 hour ago, Colonel Kurtz said:

A spell in the championship would cleanse us of ;

Anyone who voted for 1 or 2.

Plus

Thomas cook tourists

People who film the corners or the Kop on their phones

People who arrive late and/or leave early

The moany old fuckers in the main stand.

People who can’t hack a defeat without coming on here to moan about the ref/FSG/the PL. it’s football, not the fucking Harlem Globe Trotters, sometimes you get beaten on merit. 

Our average gate would drop by 10,000 overnight ! 

 

You could just watch the game on tele right? that would relieve most of the ‘pain points’ above?

[Captain Turdseye]

Haha! A fucking Tory from Surrey lecturing people about day trippers and what it means to support Liverpool. This is peak internet. 

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

Not very subtle.