06 Nov 2023 07:39:05
{Ed's Note - West Derby Wanderer3 has posted a new article entitled, Are Most Premier League Football Matches Really Fixed?

1.) 06 Nov 2023
06 Nov 2023 12:42:09
I don't think matches are fixed, just that the standard of refereeing is absolutely shocking.

While I understand their reluctance to being assessed and critiqued from outside sources, the reality without
it means they have no accountability to anyone but themselves.

I think poor decisions come from a variety of things, from not really knowing the rules, or understanding the game, to them having unconscious (or worse conscious) biases when making their decisions, to just being weak and cracking under the pressure, choosing the popular decision over the correct one.

It's not helped when you hear terms like "subjective offside". Ideally rules should not be subjective and should be written to make sure subjectivity is removed where possible.

Like when they changed the wording of the offside rule to include "interfering with play". That specifically makes the rule subjective when it really doesn't need to be. Also its such a ridiculous phrasing, every single player on the pitch will be influencing play in some way or another. If not then going a man down wouldn't be a problem.

The Maguire decision at the weekend for example. The debate over whenever he was "influencing play" should be utterly redundant. Did a player have to mark him/ track his run? Of course they did. If Maguire wasn't there then the opposition player would have acted differently.

When a keeper runs up for a late corner or free kick they will be influencing play regardless of whether the ball goes anywhere near them, as an opposing player will have to mark him. Meaning they aren't marking someone else who might go on to score.

If Maguire wasn't in the box for the set-piece with the intention of influencing play then why even be there?

So clearly some of the rules need to be written to remove subjectivity.

The other real issue is the uneven distribution of the rules. Maybe there are too many and the Ref's just cannot keep up with remembering every single rule in a game that has increased in pace. Maybe some rules should be dropped or simplified. Or maybe some should be automated where possible to reduce the mental load that is clearly too much for these Ref's.

A lot of people seem to blame VAR, but the reality is that VAR isn't a problem. The problem is that the person using it is incompetent.

When someone crashes their car because they either weren't paying attention or misusing it we don't blame the car.

So why blame VAR when the officials misuse it?

The officiating of the game needs a big shake up, rules need to be rewritten or scraped, and a clear process needs to be put in place, performances need to be monitored and assessed, with actual consequences for poor performance.

Then we might see some improvement and consistency.

2.) 06 Nov 2023
06 Nov 2023 13:32:41
It probably is rigged to a point but how much of it the players know about it is anyones guess.
I was watching a video yesterday and the comments were adamant tom brady in the American football isn’t good enough to win 7 super bowls, pointing to match fixing the reason why he has. I've read basketball theories as well.

There was a boxing match where one of the Paul brothers ironed out the mma fighter. He gave a hand signal with his glove then a few seconds later he ko’d the guy.

I wouldn’t put it past football to be corrupt. I think most of them are doping as well.

{Ed002's Note - Rubbish.}

3.) 06 Nov 2023
06 Nov 2023 13:49:14
Football is a pretty hard game to fix, i mean we are talking about a low scoring game that can be decided on if there was a beach ball in the pitch (shoutout Darren Bent) .

4.) 06 Nov 2023
06 Nov 2023 13:51:43
Some tin foil hats needed here.

5.) 06 Nov 2023
06 Nov 2023 15:19:16
Even that Icke pillock would struggle with this one.

Individual interpretation of so many vague rules has created it's inevitable mess, but there is no match fixing - just too much ambiguity mixed with spineless and/ or inept match officials.

6.) 06 Nov 2023
06 Nov 2023 15:19:29
There's only two ways about it anymore. Either the people at their job are so woefully inept they keep making errors. In which case I'd be fired my job long, long ago for performances like that. The other option is there is money under the table to refs (Barcelona under investigation for this very thing) . I can't believe at the highest level refs are this bad, which makes it sadly that money is involved for these shocking errors that happen week in week out. I watch all sports as well and these shocking decisions are not unique to only the PL. Too much money in the game, only makes sense that people pay for an advantage.

7.) 06 Nov 2023
06 Nov 2023 16:13:53
I don't think they are fixed, but some referees deserve all the stick they get and then some.

8.) 06 Nov 2023
06 Nov 2023 16:58:52
No, EPL matches are not fixed.

9.) 06 Nov 2023
06 Nov 2023 17:33:52
i do agree with ed about what i wrote is rubbish but i do think there is quite a lot of doping which is another conversation itself.

10.) 06 Nov 2023
06 Nov 2023 17:38:27
Premier League games are not fixed and nor is the earth flat.

The standard of refereeing in this country is appalling and that is why these conversations are had on Twitter.

I'm not sure if this is possible but we should be scouting Europe to attract the best referees. I'm sure we pay better than most so it should not be difficult to bring better referees in.

How the top tier of English football is worth so much money, but we have shocking referees running the show, is beyond me. It's clearly an area of investment which has been overlooked.

11.) 06 Nov 2023
06 Nov 2023 19:21:29
Referees need to be paid much better and much better structures be placed around them. VAR technology is great but decisions being made with it are awful. In most sports there's a guideline whether contentious decisions (marginal offside calls for instance would be in this grouping) should go in favour of the attacking or defending team.

Offside calls are dependent on the time of freezing the frame on the pass so are subject to margin of error. Until this is accounted for, until referees have proper pay and support structures, then I feel it's wrong to be so harsh on referees. There's no evidence they are biased for particular teams (beyond usual home team bias) but plenty that the decisions being made could be improved.

12.) 07 Nov 2023
07 Nov 2023 07:47:13
I don't quite understand, why doesn't PL copy CL offside technology? Much faster and clear cut. At least offside decisions wouldn't be left to human eye and drawing lines.