I've no idea if Atwell is bent, incompetent or corrupt. I do know there were 3 other PL games plus an FA Cup semi final today that he could've been involved with without any hint of controversy.
Maybe we could ask Mr Bates the Post Office bloke to get involved. He's quite good at corruption.
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This is a failure of governance. Part of the rules for signing up to a sporting competition should be to accept the governance of the sporting body. If you don't, you should no longer be eligible for that competition, and lose your right to participate. The problem here is that of corporate, rather than sporting, entities acting in pursuance of business, rather than sport.
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His suggestions for solutions are crap though. I don't think his idea to sell the post office to Amazon for a pound is a good one. That's putting it mildly.
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If we asked for him to be removed and they said no, then it's a bit shit. It might be different if we said "because he's useless" or "because he's a Luton fan" since a club should be able to object to an official up to a point.
I've got no time for those people saying the first one wasn't a penalty because there was insufficient contact. There was contact and it stopped the player, so piss off.
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Kicking people from behind is either not allowed, or it is allowed. Make up your fucking minds.
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The counter to that is that whilst you accept the governance structure, if that’s not implemented properly you have a right to recourse. I don’t agree that by signing up, you somehow forfeit the right to challenge incompetence.
And you could easily argue that that if you are a sporting body that sells your product for a gazillion pounds, then make sure you can ensure consistent quality of officiating.
I bet the premier league are not saying to all the dodgy corporations and ethically-dubious nation states “come over here and buy a team to play in richest and best league in the world. Of course, the refereeing is shite and may favour the guys who pay the most. But you’re not allowed to say a word about that. Just go along with it.”
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Exactly. So it's not actually sport. It's business. Nothing personal.
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You have to admire the way they've sold Schrödinger's officiating to the mug punters. An action can exist as both an offence, and not an offence, at the same time. It's state only becomes set when Anthony Taylor ( or whatever other blind competition winner is wheeled out for the day ) measures it. No amount or referring it to the broom cupboard can bring it back to life.
If those offences occur at old Trafford, and are committed against manure, does anyone seriously think none of them are given?
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The authorities don’t have any credible option but to reject the premise that an official cannot officiate because he supports some relevant other team. It’s just one of many potential biases that officials are paid to be able to set aside and do their job.
I don’t think the Luton thing is helpful or relevant.
I expect that the authorities are going to ignore this and carry on. As usual. What they should do is commission some actual proper independent research to rewatch every game and reassess every decision and see if there are patterns that look off. We keep hearing the pundit lines about how things even out.. and fan lines about the big clubs getting all the decisions.. it’s all anecdote, redirection and speculation.. there is no need for it to be so. You can science this shit out.
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My memory (such as it is) had me thinking that, for the Huddersfield play-off final, it really felt like a case of the bad decisions across the season balancing out the dodgy pens.
Obviously that might be rose-tinted bunkum and we had all the big club bia. -
That one would only be a case of evening out if Uddersfield had materially benefit from bad decisions over the season and were not, in fact, rightfully there in the first place. Which is part of why it’s a nonsense way of looking at it. Yesterday won’t even out if we get three dodgy pens against Citeh and lose 8-3. Or, maybe, even if we win 3-2. Bad decisions are specifically relevant at the moment they happen… three individual moments and different points in a tight six-pointer is something it’s hard to even out because comparable situations are hard to find.
Two stinkers in a Chanpionship playoff final? Near impossible.
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Evening out from our perspective only, obviously.
And ofc it's a facile way of analysing it, but it's fractionally preferably at some level compared to suggestions of bias.
I'm ok with criticism of competence though. I don't claim to be consistent. -
Fully agree. We could have gone in hard on the incompetence without alleging corruption. Although I do think that the optics aren't great and it probably wouldn't be that hard to avoid having a Luton fan on a crucial game in the relegation dogfight™.
Yep... if you are minded to do so.
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The issue about Attwell/Luton is not that he is corrupt but that there may be a perception of bias. The three penalty decisions (the third of which which by the way could not be explained at all on MOTD2 last night) confirm that perception and it was totally unnecessary thing to happen. You wouldn’t expect an international game to feature on-pitch or VAR from either country. Or a Spanish ref in the CL final if Real Madrid are playing (despite the fact that 75% of Spain hate Real Madrid). It’s the same in other sports and has been for years. Atwell may well be beyond reproach but if he’s known to be a Luton fan, then he should not officiate on or off the pitch in (a) games involving Luton and (b) critical games that affect Luton. I would argue that Everton v Forest was a critical game affecting Luton. I don’t think this is that hard and the failure of PGMOL to recognise that is both naive and incompetent.
It seems the club may have pointed this out on friday even if PGMOL deny it. It’s a classic example of exceptionalism. No-one is allowed to question the competence or integrity of the PGMOL. It is somehow unBritish and against the Corinthian spirit. And definitely don’t refer to it after the game. That’s bad sportsmanship. I think both of those are bollocks. If you are being involuntarily fucked up the arse, the least you should be allowed to do is ask for lube.
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To commission such a review you would need to be certain you would get the answers you wanted.
It will never happen because it might just prove the system is, consciously or subconsciously, rigged.
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This has gone a long way from changing my opinion that is was classless to justified outburst.
If you shot for the king though you must always make sure you don't miss.
