By Tony Attwood
Let us imagine that you are approaching the Tottenham v Arsenal game without any thought about the refereeing for the match, except perhaps that in a match of such a high profile and of such importance to Arsenal (who will go second with a victory) everything should be done to avoid any controversy over the refereeing.
So we look for reassurance about the referee, Jarred Gillett. But then we see this is the second time in the four games this season that he is refereeing Arsenal. In other words 50 % of Arsenal games are being overseen by this one referee.
Put it another way we can see that for Mr Gillett this is his 3rd game….so 66 % of his refereeing activity this season is involved with Arsenal. Why would any serious, professional league allow that to happen? But there is worse to come, because as we start looking at the list of referees we find there are now some of them on double duty across the weekend.
For example Mr Kavanagh was running VAR in the Southampton – Manchester United game and also refereeing Wolverhampton – Newcastle
Mr Attwell was referee Southampton – Manchester United and is now VAR for Tottenham v Arsenal. And so, we have an organisation running the refereeing in the world’s richest and biggest football league, which is absolutely incapable of organising the refereeing properly, as well as being unable to run their finances so that they don’t get close to a state of financial collapse.
But what they have got is an utterly compliant media that will not point any of this out.
In Germany they have VAR specialists for the Bundesliga for example. And they do this for the simple reason that the Bundesliga long ago figured out that a referee capable of blowing a whistle and trying to shut out the pressure of the crowd, may not be the most efficient person when it comes to handling a keyboard and a mouse while looking at six or eight screens while simultaneously moving a mouse in order to find the right angle, draw the right line down to the exact pixel.
It might sound fairly simple, but believe me it is not. But then again, the Bundesliga is German. They know about processes and about the need for openness. … But here we have a situation in which Mike Dean admitted to avoiding making a VAR call to spare his referee Anthony Taylor ‘more grief’ last season. And that was in a game involving Tottenham, which surely tells us something.
Now we know from all the evidence that while processing a mass of information the referee can be influenced by the crowd (see all the research on why there are more home wins than away wins). We also have VAR processing multiple replay streams as well as multiple live streams, from multiple angles in some studio in a truck or basement. This needs experts to sort it all out – experts who are not seeing games day after day.
To resolve this we need to have a pool of referees of good enough ‘perceived’ quality, whom the refereeing organisation, the players, the commentators and the supporters can trust enough so they can handle any game, important or not, during the course of the 38 week season.
But for this rather important derby match we have the issue that the referee is being involved a second time, and the VAR official was involved the previous afternoon.
And people still say we are overblowing the argument against PGMO, and also that we are paranoïd.
Of course this is not just Arsenal. Any Southampton fans paying attention will be really worried seeing Wolverhampton has the same VAR as the referee they just had in their 3-0 defeat.
Whichever way you look at it PGMOL is incapable of selecting, hiring, training, and handling their employees (as well as being incompetent in handling their own finances, given that they are on the edge of insolvency) and as a consequence they are screwing up the beautiful game in the biggest and richest league in the world.
Yet apparently the Premier League is so scared of what happens if PGMOL does not exist that they accept this situation somehow thinking that if anyone reveals the chaos they have allowed to happen with PGMOL, people will stop believing this is the best league in the world.
So you have a secretive organisation that has no existence on the internet taking the Premier League hostage along with, while all broadcasters worldwide are afraid of revealing what is actually going on.
And they can do this because the media has decided not to cover the story that PGMO has now allowed itself to get in financial problems, despite being a monopoly supplier.
Everything points to PGMO being grossly incompetent. If they are not, perhaps they would like to come out and explain how they could have run out of money.
Of course Arsenal fans are worried about PGMO, but so should be Manchester United or Newcastle fan…. although it’s not our job to point out what they should be observing for themselves.
Reform has to start somewhere. How about having VAR specialists as in Germany, not allowing any referee to oversee any club more than twice in a season, and a new financial team running PGMO? And a media that doesn’t kowtow to the requirement that they don’t talk about referees.
- North London battles. Who has been top in recent years?
- Is Mr Gillett unconsciously biased in any way, or does he treat teams equally
Thanks Tony, a great read and I agree regarding the corruption.
Man City will have to start defending their charges this Monday according to the news.
Arsenal will be playing with 11 men Vs The scums 12 this afternoon, if you include the anti Arsenal official, As per usual, I would expect nothing less from that corrupt organisation.
Speaking of corrupt officials, there was an article this morning that stated that the Liverpool game referee Michael Oliver allowed a Liverpool player to escape a second yellow card after he had kicked the ball away in a near identical Declan Rice dismissal incident, he allowed the Liverpool player to remain on the pitch, why I ask?.
Talk about bias double standards. For some reason this was not highlighted on Match of the Day!
Here is the link to the story, what do you think?
https://metro.co.uk/2024/09/14/liverpoo-star-avoids-red-card-offence-declan-rice-21605882/?ito=newsnow-feed
daveg
Ben highlighted this yesterday.
I also highlighted a blatant shirt pull by a Southampton player on a Man Utd player that led to a freekick, so obviously was seen, but no card issued. And as per MOTD last night, it was not even mentioned by the commentators at the time.
I also noted, that although the Liverpool incident has been picked up in the media everyone is taking the angle that ‘Arsenal fans are livid’. They are not THEMSELVES addressing the issue of the inconsistency. In other words, their take on it is it’s just Arsenal fans whinging.
And I added:
And mark my words Gallagher and co, will find a way to justify why it wasn’t a second yellow.
Liverpoool.com are already excusing it by saying because Liverpool were 1 down he wasn’t stopping a quick free kick?
WTF. So if you’re losing it’s okay to kick the ball away is it?
And are we now suggesting that the rules change depending on the status of the game?
We’ve known for years that the timing of an incident, early in a game for example, means it’s treated different to later in the game. Now we have to take in to account the score line do we?
Tony is 100% spot on. The media are in The PiGMOb’s pocket as shown by MOTD last night and TNT yesterday, choosing to ignore 2 blatant examples of incompetence and inconsistency.
Apart from the first half of the Southampton Utd match I haven’t watched any football this weekend. I dread to think how many inconsistency’s there would be if you sat down and went through every match.
And don’t forget the KMI panel said:
“Of the 23 on-field incidents looked into from the third weekend of the Premier League of the season, only one was deemed to be incorrect”.
And read this and weep:
“So far this season there has been little real controversy in the Premier League, with only one VAR decision ruled to be incorrect…….While there have been no other VAR errors….”
ONE INCORRECT DECISION!!!!
So, we have nothing to worry about lads. It’s all just in our heads.
Really? I mean really????
Tony
And unless I missed it, you didn’t even mention the fact he’s an Australian referee as per the Tottenham manager. I haven’t heard a word said about that.
If we had one Spanish Referee on the PGMO books, do you think he would of been put in charge?
And if he was do you not think for one second it wouldn’t be all over the media?
His appointment absolutely stinks.
He has a controversial history with Arsenal, including a major error (although denied as such again) in our first match.
The PGMO know all this is wrong, they just don’t give a damn..
You are Arsenal, and we will do exactly what we want.
It’s a great big F*** You.
Nitram, thanks for the reply and the info. I totally agree, it’s shameful and corrupt and if the manager protest, he gets fined or worse. The PGMOL are a joke.
Let’s hope today’s game isn’t about the referee and we thrash the scum.
well next red card has been advertised.
Saliba will be it….
That said, his act of carrying the ball was stupid. he should know better.
Well…. Spurs are going to play with a yellow kit soon…
Timber is a monster….it confirms what I have started thinking about him after the first games.
His yellow was totally underserved IMHO. He goes for the ball, gets the ball, it is not a plunging tackle.
The Spurs player played the guy who had lost a foot and with the speed he got what he wanted.
Wonder if that would have been a penalty if the hand had happened in the Arsenal box… I guess so…
Interesting game
Chris
Everyone in the SKY studio says Timber was lucky not to get a red.
He won the ball and hardly touched the guy.
I don’t even think it was a yellow.
@Nitram,
I concurr
Now…we changed Trossard for Sterling, Martinelli for Jesus
This is going to be interesting…. I don’t really see a drop in quality….
I have to hold my hands up. I thought the Ref did well.
Okay, a tad card happy at times, and as I said, I think the card against Timber was wrong. But I don’t mind a few errors here and there.
I want, but do not expect perfection.
I want but do expect impartiality.
Personally I thought we got that today.
Chris,
“Timber is a monster.” Isn’t he? That was a heck of a performance. Marked really well, excellent positioning and not afraid to move the ball up the pitch. Very confident player. When Calafiori and Merino come back , the best defense in the League will be quite formidable.