Give us the no commentary audio option. I beg you.

If Craig Pawson was a dog, he‘d be Candy’s old sheepdog from Of Mice and Men. He’s disgusting.

True. Although the US does benefit from having a team of referees rather than just one man making the calls, hence any individual bias is mitigated. A ref SHOULD be objective but when trust in their ability as professionals is so low then conspiracy theory naturally follows, rightly or wrongly.

I am absolutely not trying to die on a hill for this penalty decision either. If they want to overturn it because of weird rules then ok. The main issue is the lack of consistency, the egregious foul play missed, the nitpicking to rule out goals.. ultimately the lack of leadership or accountability.

Oh I’ve never actually watched it.

They built a system around the words “clear and obvious”. Laws based on completely subjective words. Build on foundations made of balloon animals and infinite handkerchieves and it’s inevitable that the building will be a clown college.

Good example of how I guess it doesn’t matter to the uninvested observer whether decisions are correct and (more importantly) coherent. I wonder whether a “red card roulette” on the 65th minute (or some other arbitrary game changer) might actually be a popular addition to matches.

Sorry for the stilted way this is written due to me hitting character limits like Declan rice hitting the corner of Real Madrid‘s net relentlessly.

Refereeing decisions are largely accepted and move on, because the refs are professional and expert. A complete contrast to PGMOL which is just a bunch of weak individuals who got there because no one else wanted to/had a chance, and are led by a wannabe celebrity shooting for strictly come dancing.

A huge difference I’ve noticed since moving to the US and consuming televised live sports is the quality of the commentary and punditry. They talk about actions in the game, educate, inform. They rarely mention emotion, previous games to construct narrative. Deferential to players and coaches.

Because football is the most tribal environment possible combined with a media obsessed with narrative it is impossible to have reasoned conversation and progress. The pgmol is a parasite feeding off this. The competency is irrelevant so long as it provides storylines and can be a part of the show.

I know that we (smart people) feel this way, and feel exceptionally strongly about it. However the impression I get from the generic media and podcasts is that they barely register any of these concerns at all. eg football weekly praising var for coming to the correct decision re gjok pen. Hopeless.

115,000%

maybe he’s a vibes man. Vibes man carlo ancelotti works because the talent sees you through. Vibes man harry redknapp does not. I think the level of coaching and analytics in the prem is too high for vibes to do it, but only having one challenger (arsenal) helps a lot. We drop points = vibes.

Oh and goals scored in those games by Eddie and welbz!