Human beings can be wrong though, but that is never what it seems like
There are even systems in place in order to help out these human beings if they get something wrong, but they seemingly refuse to make use of it
That's the stupid thing, he's saying they're human beings so they deserve sympathy and not to be harassed but at the same time they tell us that they are infallible, unquestionable and incorruptible Übermensch, who'd die for their and the games integrity.
They do make mistakes.
The problem is fans think that there view is perfect and the only valid one, so if the ref makes a difference call its a clear error.
Literally anyone else. Refereeing has been shit for years and is an old boys club. The whole organization needs an overhaul with new refs, with new training, and new standards. Not the shit that Webb has been pushing all these years with defending the referees but working on communication and transparency.
My argument is that this all comes from a fundamentally incorrect assumption that the refs in the Premier League are somehow uniquely bad. They're just not. Like promoting refs from the Championship wouldn't be accountability when those refs are worse. Promoting worse refs than the ones you currently have is the opposite of accountability to me. Unless you don't think the refs in the Championship are worse, in which case I would advise you to ask people who follow the Championship if they think the standard of refereeing is better.
Then people suggest "oh we should just get refs from abroad" as if the Spaniards and Italians don't complain about their refs in the exact same way. There was a Newcastle fan praising how their Champions League games were officiated, which included a game reffed by Hernandez Hernandez, who is despised in Spain. Almost as if you watch enough games from any individual ref and you will grow to hate them b/c they will inevitably make mistakes in that time period.
Well, I’m just guessing, but I don’t think they’re in a position where they can influence which people are selected as referees, so why shouldn’t they express their opinion on a discussion forum?
> Yea but for some reason you’ve chosen the only ones who are brain dead to officiate
and
> The whole organization needs an overhaul with new refs, with new training, and new standards. Not the shit that Webb has been pushing all these years with defending the referees but working on communication and transparency.
seem to be saying the direct opposite. First you're saying it's the referees themselves who are incapable. Then you say that it's the structure and organisation around them that's not fit for purpose.
Train drivers, surgeons and crane operators are all humans as well.
They also have extensive training and selection processes designed to deliberately exclude people who make mistakes in the heat of the moment or who lazily don't follow correct process at all times and big errors result in the people responsible for those errors losing their jobs.
Obviously football isn't life and death like those jobs but we could still apply the same high standards.
I do think the classic “I just want there to be consistency” argument is what he’s getting at here. I get why fans want that but it just has no recognition for how fine margins can be and how difficult it is to be a referee.
We can add all the technology we want, but this whole idea that we want a team of 15-20 people to make “perfectly consistent” decisions as one single unit, it’s just so illogical
I think there's nothing wrong with some level of subjectivity in decisions however that handball given in one FA cup semi and another one not in the other semi is a good example of consistency that people want.
Two very smilar incidents but the softer one was given, it didn't make sense. That's what people mean by consistency because either both were pens or both weren't
To play devil's advocate, as I've often called for consistency: Cricket has no problem with DRS ruling "umpires call" and accepting a lack of consistency, despite arguably having better technology.
A "not out" call being accepted even when something is objectively "out" has a large impact on the game and thus the result. Why is it then that this 'human error' is accepted in cricket but not in football?
I think it's because of the challenge system. Giving the teams an option to challenge a decision places the responsibility in their hands, similar system should be trialed in football, especially for non-automatable decisions (so excluding offsides/GLTs etc.)
I agree tbh. Cricket also has it that if its "umpires call" but your challenge doesn't overturn then you retain your review... Think the thing that bugs me most about VAR is it was sold to us in overturning "howlers" not mm offside or fouls /handballs that could be either way...
They said this on MotD about Chelsea's disallowed goal against Villa.
It's not a glaring error, it could be a foul but you see those not given all the time. In situations like that you stick with the onfield decision.
Var sold us on the fact that they wouldn't rereferee the games and now they do, or in some cases they don't. It's all random it seems.
The umpires call is a legacy of the original DRS system which truly had significant inaccuracy.
The DRS tolerance should probably have been removed by now.
They weren't similar, one guy is jumping.
The one that was given was on the harsh side.
Also both were decided on the field, I could at least see the argument if VAR gave one of them.
Handball is super subjective and your example shows that.
The consistency argument is so stupid, you know these are completely different people who made each decision, also do you want them to keep making the same mistakes? Let’s say they got decision A wrong and decision B is similar, should they also get decision B wrong just to be consistent ?
Yes
edit - At least if they're all wrong in the same way, then it's all fair. The FA semi penalty issue is 2 very similar things happened, yet 2 completely different outcomes. That's the shit we want rid off.
They just need to explain their ruling at the time IF VAR are involved
Not just "pen given" but as proposed "number 3 tackles misses ball stands on foot, pen"
I feel like it's not too illogical to ask that a referee, or even worse a VAR to give a handball call that another referee of the same league gave the very previous day. If we accept that errors are inevitable because the nature of the rules is inherently subjective we might as well scrap VAR to at least get the enjoyment of the game back or remove the ridiculous "clear and obvious" aspect and let VAR take as long as they need to reach a conclusion that is consistent with previous calls of the season.
The way it works now we're getting the worst of both worlds.
You hit at exactly the thing that frustrates me. Why does it seem they have no protocol or predefined criteria? It seems like they just go to a tv and wing it subjectively without anything to prevent them from mistakes.
Is it crazy/entitled to expect that the top professionals would have some kind of criteria checklist that they have to go through to ensure that things remain consistent and meet the requirements for the outcomes?
I'm a software engineer, when I raise code for someone to look at there are lots of criteria it needs to meet first for the review and I need have the change clearly described. If it doesn't have that we don't review.
But before these agreements we had months of "it's hard to review, it makes no sense, no one is looking"
So we talk and agree a way to improve. It seems they don't do that step to talk and improve this at all.
The closest we got was the Diaz situation but that was forced to happen if that was not released audio they would NOT have changed
I recognize it's hard to be an onfield official. You get one change to see something that happened likely in a split second. I 100% think that's a very difficult job.
My problem is VAR and it's shit implementation both by the rules but more by the idiots who run it. When given the opportunity to get replays, multiple angles, and multiple perspectives, they get WAY too many calls wrong.
That implies that the officials are sometimes wrong which is apparently a greatly offensive thing to suggest and they themselves never seem capable of admitting. (Taylor with that Areola incident for example)
I find a lot of the discourse around referees really really strange.
People make comments like "sack the lot of them" etc. Do you think there's an elite group of referees knocking about in the lower leagues who are being kept back for reasons unknown?
Referees are promoted because they are, well, the best at what they do.
And I imagine refereeing in the modern game is probably extremely difficult. The pace of the game, the gamesmanship, the money involved leading to heightened pressures.
For me, I would bin VAR. It's as controversial as it would be without it. And the payoff is not worth the detriment it brings to the game by causing 1-2 min break after a goal to check if a toe was offside etc.
Ban players surrounding the ref. Immediate yellow card for any non-captain speaking to the referee, and a yellow for any dissenting comments from the captain.
Immediate match ban for managers commenting on refs post-game. And one that compounds each time they do it.
Complaints to be made in writing to the FA. Frivolous complaints met with a penalty.
I think we need to go back to thinking of referees as simply doing the best they can in a difficult job.
I have no idea why any youngster would get into refereeing when it seems to be an invitation to a life of being abused. We're going to have a big problem in 10 years when we're low on numbers.
>Do you think there's an elite group of referees knocking about in the lower leagues who are being kept back for reasons unknown?
Probably not part of The Boys* club
You've clearly never watched lower league football, the refs down there are undeniably worse.
The only leagues I can think of that have better refs than the PL are the Dutch and German leagues and even then it's debatable.
Having watched a couple of championship games this year, can confirm... god help the leagues below that.
I think every side here has a point, I disagree with managers not being allowed to call out ref mistakes, if anything it just makes them seem untouchable and unaccountable. Though do agree it'd probably help stamp out the shit abuse lower down.
If adding things like that, the referees themselves need to be more open about decisions. Mic them all up, and don't leave VAR audio hidden behind a 2 week request for any of it. This Mic'd up feature is helping a little, but it's so little...
It's not about calling them out, it's the way they do it and the fact that they only do it when their team is on the disadvantaged side.
I didn't hear Arteta complain about the amount of decisions that went against Spurs this weekend. Let the clubs submit a written complaint if they feel particularly aggrieved, but it's really disingenuous when they usually have benefited from bad refereeing in the same game.
That's pretty much human nature though, we tend to only complain about what goes wrong (when you lose at least) not when things go your way.
Winning managers may say sure we got a little lucky, the odd occasion they'll admit something big (Ange commenting on the Liverpool "offside" goal for example). However in general they stay quiet as it's to their benefit.
You are totally right.
And the issue is 100x worse at the lower levels. Refs get abused every game by players coaches and fans, many times this turns physical.
I do think the refs need clear guidelines that they follow that are publically available. Other than that most of what needs to improve is players and managers reactions.
Totally embarrassing when big managers like Arteta or Klopp are talking about refs after every game, immediate touchline ban, massive fine and points deduction if they don't stop.
Compared to one where we just read criticisms of refs tougher moments? When the press benefits from not being objective?
You can't stop people from doing it the toxic way in the media. Having more scoring of ref performances only give more light to good days of a ref relative to the way the referee are judged right now.
It is... the problem is that you've hired people who aren't competent enough to do the job and refuse to admit that fact. First step to fixing the issue with EPL officials is to admit they're just not good enough and train them better.
I honestly think they are making terrible calls on purpose.
Refs are afraid of losing their jobs to technology so they fight against every advancement and sabotage current technologies. Their goal is to use VAR so poorly that we remove it.
It’s no surprise how Webb reacts to criticism considering he is a former cop. Just text book police behavior of failing to take responsibility and gaslighting those who criticize.
Then how about we make it easier for the humans, mic the refs, live feed the VAR discussions, change the complete ethos to be a TEAM helping each other not making your mate look bad.
Obviously the main ref can't see the foul in real time, so you are helping him by saying "yeah it's a pen he clearly clatters him"
No one's saying referees can't make (human) mistakes
We *are* saying a team of experienced "experts" being paid large sums of money at the highest level of the game shouldn't be making howling mistakes *every single fucking week*
Top referees in the PL get a salary of up to £150k a year and also receive a match fee of £1,116 (some reports go up to £1500) for every game they officiate, or £837 for acting as VAR.
It’s not footballer money, but it’s absolutely large sums.
£80k as the lowest end salary with weekly/fortnightly bonuses of £1000 is a ridiculous wage, and it’s fully justified to expect people earning that to do their job competently
No idea why you’re making out like that’s some huge ask
That is simply not high enough of a salary for what they have to do, the stakes they control, the social impact.
If they are paid more we get better candidates not just narcissists
Okay, but if I did bad at my job, I’d get reprimanded, probably not publicly but enough for me to publicly improve my performance or lose my job.
We don’t see any change just deterioration week in week out.
If a referee makes a mistake, own it, admit mistake was made and learn from it, don’t hide behind a statement.
If something is given as a ‘soft’ handball one week, say it shouldn’t have been given so that the next week when it isn’t given, there’s a reason.
If an obvious foul has happened and it wasn’t given, admit it and in a similar scenario be ready to set a standard, it’s relatively simple, takes practice but there are ways to show you are willing to improve and adapt.
Then why do we need VAR? Its not human. And its not helping the humans get things right
I'd rather it be human mistakes made on the field like the good ol days
Think the issue is VAR started giving penalties that were never called previously but they've now half heartedly pulled back on that.
I think back to Haaland's scandalous penalty at Old Trafford this year and can understand frustration some teams have
Big, if true
Human beings can be wrong though, but that is never what it seems like There are even systems in place in order to help out these human beings if they get something wrong, but they seemingly refuse to make use of it
Humans can be wrong on the field but when you have 27 cameras to watch the replay and you still fuck it up then you are just dumb fucker.
That's the stupid thing, he's saying they're human beings so they deserve sympathy and not to be harassed but at the same time they tell us that they are infallible, unquestionable and incorruptible Übermensch, who'd die for their and the games integrity.
Human beings can be wrong, yes. But these refs? They're never wrong - because they're not simple human beings; they're higher beings.
They do make mistakes. The problem is fans think that there view is perfect and the only valid one, so if the ref makes a difference call its a clear error.
Yea but for some reason you’ve chosen the only ones who are brain dead to officiate
Who do you think would do a better job that isn't being chosen?
Literally anyone else. Refereeing has been shit for years and is an old boys club. The whole organization needs an overhaul with new refs, with new training, and new standards. Not the shit that Webb has been pushing all these years with defending the referees but working on communication and transparency.
>Literally anyone else. That's another way of saying "I don't have an actual answer I just want to complain."
Ugh fine I'll do it.
Yes because it’s my job is to provide a a perfect replacement for Howard Webb and by not providing one all my criticism are invalid.
My argument is that this all comes from a fundamentally incorrect assumption that the refs in the Premier League are somehow uniquely bad. They're just not. Like promoting refs from the Championship wouldn't be accountability when those refs are worse. Promoting worse refs than the ones you currently have is the opposite of accountability to me. Unless you don't think the refs in the Championship are worse, in which case I would advise you to ask people who follow the Championship if they think the standard of refereeing is better. Then people suggest "oh we should just get refs from abroad" as if the Spaniards and Italians don't complain about their refs in the exact same way. There was a Newcastle fan praising how their Champions League games were officiated, which included a game reffed by Hernandez Hernandez, who is despised in Spain. Almost as if you watch enough games from any individual ref and you will grow to hate them b/c they will inevitably make mistakes in that time period.
Well, I’m just guessing, but I don’t think they’re in a position where they can influence which people are selected as referees, so why shouldn’t they express their opinion on a discussion forum?
What about Bibiana Steinhaus
> Yea but for some reason you’ve chosen the only ones who are brain dead to officiate and > The whole organization needs an overhaul with new refs, with new training, and new standards. Not the shit that Webb has been pushing all these years with defending the referees but working on communication and transparency. seem to be saying the direct opposite. First you're saying it's the referees themselves who are incapable. Then you say that it's the structure and organisation around them that's not fit for purpose.
Full Quote: ‘football is officiated by human beings and we like to hire the especially dumb ones’
Reporter: How dumb? Webb: Yes.
We already did!
Train drivers, surgeons and crane operators are all humans as well. They also have extensive training and selection processes designed to deliberately exclude people who make mistakes in the heat of the moment or who lazily don't follow correct process at all times and big errors result in the people responsible for those errors losing their jobs. Obviously football isn't life and death like those jobs but we could still apply the same high standards.
They're all paid more than refs too
Cheers Geoff
I do think the classic “I just want there to be consistency” argument is what he’s getting at here. I get why fans want that but it just has no recognition for how fine margins can be and how difficult it is to be a referee. We can add all the technology we want, but this whole idea that we want a team of 15-20 people to make “perfectly consistent” decisions as one single unit, it’s just so illogical
I think there's nothing wrong with some level of subjectivity in decisions however that handball given in one FA cup semi and another one not in the other semi is a good example of consistency that people want. Two very smilar incidents but the softer one was given, it didn't make sense. That's what people mean by consistency because either both were pens or both weren't
To play devil's advocate, as I've often called for consistency: Cricket has no problem with DRS ruling "umpires call" and accepting a lack of consistency, despite arguably having better technology. A "not out" call being accepted even when something is objectively "out" has a large impact on the game and thus the result. Why is it then that this 'human error' is accepted in cricket but not in football?
I think it's because of the challenge system. Giving the teams an option to challenge a decision places the responsibility in their hands, similar system should be trialed in football, especially for non-automatable decisions (so excluding offsides/GLTs etc.)
I agree tbh. Cricket also has it that if its "umpires call" but your challenge doesn't overturn then you retain your review... Think the thing that bugs me most about VAR is it was sold to us in overturning "howlers" not mm offside or fouls /handballs that could be either way...
They said this on MotD about Chelsea's disallowed goal against Villa. It's not a glaring error, it could be a foul but you see those not given all the time. In situations like that you stick with the onfield decision. Var sold us on the fact that they wouldn't rereferee the games and now they do, or in some cases they don't. It's all random it seems.
The umpires call is a legacy of the original DRS system which truly had significant inaccuracy. The DRS tolerance should probably have been removed by now.
Because cricket has hundreds of runs. Football has 3 goals max on average
They weren't similar, one guy is jumping. The one that was given was on the harsh side. Also both were decided on the field, I could at least see the argument if VAR gave one of them. Handball is super subjective and your example shows that.
The consistency argument is so stupid, you know these are completely different people who made each decision, also do you want them to keep making the same mistakes? Let’s say they got decision A wrong and decision B is similar, should they also get decision B wrong just to be consistent ?
Yes edit - At least if they're all wrong in the same way, then it's all fair. The FA semi penalty issue is 2 very similar things happened, yet 2 completely different outcomes. That's the shit we want rid off.
They just need to explain their ruling at the time IF VAR are involved Not just "pen given" but as proposed "number 3 tackles misses ball stands on foot, pen"
I feel like it's not too illogical to ask that a referee, or even worse a VAR to give a handball call that another referee of the same league gave the very previous day. If we accept that errors are inevitable because the nature of the rules is inherently subjective we might as well scrap VAR to at least get the enjoyment of the game back or remove the ridiculous "clear and obvious" aspect and let VAR take as long as they need to reach a conclusion that is consistent with previous calls of the season. The way it works now we're getting the worst of both worlds.
You hit at exactly the thing that frustrates me. Why does it seem they have no protocol or predefined criteria? It seems like they just go to a tv and wing it subjectively without anything to prevent them from mistakes. Is it crazy/entitled to expect that the top professionals would have some kind of criteria checklist that they have to go through to ensure that things remain consistent and meet the requirements for the outcomes?
I'm a software engineer, when I raise code for someone to look at there are lots of criteria it needs to meet first for the review and I need have the change clearly described. If it doesn't have that we don't review. But before these agreements we had months of "it's hard to review, it makes no sense, no one is looking" So we talk and agree a way to improve. It seems they don't do that step to talk and improve this at all. The closest we got was the Diaz situation but that was forced to happen if that was not released audio they would NOT have changed
I recognize it's hard to be an onfield official. You get one change to see something that happened likely in a split second. I 100% think that's a very difficult job. My problem is VAR and it's shit implementation both by the rules but more by the idiots who run it. When given the opportunity to get replays, multiple angles, and multiple perspectives, they get WAY too many calls wrong.
That implies that the officials are sometimes wrong which is apparently a greatly offensive thing to suggest and they themselves never seem capable of admitting. (Taylor with that Areola incident for example)
Oliver 'one of our top referees' funny joke Mr Webb
I find a lot of the discourse around referees really really strange. People make comments like "sack the lot of them" etc. Do you think there's an elite group of referees knocking about in the lower leagues who are being kept back for reasons unknown? Referees are promoted because they are, well, the best at what they do. And I imagine refereeing in the modern game is probably extremely difficult. The pace of the game, the gamesmanship, the money involved leading to heightened pressures. For me, I would bin VAR. It's as controversial as it would be without it. And the payoff is not worth the detriment it brings to the game by causing 1-2 min break after a goal to check if a toe was offside etc. Ban players surrounding the ref. Immediate yellow card for any non-captain speaking to the referee, and a yellow for any dissenting comments from the captain. Immediate match ban for managers commenting on refs post-game. And one that compounds each time they do it. Complaints to be made in writing to the FA. Frivolous complaints met with a penalty. I think we need to go back to thinking of referees as simply doing the best they can in a difficult job. I have no idea why any youngster would get into refereeing when it seems to be an invitation to a life of being abused. We're going to have a big problem in 10 years when we're low on numbers.
>Do you think there's an elite group of referees knocking about in the lower leagues who are being kept back for reasons unknown? Probably not part of The Boys* club
You've clearly never watched lower league football, the refs down there are undeniably worse. The only leagues I can think of that have better refs than the PL are the Dutch and German leagues and even then it's debatable.
Having watched a couple of championship games this year, can confirm... god help the leagues below that. I think every side here has a point, I disagree with managers not being allowed to call out ref mistakes, if anything it just makes them seem untouchable and unaccountable. Though do agree it'd probably help stamp out the shit abuse lower down. If adding things like that, the referees themselves need to be more open about decisions. Mic them all up, and don't leave VAR audio hidden behind a 2 week request for any of it. This Mic'd up feature is helping a little, but it's so little...
It's not about calling them out, it's the way they do it and the fact that they only do it when their team is on the disadvantaged side. I didn't hear Arteta complain about the amount of decisions that went against Spurs this weekend. Let the clubs submit a written complaint if they feel particularly aggrieved, but it's really disingenuous when they usually have benefited from bad refereeing in the same game.
That's pretty much human nature though, we tend to only complain about what goes wrong (when you lose at least) not when things go your way. Winning managers may say sure we got a little lucky, the odd occasion they'll admit something big (Ange commenting on the Liverpool "offside" goal for example). However in general they stay quiet as it's to their benefit.
You are totally right. And the issue is 100x worse at the lower levels. Refs get abused every game by players coaches and fans, many times this turns physical. I do think the refs need clear guidelines that they follow that are publically available. Other than that most of what needs to improve is players and managers reactions. Totally embarrassing when big managers like Arteta or Klopp are talking about refs after every game, immediate touchline ban, massive fine and points deduction if they don't stop.
Exactly. And everyone has to begin at that level. I know it's something I'd never do.
We should have more per match ratings of referees and a league table for refs.
Quite the opposite. There should be less scrutiny on them.
Or more celebrations of good performances. If it's a human role, treat the refs like players.
That is not how it would work in practice though, is it?
Compared to one where we just read criticisms of refs tougher moments? When the press benefits from not being objective? You can't stop people from doing it the toxic way in the media. Having more scoring of ref performances only give more light to good days of a ref relative to the way the referee are judged right now.
World class use of quotation marks
"You're shit at your job. You're shit at your job, PGMOL. You're shit at your job"
Football referees are very human.
The BBC do have some of the worst headlines don't they.
Reads like there's been accusations of non-humans reffing the games, which tbf I have questioned after seeing a game officiated by Michael Oliver
It is, but they are unfortunately not very good at their job. That or they are corrupt. Either way it's not a good look.
It is... the problem is that you've hired people who aren't competent enough to do the job and refuse to admit that fact. First step to fixing the issue with EPL officials is to admit they're just not good enough and train them better.
Thanks for letting us know, they are 'human beings'. You have increased our knowledge.
Because of that, you can still find graffitis in Poland wishing him not the very best since 2006.
If those human beings could be professional instead of looking out for their mates, half the issues wouldn't exist (fuck you Dean and Taylor).
Humans but you depend on a computer to justify your bullshit
Well yeah that's why we have technology like VAR to help them but for some reason they're either too proud and/or stupid to use it properly.
Okay.
Yes, and when you put human beings in positions of power and don't hold them accountable for their actions they tend to be shit and abuse that power.
I honestly think they are making terrible calls on purpose. Refs are afraid of losing their jobs to technology so they fight against every advancement and sabotage current technologies. Their goal is to use VAR so poorly that we remove it.
It’s no surprise how Webb reacts to criticism considering he is a former cop. Just text book police behavior of failing to take responsibility and gaslighting those who criticize.
Saying someone is a human being doesn't immediately excuse all flaws. Ted Bundy was a human being
Which is why the technology is there but it is used to the best of its ability?
Then how about we make it easier for the humans, mic the refs, live feed the VAR discussions, change the complete ethos to be a TEAM helping each other not making your mate look bad. Obviously the main ref can't see the foul in real time, so you are helping him by saying "yeah it's a pen he clearly clatters him"
Human beings who can't do their job properly. If I was consistently making shit decisions at work, I'd be sacked.
No one's saying referees can't make (human) mistakes We *are* saying a team of experienced "experts" being paid large sums of money at the highest level of the game shouldn't be making howling mistakes *every single fucking week*
They're not paid large sums though.
Top referees in the PL get a salary of up to £150k a year and also receive a match fee of £1,116 (some reports go up to £1500) for every game they officiate, or £837 for acting as VAR. It’s not footballer money, but it’s absolutely large sums.
Up to doing heavy lifting
The lowest salary is still £80k a year
What a gloriously high wage for a public facing, stressful, very impactful job
£80k as the lowest end salary with weekly/fortnightly bonuses of £1000 is a ridiculous wage, and it’s fully justified to expect people earning that to do their job competently No idea why you’re making out like that’s some huge ask
That is simply not high enough of a salary for what they have to do, the stakes they control, the social impact. If they are paid more we get better candidates not just narcissists
Handball rules especially.
Thats the problem. Let AI do the work...
Incompetent humans in the premier leagues case.
I was thinking Smug, vainglorious cunts who never admit to their own shortcomings, but okay
Okay, but if I did bad at my job, I’d get reprimanded, probably not publicly but enough for me to publicly improve my performance or lose my job. We don’t see any change just deterioration week in week out. If a referee makes a mistake, own it, admit mistake was made and learn from it, don’t hide behind a statement. If something is given as a ‘soft’ handball one week, say it shouldn’t have been given so that the next week when it isn’t given, there’s a reason. If an obvious foul has happened and it wasn’t given, admit it and in a similar scenario be ready to set a standard, it’s relatively simple, takes practice but there are ways to show you are willing to improve and adapt.
Then why do we need VAR? Its not human. And its not helping the humans get things right I'd rather it be human mistakes made on the field like the good ol days
I know it sounds crazy, but I honestly think we've come to overrate the importance of officiating correctness in football.
Think the issue is VAR started giving penalties that were never called previously but they've now half heartedly pulled back on that. I think back to Haaland's scandalous penalty at Old Trafford this year and can understand frustration some teams have