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Football Discussion

The ex Chelsea manager gets paid twenty odd million quid as a pay off for doing crap.
Oh I love commercial sport almost as much as I love blatant capitalism.
All in the spirit of the game, a good level playing field.
 
The position of VAR is an odd one. As I have seen, rugby nail it. The 4th official in the OB truck with every camera being spun back immediately helps massively and they can see what is going on during the entire match more and prevents issues with say the link between the match and VAR centre fails. I'd argue that it should be the players foot that should be the offside beacon. The useful part of the body, not the beard being offside.
 
It needs refining and rules put around it. It is too specific at the moment, but it is technically playing to the rules.

If they updated the rule to say something like

"If an attacking player is infront of the last defender where it would be seen as an unfair advantage'

Having your armpit as offside isn't going to be an advantage.

But saying that I think it should be stopped and refined in lower leagues before reintroducing it
 
Lower leagues suffer enough with awful referees, they don't need VAR testing on top of that (especially given the cost of installation)...

The thing is that the decisions are by letter of the law, correct... As frustrating as the decisions have been in terms of the tighter than a gnat's arse ones... And as offside is a yes/no answer, it's tricky when you add it factors, as if you allow 6mm, why not 10mm? And so on...

Given you can score with your shoulder, just having a foot as "offside" just wouldn't work...
 
The issue is that being in front is binary - you are or you aren't. Therefore you are, or are not, offside.

The problem is the stupid lines and taking minutes to check and decide. The 'clear and obvious' error methodology needs to be actually put in force and allow 30 or so seconds for checking offside at most.
 
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Conspiracy theory alert!

Both Financial Fair Play and VAR have been brought in to ensure that the top clubs will always be the top clubs, and make it harder other clubs to make a breakthrough. The authorities/big clubs don't want a club like Leicester winning the league again.

FFP means that clubs with bigger revenue (i.e. the top clubs who have massive worldwide sponsorship deals) are able to invest in their playing sides more than clubs that do not. It is not fair play at all. A billionaire could own a smaller club but not be allowed to invest large sums of their money as it would breach FFP regulations. Meanwhile the top clubs pull away even further.

VAR further enhances big club bias in refereeing decisions. In the last few weeks we have had several games where a clear hand ball by a defender has been deemed not to be a penalty by VAR. Then this weekend, another clear hand ball by a Manchester City player and VAR say no penalty. A clear hand ball by a Leicester City player later in the game and the same VAR says it is a penalty. Say what!? Clear bias towards the big club.

I am playing devils advocate slightly here, but I think it is something that should be considered. We have all seen how corrupt football authorities have been in the past and I would not put further corruption past them. Money talks.
 
VAR is consistently shit for every team tbf. Liverpool have had the most luck with it but that's just by chance I think.

We (Chelsea) won on Saturday against our most hated rival but that VAR nonsense really put a downer on the day. Every week something happens that pushes the supporters further away from the game we love.

On another note - I think the Premier League is at an all time low in terms of quality. I watch a lot of Serie A/Bundesliga, listen to weekly podcasts and the standard of football is far superior, particularly in terms of individual skill. Look at RB Leipzig Vs Spurs last week - a young manager with fresh ideas encouraging his team to play expansive, brave football Vs Mourinho with his outdated style.

La Liga is suffering too with Barca/Real/Atletico all in decline. Of the top 4 leagues I'd rank them...

1. Serie A
2. Bundesliga
3. Premier League
4. La Liga
 
Ironic to hear a Leicester fan describing VAR as a "conspiracy". I certainly feel they have benefited from it more than not this season.

You're pretty much accusing the system of being corrupt? So the referees on the pitch haven't been paid off but the referees in the VAR studio have? Nonsense.

As mentioned above, VAR has been consistently rubbish for everyone, apart from maybe Liverpool (who have done well from it). It does still have potential but it needs to adapt. Quickly.

As for financial fair play, it is to stop clubs spending beyond their means. Look at the number of clubs in financial trouble this season - Bolton, Bury, Derby, Macclesfield - and you will see the clear precedent for that. It is not a conspiracy.
 
D4n said:
Ironic to hear a Leicester fan describing VAR as a "conspiracy". I certainly feel they have benefited from it more than not this season.

You're pretty much accusing the system of being corrupt? So the referees on the pitch haven't been paid off but the referees in the VAR studio have? Nonsense.

As mentioned above, VAR has been consistently rubbish for everyone, apart from maybe Liverpool (who have done well from it). It does still have potential but it needs to adapt. Quickly.

As for financial fair play, it is to stop clubs spending beyond their means. Look at the number of clubs in financial trouble this season - Bolton, Bury, Derby, Macclesfield - and you will see the clear precedent for that. It is not a conspiracy.
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Financial Fair Play was set up to keep the elite clubs as elite clubs and to stop rich people coming in and making 'lesser' clubs bigger and more successful than the current elite clubs. FFP has been around for a long time now and it hasn't stopped what's happened with Bolton, Bury, Derby and Macclesfield. If FFP was really actually supposed to just look out for the interests of your average football club then they only needed to put in a rule that said if a new owner is personally bankrolling a club then they can't be 'owed' that money back by the club at a later date. But they didn't do that. What they did was say that if you're not already a big club with an established worldwide brand, massive following and massive stadium which already generates a massive income, you can't spend as much money as those already established clubs, therefore meaning that you can't break into the established elite. This was always about protecting the already established larger clubs when they saw what was happening with Abramovich and Chelsea.
 
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D4n said:
Ironic to hear a Leicester fan describing VAR as a "conspiracy". I certainly feel they have benefited from it more than not this season.

You're pretty much accusing the system of being corrupt? So the referees on the pitch haven't been paid off but the referees in the VAR studio have? Nonsense.

As mentioned above, VAR has been consistently rubbish for everyone, apart from maybe Liverpool (who have done well from it). It does still have potential but it needs to adapt. Quickly.

As for financial fair play, it is to stop clubs spending beyond their means. Look at the number of clubs in financial trouble this season - Bolton, Bury, Derby, Macclesfield - and you will see the clear precedent for that. It is not a conspiracy.
Click to expand...

We have indeed benefited from VAR in several games this season, yet I still despise it. Every time you score a goal you're left wondering how they are going to try and rule it out. It has also refused to give us clear penalties in three or four games, which is baffling, especially when you look at penalties given against us when playing some of the so call big clubs.

As I said, I am playing devils advocate slightly, but I do find it suspicious as to how the same VAR can give a handball to one team and not the other in the same match. Both were clear penalties. There was big club bias.

I also do not think that it is too farfetched to accuse footballing authorities of being corrupt. Money talks, hence we have a World Cup in Qatar.
 
All EFL matches have been postponed til April 3rd at the earliest. Gonna feel strange not being able to check the score every weekend. :(
 
The leagues will be suspended until a while after April 3, there is no way that the situation will be resolved by then. It is the correct thing to do though, especially as several teams have players or their entire squad in isolation.
 
There talk of the leagues been restarted behind closed doors in June with the season finishing mid July and then starting the following season 3/4 weeks later as the players wouldn’t need a break.
 
How's everyone finding the return of Premier League/C'ship/playoff football?

Water breaks aside, I am quite enjoying it!

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
 
Loving it. Mainly because Northampton are the single greatest team in the world.

What a performance.
 
Brilliant having football back, although it is strange having to watch Leicester games on TV. We have our first home game this evening so that is going to be rather surreal.

Some games have been surprisingly good, whereas others have looked more like training games which is to be expected at this stage.

Praying we manage to win enough games and hang on to a top 4 place!
 
A few weeks ago I was adamant I would watch every single game but that lasted one day. Gonna stick to Chelsea and the big games I think.

Watched a lot of Bundesliga in the last few weeks so I'm all footballed out.

Very pleased with Chelsea's first game back, looking very sharp and still have Werner and Ziyech to come.
 
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