Officiating

[spaldy]

Some observations


It's really mediocre at best anymore. I'm not sure what the EPL pays them but you'd get much better quality going to the local sunday league and picking them at random vs some of the refs I've seen this season.

1) most troubling is the bias. It's very obvious that some teams are pre determined on who they want to win. It's like watching "pro wrestling" on TV at times. It's also extremely biased toward some individual players. This years standard bearer is Rudiger. A big strapping "man" that tackles hard and follows through on every tackle. Never gets carded and as soon as he's touched he flops and yells for the foul. Not sure how that is not identified in an era where every game is filmed and review is very easy. Have to assume that's it's allowed by design. The EPL also does not seem to punish refs that can't do the job. They should be demoted to a lower league and someone lower moved up. Not sure on whether the lower leagues have VAR but refs handling games without VAR are likley be much better suited to handle a game than those that just observe the game and count on VAR to handle the game.

2) Lack of technical skill. These are simple ones to identify. Just saw a team place a ball 5 years on the other side of the Center line on an offsides call. Right before that saw the ref not give an advantage on a foul 5 yards outside the box. That has to be a huge advantage to not call due to scoring potential on the restart and it was not. I've seen fouls that were almost the same and one gets a yellow card while the other doesn't. Either these are incompetence or bias. Either way those refs probably need a spell in Lg 1 or conference to brush up on their skills.

3) Promotion/Demotion- The EPL also does not seem to punish refs that can't do the job. They should be demoted to a lower league and someone lower moved up. Not sure on whether the lower leagues have VAR but refs handling games without VAR are likely be much better suited to handle a game than those that just observe the game and count on VAR to handle the game.

I'll wrap up by saying that I think VAR has been awful for the level of competence. I think the ref starts to become an observer in the game rather than controlling it. They count on VAR to make the call rather than actively managing the game. The long term impact on this is much greater than the occasional call that's missed.

I know that being a Leeds supporter it's automatically assumed that it's "sour grapes" and I"m not objective but this has little to do with Leeds and more to do with the EPL overall. It diminishes the quality of the product and sooner or latter affects the TV revenue since events like "wrasslin" and russian/chinese gymnastics, diving and ice skating lose their ratings and relevance over time.