Topic: Someone at FIFA/UEFA should do something about the referees (Read 453 times)

While I agree that refereeing is awful at times and they make a lot of errors even with the VAR and goal-line technology, I still think fans can never be satisfied. No matter the decision of the referee, especially in very controversial situations, there will be a portion of fans that will say it's a robbery if the decision doesn't go their way. If the decision favours them they'll say it was the right decision.

Let's take the Barcelona game on Saturday for example. Athletic Club were given a penalty and Barcelona fans felt they had been robbed. The on-field decision by the referee was no foul, but VAR called him back and asked him to review it, he reviewed it and gave the Barcelona player a yellow card and awarded a penalty for Athletic Club.
Now if I'm to judge that case, I'll say it's a clear penalty, but not a yellow card because the Barcelona defender slipped and fell on the leg of the Bilbao player. He roughed him and prevented him from scoring, but he didn't do it intentionally because he slipped so it shouldn't be a yellow card.

I know that the technologies have not been perfect, but in my opinion, it has made football fairer than it used to be. Before the bigger teams have so much more favour than the smaller teams in a match, but today it it no longer that much.

I don't know how it works in your country, but here football referees usually have another job and use the refereeing profession as a supplement to their income. The vast majority of referee are like this, that is, the salary is low, the competition is high and the referee is very susceptible to corruption. Perhaps if there were a career plan or better professionalization of this profession so that the person could work exclusively as a football referee, things could improve. Apart from that, if nothing changes, it will always be like this...




I still think that VAR is a kind of crutch for refereeing professionals, there is an absurd dependence on it and this is worsening the quality of referees a lot, because, whatever it is, they will immediately consult VAR, which should simply be a complementary tool to be used only in extreme cases of doubt.

Game manipulation to favour a particular people is something Fifa is aware about and very sure they have conduct they follow just to guide people and protest the reputation of football. If such is deep into system and spill the things they have created. Imagine people that lose in football match and tournament, start winning and their games, it will raise a question and people wouldn't be interested in gambling again because of this competition.

If they want to really clean up this awful things done by the referees, I will be please if they start from making sure that any coaches that unfavour Vinicious suspend for a whole season, they don't even need to make any more strict rules coaches will want to adhere to but suspension from weeks or month and salary slash will work as none of them would put their work online. They wouldn't dare if their work place is put to about to be compromise that it will make them not be a referees again.

we've gone past that stage when football was totally fun and everything that happened was almost free and fair to the best ability of the referee. Even without the help of the VAR, we still witnessed great decision that were in most cases at least moderate enough. The VAR is supposed to serve as an improvement on the limitations of working with the referee alone but sadly, they are currently working hands in hand to make free and fair games practically impossible as it stands.

When it comes to close range offside like what happens in most games, the referee in collaboration with the VAR makes the final decision even when for most cases it's supposed to be a goal and the decision ends up being turned aside. Real Madrid has enjoyed a lot of this sort of decision that appears as cheating but because the angle VAR project on the screens usually says otherwise, what then can you do than to stick with whatever final result they give to you?

Very true! The problems with the refs are global because there are no top referees in the last couple of years but also we have no young refs who are skillful enough to actually be part of top games in strong championships. We also had a lot of problems in UCL last year with a lot of games where refs ruined the game, then we had both Euro and Copa America where once again the refs ruined a lot of games and made a lot of bad decisions that led to goals or important scoring chances. That's why , I think FIFA needs to find a way very soon to improve the refs skills within one year maximum or situation will be even worse .

Apparently, the complaints about football referees are on a global scale, and here too it is quite controversial, there is no point in VAR, there is no point in complaining, the errors still exist and some border on the bizarre, perhaps even with bad intentions... I still believe that many referees are bought to favor team A or team B, it is not possible... there are so many things but this is the only way to explain the errors... very grotesque, bordering on the ridiculous.

I believe there's a body responsible to checkmate the referees and making sure they are carrying out their duties correctly, another thing bwe shouldn't forget is that they are humans and could at some point make mistakes so such mild mistakes could be overlooked but when it becomes too obvious and occurs too often, then it should be checked probably the referees involved suspended awhile and asked to go improve via training and other disciplinary measures.

A whole lot in a game is usually been tied to a referee and their mistakes could literally ruin a game and the chances of a team winning or loosing so it's really important they are put into consideration well enough and that is why some leagues do not use VAR and some make sure they are always there, preferential efficiency could also be a reason.

Well, I discovered these types of things that have happened a long time ago, and what the main referees do is that if they show that the decision is safe on their part, they do not review the VAR, so we continue on the same path of corruption, this is something that has always existed and it is pitiful, in the matches of all the leagues I have seen this type of injustice, so it is difficult, because internally FIFA also has its own business and everyone wants to win, so these instances it is difficult to fight against one of what I consider the biggest mafias in the world, FIFA is one of the entities that do the most damage to sport for this type of behavior.

You don't have to blame  your loss on the referee bud, just blame it on fate, you and I know that the referee is not aware of your bet, and I doubt if he's aware of anyone's bet, all he is about is a game that is fair for both teams playing, he can't because of your bet not cancel a  goal that the VAR has proven to be offside.

I understand how it hurts, but don't be so self centered, most especially in matter as this, also think about those who were going to lose the bet if the referee had kept quiet, do you think their loss would have been a fair loss, considering the goal you are talking about was confirmed to be an offside by a VAR.?

For a long time now I have seen the offside rule as a bigger problem in soccer than as something useful.
You said about the attacker being face to face with the goalkeeper, but it is the duty of the defender of the other team to stay close to this attacker and avoid this type of situation. To my way of thinking it makes no sense to punish the attacker for being in a better position than the other team's defender

The end of this rule would cause two effects that could help soccer a lot:
1 - more goals per match, making soccer even more cool to watch
2 - fewer problems, doubts and fights over offsides, especially like the one the OP commented on, which must have been only a few centimeters offside

Some years ago I played a lot of soccer and in those "amateur" matches we never used any form of offside, the match tended to run normally and with less stops
A curiosity, the most difficult thing to explain about soccer to those who don't understand it is the offside rule, and every time they ask me and I explain, the next question is: but why? 

It's just my opinion, but I understand yours and I respect that 


Although the referee's salaries are higher than mine, I don't think it's too high, since as you said yourself, only a few get to referee in the major leagues, and it's a ungrateful profession.
Many referees in the minor leagues are threatened and offended, and for any referee there is always the risk of making some mistake or big mistakes in important matches and losing his career.

It is amusing you mention that a referee career depends on their choices because here in Latin America we have a legend of a very infamous referee which probably became the most hated one in the world, despite his horrible work as a referee he continued participating in more matches and each one more important than the previous one.So his career was not affected, not until the end.

He got fired and eventually turned to drug trafficking to the United States. You should take a look at that case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Moreno


Artificial intelligence could free us from future referees like that one.

Humans have programmed the AI machines based on the requirement. It is common to see errors happening through technology as well as through human. To the changing surroundings we're also making changes or getting adopted to it. Initially VAR looked different and now majority accept and find it good. Old way of referring is good, and people accepted it as they had no technology advancement. Now everything is available and sure people expect things to be precise and perfect through technology. In ATP (tennis) it is planned for removal of human referees and go full on technology. Such decisions too is wrong in my view.

It's not easy to find the referees on UEFA games, many believe that the referee will have the job to go to the first team or that they are there to score and if the winner will win then the referee is the only referee with the power to stop this.

I was not pleased with the introduction of VAR because I felt it will mechanize the game of football and make it look like a computerized game. Seeing players celebrating and all of a sudden it is cut short by a call for VAR check. The players have to wait anxiously for the result to continue the celebration. In my own opinion, it makes the game looks boring. But people argued that it will reduce errors and make the game flawless. But from the look of things, it is clear that it still causing more controversies. It will be better if we go back to the old human refereeing system instead of wasting money on machines that is still subject to human errors.

These AI machines are also programmed by humans and can be subject to hacks or system errors. It will be good for FIFA or UEFA to combine the use of human and artificial intelligence to match officiating or scrap VAR entirely just as suggested earlier.

In my opinion UEFA/FIFA are just as corrupt as the referees.  Just look what happened with the opening match of the Soccer World cup... (bribes)... was any of that investigated ... or did they ignore that and just continue with the game. 

What was FIFA biggest scandal?
The 2015 centre on the alleged use of bribery, fraud and money laundering to corrupt the issuing of media and marketing rights for FIFA games in the Americas, estimated at $150 million, including at least $110 million in bribes related to the Copa América Centenario to be hosted in 2016 in the United States. Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_corruption_case

Dang, those are nice figures. It makes me want to change my ambition now. Now all I want is to become a referee but of course that is only a joke because number one is I don't have a passion in it and number two is, referee on lower leagues are still being paid low and it takes time for a referee to be promoted and work on higher leagues.

OP,
Sorry for your loss. It is seems that the referee knows that you are betting and they are making you lose intentionally and maybe if you don't place your bets, the game will just run fine without the referee interrupting the game. Let's just hope that someone from the inside can notice this concern of yours and fix this issue with the referees.

If a referee blatantly steals the game it will have a negative consequence for him, without any doubts. On this case, it's obvious one team showed superior gameplay than the other, so the referee had to adopt an abusive arbitration to fulfill his shady goal. Therefore, it will have a consequence for the referee and he will be punished accordingly. It's hard to see this kind of situation for real, but if it happened, I believe the prejudiced team would have a new chance to play again, or its victory assured.

On the other hand, if he takes advantage of slight details to favour one team or another, it's likely it will pass unnoticed or it will be even understood by the league's authorities. At same time, it means both teams playing had similar performances, which were exploited by the bribed referee to take the team he wished to the victory.

I'll tell you more: this happens not only in sports, but in general everywhere. To make mistakes is human. As for responsibility, I agree with this, there are actions and there are their consequences. But what would you like to change in the current system? As far as I know those judges who often make mistakes get their rating downgraded and they are given to referee less important games (and may end up with a complete suspension if they do not stop making gross mistakes).

That is relative though,no matter how good the team and superior in performance it maybe it cannot win against even the weakest opponent as long as they have a really nasty referee to judge the game.I am repeating that saying of a local league here where I live,the coach which had the game of his life,he needed the win against last place to become Champion and they lost it while playing at home,he said explicitly "with a referee like this one even Brazil cannot win,let alone us" and as such the referees need to be sanctioned just like they sanction the players,FIFA/UEFA should really do something about them,they are destroying football every day more.

According to everything we have seen, Qatar won the hosting of the world championship only because they distributed money to everyone who decided on it, and did not ask for the price - the same as Russia did before them. Of course, you can't prove regardless of all the dubious decisions and the non-use of VAR in the same, although this is perhaps the best proof that even with such technology, the game can be directed in the direction that was previously agreed upon.



Big clubs, a lot of money and a lot of influence on everything that can be influenced, and the fact that they did it for 17 years without anyone from the Spanish authorities doing anything shows the level of corruption even in top football. However, Barcelona is too powerful for something serious to happen to it, and the man at the head of UEFA is certainly not the one who will clean the house of European football.