VAR and Refereeing 2025/26 | General Discussion

DavidDeSchmikes said:
2 days ago an FA disciplinary panel had said hair pulling "ought not to be tolerated", "In the wider interests of football 'hair pulling' ought not to be tolerated and should be discouraged through consistent punishment."

so of course the person who got Martinez sent off gets away with a similar offence
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He will look a right hypocrite if Calvert-Lewin moans
 
Sandikan said:
Yep. My boys Wycombe had Marcus Bean who had long hair, and a douche Morecambe player aggressively pulled his hair. Done retrospectively as the ref missed it and no VAR at that level.
That's the sort of incident that should be involved.

Although didn't Crouchy purposely pull that Jamaican fella's hair at the world cup when scoring one year!
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Can’t remember the Crouch situation, but i see there’s plenty of pictures of it.

Imo it’s just beyond silly. It’s the same with elbows etc, it’s not violent conduct every time someone gets an elbow, so there’s no reason to interpret every hair pull as violent conduct either. Yet here we are, Martinez gets a red card and a 3 match ban for something that seems like a pure accident, with the FA something something panel upholding the decision on the basis of «shouldn’t be tolerated», and since then there’s been two very similar incidents where the outcome is play on. Factor in Gabriel vs Haaland and the shitshow is complete. I can only imagine the media if this was the other way around and one of our players escaped a red card for something an opposition player recently got a 3 match ban for against us.
 
NotChatGPT said:
Can’t remember the Crouch situation, but i see there’s plenty of pictures of it.

Imo it’s just beyond silly. It’s the same with elbows etc, it’s not violent conduct every time someone gets an elbow, so there’s no reason to interpret every hair pull as violent conduct either. Yet here we are, Martinez gets a red card and a 3 match ban for something that seems like a pure accident, with the FA something something panel upholding the decision on the basis of «shouldn’t be tolerated», and since then there’s been two very similar incidents where the outcome is play on. Factor in Gabriel vs Haaland and the shitshow is complete. I can only imagine the media if this was the other way around and one of our players escaped a red card for something an opposition player recently got a 3 match ban for against us.
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Oh yeah there would be Talkshite shows dedicated to it
 
Sandikan said:
Yep. My boys Wycombe had Marcus Bean who had long hair, and a douche Morecambe player aggressively pulled his hair. Done retrospectively as the ref missed it and no VAR at that level.
That's the sort of incident that should be involved.

Although didn't Crouchy purposely pull that Jamaican fella's hair at the world cup when scoring one year!
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Trinidad and Tobago in 2006. Blatant foul to score the opener in the 83rd minute. Shocking it wasn't spotted at the time it was that obvious.
 
NotChatGPT said:
Can’t remember the Crouch situation, but i see there’s plenty of pictures of it.

Imo it’s just beyond silly. It’s the same with elbows etc, it’s not violent conduct every time someone gets an elbow, so there’s no reason to interpret every hair pull as violent conduct either. Yet here we are, Martinez gets a red card and a 3 match ban for something that seems like a pure accident, with the FA something something panel upholding the decision on the basis of «shouldn’t be tolerated», and since then there’s been two very similar incidents where the outcome is play on. Factor in Gabriel vs Haaland and the shitshow is complete. I can only imagine the media if this was the other way around and one of our players escaped a red card for something an opposition player recently got a 3 match ban for against us.
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Yeah, the Crouch one is a great example. It should be a foul but it’s obviously not a red card.

The one today is correctly not a red card but it’s nearly identical to the Martinez one, which shouldn’t have been a red card either. So frustrating that there is no acknowledgement and that Martinez remains banned.
 
Doracle said:
Yeah, the Crouch one is a great example. It should be a foul but it’s obviously not a red card.

The one today is correctly not a red card but it’s nearly identical to the Martinez one, which shouldn’t have been a red card either. So frustrating that there is no acknowledgement and that Martinez remains banned.
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Because they have got themselves in a right tangle
 
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cj949wxz4yzo

Galatasaray accuse referees of having 'evil inside' them​


Galatasaray have accused referees in Turkey of having "evil inside" them just days after suspending relations with the Turkish Football Federation.

The Turkish club made the claim on social media during Sunday's 3-0 victory over Istanbul rivals Fenerbahce.

At half-time and with Galatasaray leading 1-0, the club directed their anger towards the officials in two posts on X.

"Despite the two penalties not awarded to us, we're closing out the first half 1-0 ahead," Galatasaray said.

"Despite these referees, we're still leading 1-0. We see what you're doing, your plans, the evil inside you. This order won't go on like this. We're here, we won't be silent! In the end, the good ones will win again!"
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I watched the hurling today and I genuinely think soccer lads should be sent to Ireland for a few weeks in the summer to play hurling.

They'd soon stop crying over getting their hair touched.
 
They had absolutely no idea the mess they were making with that Martinez sending off. The amount of focus and attention every little hair pull is getting is hilarious, and rightfully so. The inconsistency is beyond a joke.
 
Judas said:
They had absolutely no idea the mess they were making with that Martinez sending off. The amount of focus and attention every little hair pull is getting is hilarious, and rightfully so. The inconsistency is beyond a joke.
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Hate ever doing this but credit to ex Scouser Murphy on MOTD for at least admitting Martinez was unlucky
 
croadyman said:
Hate ever doing this but credit to ex Scouser Murphy on MOTD for at least admitting Martinez was unlucky
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No harm in giving him credit, I find I agree with almost everything he says on talksport
 
Judas said:
They had absolutely no idea the mess they were making with that Martinez sending off. The amount of focus and attention every little hair pull is getting is hilarious, and rightfully so. The inconsistency is beyond a joke.
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Sure, but the club needs to take advantage of this happening so close to the Martinez situation and push hard, because the media isn’t going to be doing us any favours here.
 
Reds Under The Bed said:
I am astounded United haven’t kicked up more of a stink over the Martinez sending off to be honest.
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Carrick had a go after the match, the club complained and appealed. I can only assume we’ll be complaining about it again after the most recent events during the weekend. Not that it’ll change anything
 
Zed is not dead said:
It was the same as « any contact on an opponent’s throat is a red » when they sent off Casemiro, « any dissent is a yellow » when Dalot got 2 yellows in the same action for acting frustrated, same as « any bad words are red cards » when Maguire got a red even though no one really heard him.

Then you’ll have people saying « yeah but these are the rules, said player is stupid to give the ref a decision to make », even though the exact same things have rarely been sanctioned before or since our players got a red.

At least refs are consistent in that they always judge us to the letter of law every time
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Of course we're ref'd differently. This season we've literally seen two pretty much exact same offences in the exact same games result in one being not a penalty to us, and the other being a penalty to our opposition and a red card to us.
 
Withnail said:
You didn't see the Cork lad taking a drive after starting the shoulder barging then?
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Must have missed that. All the same it's refreshing to watch a sport where play acting and conning the referee is at a minimum.
 
Reds Under The Bed said:
I am astounded United haven’t kicked up more of a stink over the Martinez sending off to be honest.
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What’s more frustrating is the fact that with the hair pulls we’ve seen since the Martinez one, none of them have been challenging for the ball. At least Martinez was in a duel and I think (not 100%) part of this hair pull rule is that challenging for a ball gives a bit more leniency.

None of them should reds though. It’s fecking pathetic.
 
Dermot not convinced DCL pulled Cucurella’s hair. Now thinks we are going over the top with what is being considered hair pulling. “We don’t want red cards thrown about like cards in a casino”.
 
Doracle said:
Dermot not convinced DCL pulled Cucurella’s hair. Now thinks we are going over the top with what is being considered hair pulling. “We don’t want red cards thrown about like cards in a casino”.
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Ah the old flip flop. Whatever the wind is blowing eh, Dermot?

Zero tolerance I thought they said it was.
 
Doracle said:
Dermot not convinced DCL pulled Cucurella’s hair. Now thinks we are going over the top with what is being considered hair pulling. “We don’t want red cards thrown about like cards in a casino”.
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A paragon of consistency.
 
Doracle said:
Dermot not convinced DCL pulled Cucurella’s hair. Now thinks we are going over the top with what is being considered hair pulling. “We don’t want red cards thrown about like cards in a casino”.
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Completely oblivious to the fact that it’s the officiating body starting with John Brooks on VAR that went over the top with what constitutes hair pulling in the first place.

What we’re doing now isn’t going over the top, it is just asking for consistency in the face of the above, or preferably, an admission that the Martinez red was soft as feck and future calls will reflect that. But they’ve done neither. They’ve not rescinded his ban or said it was soft, and then they’ve gone on to not punish that which ”ought to be discouraged with consistent punishment” in the following weeks.

Twats.
 
Doracle said:
Dermot not convinced DCL pulled Cucurella’s hair. Now thinks we are going over the top with what is being considered hair pulling. “We don’t want red cards thrown about like cards in a casino”.
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Yeah Dermot really letting himself down with this one.

Says he thinks Martinez was a red card because he went for the hair twice (first one a natural brush past the hair, the second slightly dislodging his hair band).

He had though just agreed with Jay that only a proper pull back or pull down on hair should make it a red card, so by that yard stick he had in fact just confirmed that Martinez hadn't commited any offence at all.
 
Doracle said:
Dermot not convinced DCL pulled Cucurella’s hair. Now thinks we are going over the top with what is being considered hair pulling. “We don’t want red cards thrown about like cards in a casino”.
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Unsurprising reaction from someone employed to basically defend officials as much as possible.

I think we're seeing examples here of VAR punishing those when the TV cameras are close enough to the incident, they sanction players. Footage of the Martinez incident is crystal clear with video and photos. The likes of the DCL incident on Cucurella and several others around the penalty area don't seem to have close enough footage and it's easy for VAR to say the incidents are inconclusive or it just didn't happen.

Refereeing and VAR has put themselves in a deep hole with this and I suspect we'll see plenty more injustices in future. I really hope United don't let this rest after the standards of officiating we've observed in recent weeks.
 
I think the opinion of Dermot should be banned really. It offers as much value as the opinion of Ty from AFTV. He's purely there to ragebait.
 
The real issue I'm having this year, is they defend their decisions by "simply applying the laws of the game as they're written", then in the next week, they will legalease their way to interpret the rules, in order to justify their decision. VAR is fast becoming just a subjective decision on a subjective decision, so you are getting absolutely no consistency week to week.

I think they have to scale it back at this point and incremementally add VAR's reach back, but they'll never do that sadly.
 
SilentWitness said:
I think the opinion of Dermot should be banned really. It offers as much value as the opinion of Ty from AFTV. He's purely there to ragebait.
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I have no idea why that show exists, it just undermines refs' credibility even further. It's laughable.
 
Fans often have pre game marches etc to show their perceived frustration at the club/board

I’d love if there was a national one across the epl where fans showed (and shared) the frustration, towards officiating and in particular VAR. it needs to go. Follow the example set by the championship. Apply pressure on all our epl clubs to do away with it
 
Pughnichi said:
Fans often have pre game marches etc to show their perceived frustration at the club/board

I’d love if there was a national one across the epl where fans showed (and shared) the frustration, towards officiating and in particular VAR. it needs to go. Follow the example set by the championship. Apply pressure on all our epl clubs to do away with it
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I agree with this but if all teams do come together, I can promise you only one will be punished and a clue is the team name begins with M and ends with anchester United
 
Lash said:
The real issue I'm having this year, is they defend their decisions by "simply applying the laws of the game as they're written", then in the next week, they will legalease their way to interpret the rules, in order to justify their decision. VAR is fast becoming just a subjective decision on a subjective decision, so you are getting absolutely no consistency week to week.

I think they have to scale it back at this point and incremementally add VAR's reach back, but they'll never do that sadly.
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It’s just a direct consequence of having an arbitrary threshold combined with the idea that the bar for VAR getting involved should be very high. It will constantly be in the back of their minds that they will get less scrutiny for not getting involved when they have a boss, Webb, that prefers that the decision made on the pitch is the final one. Just having an arbitrary threshold means that there’s always going to be different interpretations of when they should get involved, and it even depends on what the referee on the pitch communicates. So you get near identical situations with opposite outcomes and somehow the right decision was made on both occasions.

Like our goal against Burnley disallowed for barely touching Walker, who takes a dive, meanwhile Yoro gets twatted in the neck with an arm when trying to head the ball, barely gets anything on it and a Leeds player score. feck all standards
 
NotChatGPT said:
It’s just a direct consequence of having an arbitrary threshold combined with the idea that the bar for VAR getting involved should be very high. It will constantly be in the back of their minds that they will get less scrutiny for not getting involved when they have a boss, Webb, that prefers that the decision made on the pitch is the final one. Just having an arbitrary threshold means that there’s always going to be different interpretations of when they should get involved, and it even depends on what the referee on the pitch communicates. So you get near identical situations with opposite outcomes and somehow the right decision was made on both occasions.

Like our goal against Burnley disallowed for barely touching Walker, who takes a dive, meanwhile Yoro gets twatted in the neck with an arm when trying to head the ball, barely gets anything on it and a Leeds player score. feck all standards
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So bloody true. This is what is so infuriating.
 
Swedish_Plumber said:
What one time punishment are we getting tonight then? Get your guesses in now!
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Any players at Brentford with long hair?

We should have our players do fake hair-pulling gestures in protest and give VAR plenty of reviews to do. Would make a mockery of everything!
 
van Nistelrooy said:
Any players at Brentford with long hair?

We should have our players do fake hair-pulling gestures in protest and give VAR plenty of reviews to do. Would make a mockery of everything!
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There’s your red card! We do that and they send us off for deceiving the referee after review.
 
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