Referees are under greater pressure than ever to make decisions in favour of the big television money earners of the League. This is not to say that all referees are corrupt but a select few can be relied upon to ensure the “right” result. It is my opinion that former head of PGMOL, Mike Riley, promoted mainly those referees based within 75 miles of his Sheffield home to keep a close eye on their compliance with his directives. Two that have been revealed by whistleblowers and aired on radio are that referees must follow the directions of VAR and that where possible not to send off the high profile players because those are the ones television viewers want to see. Jordan Ayew is definitely not one of these.

Whether yesterday’s referee fell into this category one can only speculate. There is also, however, the issue of incompetence. If you pick 18 out of 22 referees from such a small area you are inevitably going to pick up quite a bit of dross. We now have only two referees based south of Birmingham, that is more than half the population of England, professional football clubs ( the National League North is supplemented by southern teams to make up numbers) and 10 of 20 Premier League sides. There are no referees from the London area with Tim Robinson of West Sussex being the nearest representative.

If Durham and Fylde can have 6 of the 20 Select Group 2 referees the chances of us getting a fair, nationally balanced and neutral referees panel is a long way off.

Seemingly it was replayed 41 times by Var and the ref before they made the decision that it was a foul , hardly clear and obvious .

Give it up already Willo , it is a battle you wont be victorious with .

He decided to side with the VAR having viewed the footage from a different angle.Referees have to make split-second decisions and can only formulate an opinion based on what they view from their angle.

In terms of "Clear and obvious" this only applies to the VAR who decides whether the referee has made a "Clear and obvious" error, the 'Bar' is set high and subjectivity enters the equation.

Edited by Willo (11 Dec 2023 8.29am)

It was a really weak bit of play by the Liverpool lad who just panicked when he realised he’d f***ed up, threw himself to the ground and tried to grab the ball. I really don’t see how anyone who’s played the game at any decent level can think Hughes fouled him? There’s no reason for VAR to get involved, the referee was right on top of it and waved play on. There’s no contact on the feet or hands in the back.