chuckles 🐀

tweets are not my own #RatVerified

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

Just leaving this here...

https://t.co/DPuTipEDb1

[Liam Blutman @Blutman27]

imagine being the GM/Front Office who makes a trade so appalling and bad that nobody believes it can possibly be real despite the leagues lead reporter with 2.5 million followers insisting and pleading with everyone that it’s legit

that’s gotta be embarrassing

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

@MississippiDOT What is going on with the blockage on I-20 eastbound near Clear Creek Golf Course?

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

@thedumbzone I’d like to hear Brandon’s thoughts on whether professional soccer players would be better at flag football than NFL players.

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

@OurDailyBears Thanks a lot Rhoades.

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

@Thomaskeyboard @TheGafford @mrmckee Telling the truth is "the worst thing possible"? Interesting.

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

@Thomaskeyboard @mrmckee I stated a fact, chief. You read intention into it all on your own.

[Baylor Football @BUFootball]

A new look in Waco 🐻

#SicEm

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

This is possibly the greatest cover of all time. A lot of people are saying it. They’re saying, “Wow, that’s a great cover.”

[m. taddow @MikeTaddow]

*this* is why i’m fighting to keep them
from deleting tiktok 😂

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

@joshremington Looks great until you see the return and realize they could've just parked the money in the S&P500 and made more.

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

@joshremington "I'm waiting on a miracle to cooooooome"

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

Legend.

[Sripad @falsewinger]

Mario Gomez talking about Petr Cech and how the Chelsea legend was able to read the minds of the Bayern Munich players during the 2012 Champions League shootout. 🤯

[📹 @primevideosport]

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

Hey, gotta keep the players fresh for tax season you know?

[PGA Tour Communications @PGATourComms]

Jordan Spieth has been disqualified from The Genesis Invitational for signing for an incorrect scorecard.

Spieth signed for a 3 and made a 4 on No. 4.

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

@GeorgeDunham Condolences on your loss, Jub.

[Céad Míle Fáilte @ColeyMick]

We're severely underutilizing the concept of groundhog's day. We should be ripping more animals out hiding and asking them unknowable questions about the future at least weekly

[kyle @kdenigris89]

@AlexiLalas

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

Vandy over there just minding its own business:

[Will Warren @statsbywill]

This is one of the nastiest strays I have ever seen???? My goodness

[The Swedish Rumble 🔰 @SwedishRumble]

💣🚨All referees in the PL are white, and have been for 15 years save for 1 game.

Since it is a notorious fact that there is at least an increased risk of bias, if there is a lack of diversity on an authority level -- is there a racial bias in the refereeing in the PL? If so, what should be done about it?

🔺Black players and players of Asian and Middle Eastern decent (BAME), regardless of citizenship, face a 61% higher risk of getting a red card than Non-BAME players.

This is based on my review of the stats from all games played by the 400 players that played the most PL games in the 19/20, 20/21, 21/22, 22/23 and 23/24 season, or in total close to 18,000 games played by individual players. GK's are excluded. The bias is consistent on a season by season basis.

🔺There is a clear pecking order where non-BAME English players faces the least risk of getting a red card, followed by non-BAME foreign players and lastly BAME players. English BAME players for example faces a 59% higher risk of getting a red card than non-BAME foreign players (i.e. most South Americans, Italians, Germans, Scandinavians and so forth) -- so its obvious that football background has no impact, just the color of the skin.

🔺All numbers are "per 90", but players are only compared with other players in their position (DF, MF and FWs), and then the established "bias" per position is averaged to reach the 61% figure. This to adjust for the fact that the allocation per playing position differs among the groups and forwards gets much fewer cards and fouls than defenders and midfielders (if this adjustment wasn't done, and especially if GKs were included, the numbers would look much worse, but it would be misleading).

🔺The deviation does not significantly carry over to yellow cards and fouls, BAME players face a 5% higher risk of getting a foul and a 2% higher risk of getting a yellow. These numbers are not consistent intra-positions, with BAME defenders getting slightly fewer yellow cards (93%) and BAME forwards getting slightly lower numbers across the board (93-94%), but with BAME midfielders getting app. 20% more fouls and yellow cards.

🔺What should be done about this? It's of course not up to me, nor am I particularly well suited to evaluate it. And the results should of course firstly be verified by a true statistician, if anyone care about them (which I doubt anyone will, you get no brownie points for poking around this topic). But just to give my thoughts:

(1) This bias will lead to direct financial damages for individual players as red cards leads to suspensions and fines, as well as impact bonuses.

Hence, I think it would be proper if @FA_PGMOL offered to pay compensation to the BAME players, or, if that is hard to administrate, to a suitable charity.

On a class action basis, its perfectly possible that a court would either hold the FA or the English government -- for its failure to offer BAME football players a non-discriminatory environment to work in, in England (which is a breach of the European Convention of Human Rights) -- liable.

(2) More alarming, this racial bias hurts individual players, clubs and football -- today. Not to mention the reputation of the game and the society as a whole, since it surely will be noticed by many of the 100s of millions of fans of football. Like are any of you that reads this surprised? Especially in light of the significant racism that inter alia The Guardian has reported on, in the selection process of referees within the FA.

Hence, I would suggest that the root of the issue -- i.e. the complete lack of diversity among PL refs -- be remedied immediately by the PL recruiting BAME refs from the rest of the world. Surely, 10-15 refs could be ready to step in and call games in the PL within a matter of weeks? I checked the balance in Allsvenskan in Sweden, where the division is 60/40 between non-BAME/BAME refs.

(3) I really question if FA PGMOL is fit for purpose to handle the refereeing of the Premier League.

Ultimately, they are controlled by the Premier League which is a club of the 20 business entities, in form of the clubs that from time to time play in it. As such, the decision making process consists of a vote by representatives that per definition -- i.e. they each as fiduciaries have a legal obligation to -- act in the self interest of the clubs/the clubs' business interests. Should it not sort under the Independent Regulator? Ping @tracey_crouch.

Lastly, if the bias is this significant on an aggregate level, it will be worse on an individual level. Plus, call it a gut feeling, with an organization like PGMOL, if it's this bad when you scratch the surface...

(On a serious note, I want to underline that this is not a complaint against the past and current people of PGMOL, I would from experience say that organizations/institutions like it as a rule will be dysfunctional, if they are not afforded very significant resources to ensure and safe guard it's function, and they rarely are, and PGMOL surely never has been.)

Let me know what you think!

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

@mattisbear What happens when Texas plays a whole season without the guaranteed benefit of the referees’ incompetence working in their favor?

[chuckles 🐀 @as_collier]

Look I’m not one to defend Brian Kelly but Steve Sarkisian’s fake southern accent is way more egregious than hitting the whammy bar on the word “family” one time.