@NOT_MOTD So skip shaking hands with him, then offer the handshake to every other Ghana player? Yeah, think the rest of the Ghana team will still look bad in that event if they refuse
@thesundaysport It's why there is an obesity crisis in the UK. Confectionary companies have been down-scaling their products slyly for years to the point that many people opt for the big massive bars of chocolate or eat multiple bars instead of having one normal sized portion
Its insane, enraging, that the Mbeumo handball is ruled as legitimate play.
It's crazy. Idiotic. 100% wrong.
Football has fallen into the hands of a small, distant elite who inform us what we have witnessed.
We, supporters, apparently just accept this because we are helpless.
VAR
I enthusiastically welcomed it. Was sold on the higher percentage of right decisions so we could all go home knowing football justice had been done and we could concentrate on which player was crap instead.
But I was wrong. Woefully and completely wrong.
Waiting 5 minutes for a decision to be made alone means the system isn't fit for purpose. Why? Because I sat with TV producers who said everything would be wrapped up in 10-30 seconds. It has literally taken the spontaneous joy from the most important part of the game. A goal.
Then, one thing completely blindsided me and many others.
Subjectivity.
I thought there would be science and a nailed on guarantee of a successfully and universally accepted decision. How wrong we were. Instead, arbitrary lines are drawn that simply can't with any certainty say whether a player is offside or not. So a human in a portacabin, 200 miles away only does what the referee can do, make a best guess.
Likewise handballs, dives, any penalty decision to be honest. A subjective decision decided out of stadium allowing an increasingly small and poor refereeing pool a get out of jail free card. Instead of them making a shit decision and owning it, they just pass it on 200 miles away so 3 men in a portacabin can make a shit decision instead. Lunacy.
For the love of the game, let's go back to investing in getting more referees, respecting them so that they join the trade and don't feel constantly abused. In short, treat them like rugby referees. Ultimate respect.
Then, fuck VAR off, it's ruined the game, made it petty and chaotic, and taken that one ingredient that you simply can't replace, instantaneous joy.
As a player and fan I accepted a referee making a bad decision in a game in the same way I accepted fucking up a shot or pass. We're all human.
Let's get back to that, humans doing their best, everyone walks away from the ground accepting that and less unrealistic pressure put on officials to be perfect when perfection doesn't exist in any walk of life.
VAR stinks. A system designed to help is a massive hindrance and it's about time pundits, fans, players, referees, clubs put pressure on authorities to get rid of it. We only need goal line tech, the rest can and should be refer refereed by humans making their best judgement. A best judgement that was over 98% right( audited fact pre VAR).
Enough is enough, fuck it off.
@JamTarts Whatever happens on Saturday, it's been some journey and to compete with Celtic and Rangers and get this close is unprecedented. Del and the team can hold their heads high. They've turned the biggest closed shop in world football into genuine theatre. Proud if them
@JamTarts Sam Nicholson, a young lad who was there at our lowest moment, fighting for the team, who left Scottish football because of the shite he had to put up with off the pitch. I remember that team and what they gave when we were in the bin and to think how far we've come since then