Well, sub-human, but close enough.
I remember years ago arguing with a friend when they were talking about making referees professional.
He said they wouldn't get any better, I said of course they would - how can an amateur be as good as a professional.
But he was right, if anything they've got worse.
Now, some of that is admittedly because of the increasing scrutiny - mistakes are now apparent now every decision is pored over and can be viewed in slo-mo from a load of different angles. But they do seem to get some pretty basic things wrong in a way which I don't think they used to.
Is it incompetence? Downright corruption?
That infamous game at Old Trafford when we were getting nothing and Utd were allowed to kick us with impunity, you have to feel something was going on there.
Or the Cup Final vs Hull. Obviously we got off to an awful start but we were denied 3 or 4 really blatant penalties.
Was it incompetence or was the referee actually trying to stop us? He failed (Wenger
), and I don't like to think that referees are on the take - what is the point in watching if a lot of it is being stage managed?
But you see things sometimes and you have to wonder.
A sport with this much money in it has to have some corruption, the only question is how ingrained is it?