Champions League 23/24

[HCZ_Reborn]

That was a woeful decision.

On the flip side it’s probably knocked the Barcodes out so oh well.

Dunno

Newcastle have to beat Milan at home, but If they do that then PSG have to win in Dortmund otherwise Newcastle advance because of the head to head between them. It’s not in their hands but I wouldn’t go as far as to say they are probably out

[Letters]

It doesn’t matter either way. They have as much chance of winning the thing as us.

(That’s zero, for clarity)

[WMUG]

Obviously

But VAR really is fucking up a game which was already pretty fucked to begin with.

It's so glaring how bad it is compared to rugby.

I dunno if it's just that rugby's had more time to iron out the creases and that it was just as bad when it came in, or if there's something about refereeing culture in rugby that makes a difference, but it just can't be ignored how well it works in one sport and how badly it's being fucked up in another.

[Mac76]

It's so glaring how bad it is compared to rugby.

I dunno if it's just that rugby's had more time to iron out the creases and that it was just as bad when it came in, or if there's something about refereeing culture in rugby that makes a difference, but it just can't be ignored how well it works in one sport and how badly it's being fucked up in another.

you obvs missed the RWC final where NZ were totally robbed by Wayne Barnes and his TMO mates

[WMUG]

you obvs missed the RWC final where NZ were totally robbed by Wayne Barnes and his TMO mates

You're quite right, I did miss that

I just had a look, I'm guessing you're referring to the red card? It looks like one to me, but I'm no rugby expert tbf.

One thing I think could improve VAR would be the ref being allowed to request another look, rather than being advised to have one.

Just for them to be honest and say, "not sure about that one, I'll have to look at it again" rather than immediately committing to a decision that then needs to be overturned it it's wrong.

They'd still have the option of making a decision that needs overturning, but it would stop this whole nonsense of the refs not making a decision and leaving it to VAR, who then decide there's not enough evidence to overturn the onfield decision when in reality, there was no onfield decision.

[Letters]

There is something different about football - the flow of it and the culture/attitude towards referees. It does make it harder to get right.
But they're just getting basic things wrong and failing to use common sense. As Mac said in the match thread, some of it is the laws being bollox.

Just use a bit of common sense - handball surely has to be something deliberate. That's still a judgement call, but right now defenders basically have to have their arms amputated to avoid giving away penalties. It's nonsense. And with offside - if you're having to draw lines and looking at whether a single pixel is offside then just let it go. Right now the spectre of offside is hanging over far too many goals. It's spoiling the match day experience. If the ref/lino makes a glaring mistake then fine, deal with that. For marginal calls just let it go.

They're trying to get everything right when that's inherently impossible.

[WMUG]

Yeah the new handball rule for defenders is bollocks IMO, but as far as I know, last night's penalty shouldn't even be given based on that. My understanding is that if the ball bounces off your body onto the arm, then that isn't handball. But still, it was given. That's pure incompetence (or something more sinister) if I'm right.

And I fully agree about the spectre hanging over goals ruining the matchday experience, but offside is a difficult one. We can't have goals like Auba's at Old Trafford being ruled out by an errant flag, and we also can't be waiting 6 minutes for a decision like Burnley and Bournemouth were.

The answer lies somewhere in the middle and no solution will please everyone. The AI used at the World Cup seems like a decent compromise but the PL rejected it for some reason.

[Mac76]

You're quite right, I did miss that

I just had a look, I'm guessing you're referring to the red card? It looks like one to me, but I'm no rugby expert tbf.

it was more that there was an incident by a Bok player that to me was also a red but they only got a yellow, plus in general we came off quite badly in terms of decisions

thet said if we had a better kicker we'd have scored the two points we needed, we still really miss Dan Carter tbh

[WMUG]

it was more that there was an incident by a Bok player that to me was also a red but they only got a yellow, plus in general we came off quite badly in terms of decisions

thet said if we had a better kicker we'd have scored the two points we needed, we still really miss Dan Carter tbh

Ah, fair.

If that's the case then yeah that's bad, but I do wonder how many apologies the Rugby equivalent of PGMOL is issuing per season. I'd be amazed if it's even a fifth of what's happening in football.

You're always going to get bad decisions, no matter how much technology is involved. The question is, what's the best way to mimimise them? Rugby seems to minimise errors well, football doesn't.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Sevilla 1-0 PSV, Ramos.

We're going through currently.

Also Galatasaray 1-2 Man Utd, Garnacho, Fernandes and Ziyech.