Darren England, Howard Webb, and the lunatics running the asylum

[dsr]

Darren England has been reinstated to the PL list, but he isn't going to referee Liverpool again.

Is Webb stupid? I'm not saying he is corrupt, but England didn't get a ban for wrongly disallowing a goal for Burnley. Are referees to be told that if they are refereeing Burnley v "A Big Club", they must make sure their mistakes go the right way or else they will get a ban?

[claretonthecoast1882]

Has it really been announced that he won't referee Liverpool again ?

[daveisaclaret]

Liverpool have been rewarded for kicking up a fuss.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, I hope we and other clubs follow suit. It's the only way to make it so that incompetent referees face real consequences rather than this silly situation where Liverpool have a better pool of talent to ref their games than everyone else.

[Tall Paul]

I must have missed the PGMOL statement that said Darren England made a mistake disallowing a Burnley goal.

[dsr]

I must have missed the PGMOL statement that said Darren England made a mistake disallowing a Burnley goal.

Possibly because we aren't Liverpool. The VAR man and the ref were just about the only two people who thought it was handball.

[Tall Paul]

Possibly because we aren't Liverpool. The VAR man and the ref were just about the only two people who thought it was handball.

They did think it was handball though, unlike the Liverpool goal which was disallowed despite the VAR thinking it wasn't offside.

Hopefully you can see the difference.

[CrosspoolClarets]

We can all see the difference but if we were Liverpool that incident would be a cert to feature on Webb’s Sky publicity drive (slight caveat being there seems to be a bias towards explaining incidents where the refs were shown to be correct, OR where there is no doubt about the error).

VAR thus leads to all this subconscious bias towards the bigger clubs by spotlighting issues affecting them, and I am all for scrapping it.

(by the way, back to the topic, England should have been banned for much longer after such a howler against Liverpool)

[Darthlaw]

Wasnt the Calciopoli scandal, in italian football, all around clubs influencing who would be officiating their games?

Seems its ok in the PL with Liverpool?

[Tricky Trevor]

Wasnt the Calciopoli scandal, in italian football, all around clubs influencing who would be officiating their games?

Seems its ok in the PL with Liverpool?

Not sure of the outcome but this was hanging over Barca in Spain.

[Tricky Trevor]

I’ve long complained about the standard of reffing in England and compared it to RU but the QFs at the RWC all had contentious decisions and many where the TMO should have alerted the ref but chose not to bother.
I watched the Greece v Holland match last night where an overall very good ref chose not to award Holland a third pen after VAR had, correctly, told him to review. Thankfully it did not affect the result.

[BurnleyFC]

Isn’t this div VAR for our next match?

[BurnleyFC]

Just read, he’s fourth official, not VAR.

[Devils_Advocate]

Last time he was 4th official he held the injury time board upside down and they played 9 mins extra instead of 6

[dougcollins]

You can't have a situation where an official is 'not allowed' to officiate a specific team - it's completely untenable.

[ClaretTony]

Darren England has been reinstated to the PL list, but he isn't going to referee Liverpool again.

Is Webb stupid? I'm not saying he is corrupt, but England didn't get a ban for wrongly disallowing a goal for Burnley. Are referees to be told that if they are refereeing Burnley v "A Big Club", they must make sure their mistakes go the right way or else they will get a ban?

1 Darren England was never removed from the PL list, he just wasn't selected for the last game week.
2. I doubt very much that Webb is stupid.
3. England didn't get a ban of any kind, he just wasn't selected, and PGMOL are of the opinion that the goal you refer to was correctly ruled out by referee Robert Jones.
4. Where has it been said that he won't referee Liverpool again? He wasn't refereeing them that day at Spurs either.

[ClaretTony]

Isn’t this div VAR for our next match?

No - Attwell is on VAR

[CaptJohn]

You can't have a situation where an official is 'not allowed' to officiate a specific team - it's completely untenable.

Absolutely. The game I once loved is going down the tube so fast it's both disheartening and disgusting. Bob Lord was right all those years ago to ban TV from the Turf, as unfortunately it has been the downfall of the game.

[ClaretTony]

You can't have a situation where an official is 'not allowed' to officiate a specific team - it's completely untenable.

I very much doubt that has been said

[CaptJohn]

It might not have been said Tony but will the FA ever put Darren England forward for a match at Anfield? Liverpool have won by kicking up a stink.

[ClaretTony]

It might not have been said Tony but will the FA ever put Darren England forward for a match at Anfield? Liverpool have won by kicking up a stink.

The FA have nothing to do with referee selections so that's an easy one to answer, it's a no. Time will tell whether PGMOL, his employer, give him another Liverpool game.

[beddie]

On the Liverpool disallowed goal there can be no argument that he wasn’t offside and the goal should have stood, however, in our case its not clear cut that it was/ wasn’t hand ball, it’s down to opinion. I’m as annoyed as anyone but they are both completely different. Hopefully England will have learnt from it. We have to let it go and get on with trying to win the next game.

[It Is What It Is]

Liverpool have played it very clever.
They have more or less guaranteed that they will never concede a penalty by VAR.
Scouse gits.
Their new sponsors are Kleenex

[RammyClaret61]

Remember when football was 90+ minutes on a pitch, in a stadium/ground. After the final whistle some discussion took place to some perceived incorrect decisions.

Now, we have to wait during the game for someone watching tv to tell the ref what to do. We then have ex-refs trying to explain those decisions, because no one now knows what’s right or wrong. We also now have a dedicated tv show to explain what the decisions were in the games. Continuing for months after the game.

Someone once said footballs a simple game!!

[RMutt]

1 Darren England was never removed from the PL list, he just wasn't selected for the last game week.
2. I doubt very much that Webb is stupid.
3. England didn't get a ban of any kind, he just wasn't selected, and PGMOL are of the opinion that the goal you refer to was correctly ruled out by referee Robert Jones.
4. Where has it been said that he won't referee Liverpool again? He wasn't refereeing them that day at Spurs either.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... 107794.amp

Not sure whether he will or he won’t ref Liverpool this season. But it’s easy to see why some think he won’t. Not the only paper to report it this way.

[ClaretTony]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... 107794.amp

Not sure whether he will or he won’t ref Liverpool this season. But it’s easy to see why some think he won’t. Not the only paper to report it this way.

If that is the case then it is downright wrong.

[Rowls]

Didn’t Alex Ferguson succeed in getting a referee effectively removed from Manyoo’s games?

It might be the memory cheating but wasn’t there a top level ref who had close to zero Manyoo game in several years after annoying fergie?

[MeeActon1]

I fully expect to see Mr England refereeing Bournemouth v Burnley next week. They’ll put him on games where there is no issue (to them) if he makes a cock up.

[AlargeClaret]

That the eternal victims , Liverpool can influence this sort of thing by shouting loud enough and flouncing like cheap tarts is a sad testament to the modern football . While England made a full on error , do scousers think this has never happened in football when a dodgy decision costs you a game ?
VAR is absolutely toxic and bringing out the burning torches whenever there’s human error is utterly insane .

[Acting Claret]

I see that the other lump is doing the Sheff Utd game.

[Ampth7]

For me, either get VAR working so that it serves a purpose or scrap it altogether and just have goal-line technology which is quick, easy to use and consistently accurate.

It’s absolute madness to keep using and relying upon a system that causes more problems than the ones it’s supposed to solve!

[claretonthecoast1882]

It was heart warming last night when they took what seemed an age to award the clearest of penalties you could see that we don't have the monopoly on useless people working within VAR

[ClaretTony]

For me, either get VAR working so that it serves a purpose or scrap it altogether and just have goal-line technology which is quick, easy to use and consistently accurate.

It’s absolute madness to keep using and relying upon a system that causes more problems than the ones it’s supposed to solve!

It’s not the system, it’s the people using it that’s the problem.

[Cheshireclaret]

It's as plain as day that he won't referee another Liverpool game this season (if ever again) and the PGMOL will use some sort of pathetic, snivelling, nonsense excuse about 'security, or safety, or not being in the right frame of mind to referee a Liverpool game' etc etc etc. Like the pathetic tripe Dermot Gallagher comes out with on Sky Sports on a Monday, this lot just make the excuses / rules up as they go along - it's all about arrogant self-preservation.

Until such time as fans in the ground are entitled to hear and see what is being said and decided, I will always believe that VAR and officiating in this country is complete and utter garbage.