Premier League: Continuous referee confusions make fans angry

The VAR issue is persisting in the Premier League to the point that fans are getting fed up and exasperated with the results. The Premier League has garnered a massive amount of viewership and fans supporting their respective football clubs. According to Reuters, the league is currently being broadcasted to 800 million homes in 188 countries worldwide. The clubs have amassed more than a billion followers on social media alone.

Comments about VAR/Referees in the Premier League

However, Mark Goldbridge who is the presenter of Manchester United’s unofficial Twitter fan page expressed his disappointment towards this year’s Premier League game quality. Goldbridge stated that this season is full of “confusing, contradictory, and inconsistent officiating...” He then went on to say that football lovers deserve more than what they have gotten with the unfair treatment that has been shown this season.

What a fantastic weekend of Premier League football. Just massively frustrating that it's littered with confusing, contradictory, inconsistent officiating again. Week after week it's the same and nothing changes. The quality of football we see deserves better than this

— Mark Goldbridge (@markgoldbridge) October 10, 2022 Netizens responding to his tweet claimed that “the referees need an overhaul as they are currently in shambles. The field refs and the video assistant referees need better communication with each other and judge more according to the players and less towards the rule book.”

It’s not even that the rule book causes issues, it’s the lack of consistency and complete sense of subjectivity.

— Bobbyy Mannn (@RobLFC_) October 10, 2022

Response to that statement was that it is not about the rule book that is causing a massive headache for teams, players and supporters. It is the lack of consistency of judgement towards the team and players. Joe Thomlinson who is a presenter for Football Daily and Sky Sports tweeted that the inconsistency was between the video referee and the standard referee. He uploaded a video and stated that a player was allowed to do an alleged foul (handball) but Rashford who did something similar is not allowed to do it.

The lack of consistency by Premier League refs & VAR is actually comical…

How was this allowed and Rashford’s wasn’t then? Ridiculous. 🤧🤧 pic.twitter.com/n4pxwIRQY9 — Joe Thomlinson (@joethomlinson) October 9, 2022 Heated arguments against the VAR were brought up under Thomlinson’s tweet, and fans of clubs affected by this unfairness came out and gave their piece of mind on the matter. They claim that the referees are making their own rules at this point and that the VAR are almost always consistent. There were more mentions of certain big clubs being more favoured by the referees and VARs over others. This is somewhat true, with the case of Thomas Tuchel complaining about Anthony Taylor (referee) regarding a Chelsea match when he was their manager. In the end, the Premier League did not do much other than no longer allow Anthony Taylor to officiate Chelsea matches. This was also done due to the high amount of signatures against Taylor for his misjudgement regarding Chelsea vs Tottenham.

The contradictory comments by Dermot Gallagher proves several points to me.

1. There is absolute corruption in the game. 2. This effects all teams outside the ‘Top 6’. 3. Premier League involved. 4. Even ex-refs still support current refs no matter what. 5. SKY employ stooges. pic.twitter.com/pBWTWM9ycq — PAULO C 🇪🇺 (@GoodisonBlueBoy) October 4, 2022 Netizens are claiming that the Premier League is corrupted and is currently affecting all teams who are not in the top six. Others shared their opinion claiming that there are ranks on well-liked teams, normal teams and hated teams among the referees and when these are caught, a simple apology or an extra penalty would then be given to the wronged. More articles about referee controversies can be found here.