Originally posted by eagleman13

Oh dear . . .

Talk about "assassination" by social media & HOL.

YES, he/they made a error(I'm being polite). How many of all of you could referee a game? C'mon, put up, OR shut up!
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But the difference is we are not highly paid professional referees.

I believe he was in Saudi a couple of days before the Liverpool game. No doubt being paid a fortune in blood money for his perceived professional skills and experience.

I hold professional qualifications and would be ashamed if I were responsible for the chaotic shambles of the Liverpool incident. No client of mine would ever have faith in me again.

The PGMOL put the evidence in the public domain. The criticism and outrage is not a case of "assassination" it is merely stating the obvious and well deserved.

Darren England could have righted the wrong and suffered the consequences of doing so. His reputation might even have benefited from doing so. But he chose to hide behind the "I can't do anything" defence and deserves all he gets in my opinion.

I think you are an eminently reasoned and sensible poster and I do think that a lot of the noise on this issue in this forum is based on perceived wrongs Mr England has inflicted on us in the past. But I think I need to take issue on this point,1) The error that Mr England made was nothing to do with his ability to referee a game. It was to do with his ability to focus and concentrate for a fairly short period time and to pay particular attention to decisions that happen even less frequently within that time period. I don’t know anyone who has been successful in any walk of life that can’t do that, especially when they have an assistant to help them get things right. The fact that someone who is purportedly at the very top of their vocation was unable to do that seems to me extraordinary – Especially as the task they were performing wasn't exactly mentally tricky. The VAR technician seemed to have a reasonable understanding as to what was going on and he probably couldn’t referee a game. 2) If we were to overlook that shortcoming and say that it was an excusable error that anyone could make (it wasn’t), it is the reaction to that error that was the most telling. Effectively he just froze, didn’t listen to his colleague the VAR guy, and then said nothing could be done, while seeming to me that he was hoping that no one would notice. That should not be the reaction of someone in such a high level job, they should be able to think fast, be decisive and command the situation. All attributes that a good Referee at that level should possess.

Edited by tshepp897 (04 Oct 2023 7.23pm)

The cellophane illusion of a starry sky / Stretched over an open sore.
Big Nothing

Has been banned from officiating any Liverpool games. Let’s suck up to the big boys. Clubs like us will get lumbered, shows what the league actually think of us.
He should have been banned for the season.
Willo been quite in this thread

Sad to say it, but looks like England is back at the weekend.

His decisions could cost clubs a lot of money if they miss Europe etc, yet he gets a 1 game ban.

Madness...

Some people are like Slinkies … not really good for anything, but you can’t help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.

I understand your points and many are valid. I have reffed some matches myself after a serious injury when playing at a good level, and yes it is tough and very unrewarding and I walked away quite quickly.

However, when you are at the very top of your profession and are setting an example to other upcoming refs, it's the impression they give that worries me.

Rumours of favourites and untouchable refs was quite clear when we are able to listen to the commentary. There has been lots of this before this incident, but being able to listen to the commentary and the way the VAR operator was totally ignored proved this point. Darren England stating there was "nothing they could do" was pathetic and only thinking of his reputation and not the good of the game.

He clearly has an inflated ego which was also apparent just a few weeks before with the way he would not over turn the penalty at Villa.

There is too much money at stake now for these mistakes just to continue and go unpunished properly. A 1 match ban gives no incentive to improve.

Maybe a card/point system similar to players would be an option. The more mistakes the longer the ban !

Some people are like Slinkies … not really good for anything, but you can’t help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.

Agree with this, totally wrong to relegate incompetence to the Championship for a game or two

Edited by HKOwen (18 Oct 2023 11.10am)

Responsibility Deficit Disorder is a medical condition. Symptoms include inability to be corrected when wrong, false sense of superiority, desire to share personal info no else cares about, general hubris. It's a medical issue rather than pure arrogance.