Here's something to warm you up on a winters' day.

'The Battle of Santiago'.

Chile v Italy 1962, refereed admirably by our own Ken Aston who lived to tell the tale.

[Link]

Complete with 'Colemanballs'.

I still feel robbed by Saturday and my respect level for officials is currently diminished.
However, hats off to people who ref grass roots on a Sunday morning for no reward. I also used to get sent off all the time when I did play. I'm like an angry Stuart Pearce without the silky skills or hair - or any resemblance whatsoever really. So I'm probably not the best to comment.
I suppose, we do have to think Premier League refs are highly paid and we could perhaps expect a bit more professionalism from them. It seems a bit of a mess currently but I do suspect new rules are causing a problem. It's all become subjective which is wholly unhelpful. A foul's a foul in reality and offside is offside. That's been getting more ambiguous the whole time - add in new handball rules and this is what you get in some ways.

Red and Blue Army!

Aha, 1 game. Thank you

This operation, will make the 'Charge Of The Light Brigade' seem like a simple military exercise.

Agree with all that.
Football is such a difficult game to referee. Offside, handball, unfair tackles etc etc. All this is made that much harder by an accepted culture of cheating.

It doesn't help that the game seems to be run by corrupt morons.

Why isn't there a clock that governs the time of play like so many other sports? What's the problem with that?

Cheating should be a red card offence. With VAR it should be easier to do so fairly.

The linesman should decide where a throw in should be taken.

Skilful players should be given better protection from dangerous tackling. Just because the defender got to the ball doesn't justify clobbering the attacking player in the process.

What was wrong deciding if a handball was intentional or not?

Shirt pulling is a foul, punish it as such.

Time wasting is bad for the game. In boxing a referee will bollock the boxers if there's too little action. A half decent referee can recognise time wasting.

These all seem fairly obvious to me, why the situation is left as it is, God knows.

I have now sufficient funds to last me the rest of my life. Provided I don't buy anything.

Looking at this question another way, I think the introduction of VAR has actually reduced the respect that anybody, players, officials and fans, had for referees.

The overriding frustration I have always had with referees is consistency in the application of the rules of the game.

And we are unaware of the ' guidance ' they get from the authorities. For example, I can only assume that they have been told to ignore Foul Throws. How often do you see them go unpunished ?

Old, Ungifted and White

There is a thought that PGMOL want to train up refs from the EFL & WSL to increase the number of VAR's for when it goes beyond the EPL. The other thing that has been mentioned, is, SPECIFIC VAR, ie: ex players who take over from refs at Stockley Park, only thing is, gotta get IFAB to instigate it. So, couple of years time then.

This operation, will make the 'Charge Of The Light Brigade' seem like a simple military exercise.

the football authorities need to clamp down on 'repeat offences'.

Be it Raheem Sterling with stamping on people's feet or Jose Mourinho and all the time-wasting. Or John Terry for behaving like a cv.nt.

There should be a record, in the public domain, to declare zero tolerance of 'crime x' from 'Player/Manager Y'.

Players will work hard to not get a reputation for a diver, hacker, whatever. And like the points on the driving license, over time , you can clear your name.

Kayla did Anfield & Old Trafford