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 !