Well, it's not perhaps about a specific match but really about reducing the risk that matches become less interesting as the season ratchets up to the grand finale they want. What one would do is look at the teams likely to be involved in a fight - Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, Man C and Man U on the one hand, Swansea, Palace, Hull, maybe Burnley and Bournemouth on the other - and trying to see to it that they remain close in points for as long as possible. Swansea started to pull away, so we reel them back in. Palace fall away so we bring them back up. Then Palace start to get clear, so we manipulate their games against Spurs and Burnley. Keep everything nice and tight and get the cash registeres out for the nice deciders that result from that situation.

============
The Ferret
============

Sorry Willo, got to pull you on this, you are hopelessly wrong.

Stuart Atwell, along with ALL 'Elite' refs are not 'demoted' as you call it, there are 30 elite refs there are 10 PL games over a w/e 10 officiate in the middle, 10 act as 4th/reserve official. The remaining 10 will officiate in the EFL or be on holiday or getting ready for a European game midweek.....

How do I know this, well as a now Rtd EFL ref myself & now an UEFA/FA assessor im in contact with officials every week & kinda know a lot more that's going on than you do.

I'm a blind man, i'm a blind man, now my room is cold,
When a blind man cries, Lord, he feels it from his soul.
[Link]

And big-club bias is then necessary because teams at the top of the table need to win to stay in contention and teams at the bottom remain at risk if they lose.

Well, maybe it works differently than that. What I do sense is that there's a fishy smell coming from somewhere and there's too much wrong with the officiating (and maybe the scheduling too) and too strong a vested interest for this not to be subject to some sort of manipulation.

Looking at it another way, why do we not have technology? Because it would prevent manipulation. The market for football is far bigger than for rugby and cricket so the commercial incentive to make it "interesting" is far greater. With the exception of the goal award, it can't be argued that any of the key decisions is "impossible" without it, as try awards in rugby and the LBW and caught-behind decisions may be in cricket. As I pointed out, a competent linesman should be able to get a clear offside decision right if he is up with play: he looks across the line, and if he can't see the runner behind the defender, he is level. So we keep technology out of it and let the linesman "make a mistake" when necessary.

Edited by chateauferret (01 May 2017 12.11pm)

============
The Ferret
============

There can't be any doubt that there is one set of ref rules for some of the clubs, Fergie-time for others. The treatment of Zaha from Spurs-trio Wayama, Dembele and Walker to mention one match, the piece of advice from the ref (Moss again?) to the Arsenal warrior that repeatedly hacked down our players last season is an other.

So Attwell was NOT demoted to the EFL in 2012 having previously been appointed to the 'Select Group' in 2008 ?

I answered the 'Charge' that there are NO consequences for referees who don't perform to the required standard on a regular basis.

I totall disagree that overall the standard is "Awful" and that there are "Poor performers" on a regular basis.

Yes there will be games when officials don't match their usual high standards and there will be high profile errors but overall they do a darned good job in difficult circumstances.And I watch a lot of games at all levels, not just our games.

Edited by Willo (01 May 2017 12.47pm)