If Willo won't even answer the question "Did the referee make mistakes, specifically in the Burnley game on Saturday?" then he is a troll pure and simple.

He can quote me now and say it's scandalous but he's just proved to everybody that he is a troll who just enjoys winding people up.

If he had a different view point to others then fair enough but if that were true he'd answer the question by saying for whatever reason, Zaha was offside or the referee didn't make any mistakes.

The fact he will point blank refuse to answer the question shows he's taking a pathetic joy in everyone asking over and over again for a proper answer and knowing full well people are getting angered at his constant mis-interpretation/avoidance of the question.

Honestly, it's so easy to prove he's a troll I'm not sure how he's never been carded or banned. Probably not a Palace fan though I can't prove that one, the fact he enjoys upsetting other members of the board is enough for a red IMO.

Although when I'm bored at work I like to read his nonsense so maybe keep him on anyway but not if it's upsetting real posters.

Edited by leejaneagles (01 May 2017 3.27pm)

My dear Ray

Of course you will be aware that referees have been convicted of corruption in the past so of course it could happen here.I'm not "Naive" or "Deliberately blinkered"

That said, FIFA/FA have not raised any concerns or reported any suspicious activity relating to our referees like they have done in past cases (IE Multiple penalties awarded etc) so I have NO reason whatsoever to suspect that any one or nultiple official in our game is involved.

Some players have missed a few penalties - does anyone claim that they are tied up in some corruption ? etc etc etc. There has been 'Match' and 'Spot' fixing in cricket - are we to view all cricketers as suspicious ? Do good players on a bad run of form suddenly come under the 'Spotlight'.

Our referees make mistakes but they are honest ones and trust me the last thing a PL referee needs is to be the subject of a 'Howler'. Referees, like players have good games and less than impressive games - trust me a PL referee wants to be the subject of praise and not intense criticism so doesn't make decisions he knows to be wrong to favour a particular team.

You can have your conspiracy theories, I take a different stance on this.

You have totally mis-read me.
I'm NOT going to dignify this post by responding to the individual points raised.

The conspiracy theory is very far-fetched. Much easier to believe that Madley is an incompetent ref who should not be allowed near a football pitch. He made a ludicrous decision when he booked Jimmy Mac in the 'Boro match and his performance in the Burnley match was totally inept. His mistake in the 'Boro match did not cost us, but those in the Burnley match certainly did - and could even send us down.

The right place at the right time

I think that if the referees were merely muppets and the FA were concerned about that then there would be some sort of concerted drive to improve standards: pay them a proper rate and not let them derive income from elsewhere; technology; proper scrutiny and reward / consequence arrangements; enough reserves on hand in case someone has to be removed, etc. etc. If you ask the FA about any of this though they tell everybody that everything is fine and we have the best referees in the world (full text available from Willo).

The arrangements that are delivering these awful standards are a pile of s***e and they would be easy to manipulate and interfere with. There is also a clear motiviation why someone might want to do that. If there is nothing funny going on, it would not be beyond the wit of man to put in place arrangements which demonstrated that there was nothing funny going on.

Far fetched? One might have said the same thing when Murdoch rags were caught tapping people's text messages.

Edited by chateauferret (01 May 2017 3.56pm)

Edited by chateauferret (01 May 2017 3.57pm)

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The Ferret
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I think in the majority of cases blaming the referee simply deflects your teams own poor performance. Granted, the referee was not good at all on Saturday, but we lost because of our own performance.

A game we didn't necessarily have to win, but just don't lose. 6 mins in and that has gone pear shaped.