Refereeing Inquiry NOW

[Pagey]

Thats one of the more intelligent suggestions on here and has the bonus that no single club is claiming that it is being victimised, no 'conspiracy theories', no 'agendas' just that the PL have incorporated into the sport an utterly abject product.

Can I quote this reply in the future? Most people just laugh at me

 

[Asthmatic Wolf]

Not many have mentioned the Arsenal game where there should have been a red card and penalty for the foul on Guedes but no foul and no VAR check despite it being as clear and obvious as yesterday.

So that’s 2, simple and recent examples of teams favoured by SKY where 2 flagrant, flagrant game changing incidents leaving the opposition with 10 men for the majority of the game, are not given and ignored, and then glossed over. Credibility in sport is everything look at the popularity of athletics now vs decades ago.

If I had my tin foil hat on I’d wonder if Cino-Russian relations played a part as we are the only club backed by that axis in the PL (I think)? But I know it’s not that.

 

[Hot Fuss]

Explains why all conquering English clubs often come unstuck against unlikely opposition in Europe. They don't get that little helping hand they get most weeks in our league.

English clubs hardly ever come unstuck against unlikely opposition. 6 of the last 10 champions league finalists have been English.

 

[Sheriff Woody]

Nonsense. Your wife sounds nothing like that.

True, she’s normally asleep.

 

[JOSWolf]

What got me yesterday as well as the no penalty or red card for Pope shambles was that big lump, Burn, going in on Neves with an awful tackle which **** for brains Madeley totally ignored. Then had the lump shouting at Neves who was on the ground clearly hurt. Then I think it was the carthorse again who flattened Neves right on half time and the ref just ignored it and walked off. He is a diabolical ref and two games now he has been ref and we have been on the end of farcical decisions.

 

[JOSWolf]

Has that fool Gillet refereed a Premier League game since his shambolic sending off of Lemina?

 

[NottsWolves]

If true, doubt anything will be done but if someone goes down base on a bad decision I can see someone challenging them.

Don’t know why they are baffled though. They should be more surprised it’s taken this long for someone to do it.

 

[Monswolf]

One thing I did pick up yesterday from the commentary was the VAR guy was inexperienced so maybe he just did not have the balls to tell the ref to have another look at the penalty. And just to add when we scored I genuinely thought it would be ruled out for a foul on Trippier because one of the wolves players had looked at him in an aggressive way which made him slip

 

[SE10 Wolf]

I was gonna say the last time we tried to put pressure on a referee he invented a rule and sent one of our players off.

Quite. Now what ever did happen to that “standard third player to approach the ref” rule??!!

 

[JadeWolf]

Quite. Now what ever did happen to that “standard third player to approach the ref” rule??!!

Rule, what rule?!

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

There’s undoubtedly a bias towards the “big six” there has been for years. There’s no conspiracy towards us, it’s simple really in that the standard of officials both on the pitch and at stockley park is woefully inept. This is a billion pound plus league officiated by folk I wouldn’t let wash my car as they’d mess it up.

 

[Beastier]

If true, doubt anything will be done but if someone goes down base on a bad decision I can see someone challenging them.

Don’t know why they are baffled though. They should be more surprised it’s taken this long for someone to do it. View attachment 33540

I bet one of those two wasn't the non-awarded penalty following the removal of Nunes boot

 

[Jefe]

Like you say, it’s all opinions.

You believe that that PGMOL are out to get us and you’re entitled to do so.

My question would be why?

A lot of it seems to stems back to the Doc handball decision 3 years ago. If you look at the way handball was being implemented back then, if I’m honest, it really wasn’t that surprising a decision. I remember watching Spurs v Newcastle around that time. Newcastle got a 97th minute equaliser with a penalty that was given for the ball flicking off a defenders elbow. Absolute nonsense, but proves to me at least, that these were being given not just against us.

I’m in total agreement with anyone who says that VAR isn’t working and personally wish it would **** off.

Decisions against Brighton, Arsenal and Chelsea in recent weeks have been comically bad. It isn’t just us.

I get annoyed with the conspiracy stuff, I may have mentioned it a couple of times. Main two reasons are - 1) if fans only bring up what’s gone against them then it means nothing. Will just get passed off as sour grapes.

2) takes away from from discussing the actual football. Our performance, line up and substitutions yesterday were, in my opinion, crap. Hardly gets mentioned because all folk want to talk about is the ref.

Like I say, I thing the standard of officiating is poor across the league. Just think talk of agendas and all that is wrong and takes away from the real issue.

Though I tend to accept it's just incompetence (and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the relatively underpaid refs are engaged in localised corruption), you can understand why some Wolves fans think calls go against us in a suspiciously high volume. I read that across the entire VAR era out of some 24 clubs, only Norwich have fared worse than we have - though that was a while ago and that may be different now.

We've had four awful refereeing decisions go against us in the past two months alone, three of which had a material impact on the result. We're out of the FA Cup because of the missing camera fiasco, Nunes had his boot ripped off inside the box in a game we would eventually lose on penalties, and we should have been a goal up against 10 men for 70 minutes on Sunday. It's getting so ubiquitous that my brother accurately predicted we'd get a VAR shafting the day before it happened. It's a vibe at this point.

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

The simple response to the idea that the refs are just bad is why haven’t they been bad in our favour?

I’m perfectly aware of our irrelevant standing in the big picture so I have no logical explanation for why we would be cheated. However it’s continuously us on the wrong end of inexplicable decisions over a matter of months. If it was pure incompetence then something should’ve landed our way by now.

 

[Flump]

The simple response to the idea that the refs are just bad is why haven’t they been bad in our favour?

I’m perfectly aware of our irrelevant standing in the big picture so I have no logical explanation for why we would be cheated. However it’s continuously us on the wrong end of inexplicable decisions over a matter of months. If it was pure incompetence then something should’ve landed our way by now.

Law of small numbers, probably.

 

[Bill S Preston Esq.]

There's a school of thought that the behaviour of professional players towards referee's at the highest levels encourage the disrespect shown to officials at grass roots level. I'd agree it probably does.

Officials at the highest level should be mindful of the fact that their actions may well have consequences too.

Only the general public can far more easily attack a referee on a park with fifty people looking on and no police presence, than invade a pitch in front of thirty thousand and smash up a PGMOL employee.

I'm in no way condoning it, but I imagine dodgy decisions on a Saturday afternoon are often the catalyst for slapping a ref on a Sunday morning.

 

[Hot Fuss]

The simple response to the idea that the refs are just bad is why haven’t they been bad in our favour?

I’m perfectly aware of our irrelevant standing in the big picture so I have no logical explanation for why we would be cheated. However it’s continuously us on the wrong end of inexplicable decisions over a matter of months. If it was pure incompetence then something should’ve landed our way by now.

Playing devils advocate, Sa got away with punching a Leeds player in the face going for a cross, Hwang should have been sent off at Villa and Sarabia pushed a Southampton player in the build up to our winner there.

I know I’ll get called all the ****s under the sun for pointing this out but there you go.

As I say, there’s no conspiracy, just poor officiating.

 

[Hot Fuss]

Though I tend to accept it's just incompetence (and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the relatively underpaid refs are engaged in localised corruption), you can understand why some Wolves fans think calls go against us in a suspiciously high volume. I read that across the entire VAR era out of some 24 clubs, only Norwich have fared worse than we have - though that was a while ago and that may be different now.

We've had four awful refereeing decisions go against us in the past two months alone, three of which had a material impact on the result. We're out of the FA Cup because of the missing camera fiasco, Nunes had his boot ripped off inside the box in a game we would eventually lose on penalties, and we should have been a goal up against 10 men for 70 minutes on Sunday. It's getting so ubiquitous that my brother accurately predicted we'd get a VAR shafting the day before it happened. It's a vibe at this point.

To be fair folk predict we’ll get done by VAR before every game.

Undoubtedly some poor decisions, Anfield was an absolute **** show and it was bottled on Sunday.

Actually got some sympathy with the Forest one, where there was no VAR. Didn’t look a pen from where I was at the time, thought Nunes stepped across him, saw it after and realised it should have been given.

 

[northnorfolkwolf]

Playing devils advocate, Sa got away with punching a Leeds player in the face going for a cross, Hwang should have been sent off at Villa and Sarabia pushed a Southampton player in the build up to our winner there.

I know I’ll get called all the ****s under the sun for pointing this out but there you go.

As I say, there’s no conspiracy, just poor officiating.

My God, a fair and balanced view on here! We've had some shocking decisions go against us but I bet on every Club fans forum there will be 'conspiracy', 'bias', 'bad referees' threads just like on ours. The persecution complex shown on here I'm sure is not confined to just us.

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

Playing devils advocate, Sa got away with punching a Leeds player in the face going for a cross, Hwang should have been sent off at Villa and Sarabia pushed a Southampton player in the build up to our winner there.

I know I’ll get called all the ****s under the sun for pointing this out but there you go.

As I say, there’s no conspiracy, just poor officiating.

Completely fair enough to point it out but I disagree entirely with the point.

Sa definitely did punch the Leeds player and that was a clear penalty IMO, although, for whatever reason, keepers do get away with more but nevertheless I agree we got lucky.

With the other two, you're being generous. Hwang could have got sent off but it's by no means a clanger. I would liken it to Fabian Schar who could have got sent off against us at Molineux.

Sarabia's 'push' is real clutching at straws. It was less of a push than Isak did on Jonny on Sunday, far less of one.

We could do all day on the smaller, subjective calls like whether Hwang warranted a red or yellow, Schar red or yellow against us, Jimenez's non-foul on Sunday that was given etc.

In those instances, you may be right, maybe they do even it up. I would doubt it but there's some we've had in our favour.

But, when you actually analyse big, clear decisions that aren't really open for debate, I think most would agree Leeds should have had a penalty on the opening day, then we have Guedes (Arsenal), Nunes (Forest), Lemina (Southampton), Toti (Liverpool), Jimenez (Newcastle) go against us.

That's incredibly one sided.

Again, I don't know why there would be a conspiracy because we aren't a threat, we aren't a massive club but equally so we aren't a Bournemouth that they may want out the league. So I don't have any reason whatsoever for why it is happening to us but I when it's regularly going against us it's impossible to accept it's 'just one these things'.

 

[Leominster_Wolf]

Playing devils advocate, Sa got away with punching a Leeds player in the face going for a cross, Hwang should have been sent off at Villa and Sarabia pushed a Southampton player in the build up to our winner there.

I know I’ll get called all the ****s under the sun for pointing this out but there you go.

As I say, there’s no conspiracy, just poor officiating.

Not really disagreeing - 100% agree with the Sa one, but keepers often do. Not a completely isolated incident.

re Sarabia one, could agree with you (sort of) but then Newcastle goal gets disallowed for the push before the header. (Which I think we may have got if Jonny had gone down theatrically)

I don’t know if I’d use the word conspiracy, but we do seem to get some bloody odd decisions. But you are 100% right about poor officials… and getting worse

 

[Hot Fuss]

Completely fair enough to point it out but I disagree entirely with the point.

Sa definitely did punch the Leeds player and that was a clear penalty IMO, although, for whatever reason, keepers do get away with more but nevertheless I agree we got lucky.

With the other two, you're being generous. Hwang could have got sent off but it's by no means a clanger. I would liken it to Fabian Schar who could have got sent off against us at Molineux.

Sarabia's 'push' is real clutching at straws. It was less of a push than Isak did on Jonny on Sunday, far less of one.

We could do all day on the smaller, subjective calls like whether Hwang warranted a red or yellow, Schar red or yellow against us, Jimenez's non-foul on Sunday that was given etc.

In those instances, you may be right, maybe they do even it up. I would doubt it but there's some we've had in our favour.

But, when you actually analyse big, clear decisions that aren't really open for debate, I think most would agree Leeds should have had a penalty on the opening day, then we have Guedes (Arsenal), Nunes (Forest), Lemina (Southampton), Toti (Liverpool), Jimenez (Newcastle) go against us.

That's incredibly one sided.

Again, I don't know why there would be a conspiracy because we aren't a threat, we aren't a massive club but equally so we aren't a Bournemouth that they may want out the league. So I don't have any reason whatsoever for why it is happening to us but I when it's regularly going against us it's impossible to accept it's 'just one these things'.

Watched the Sarabia one back a couple of times and personally think it’s actually a pretty clear foul that led directly to a winning goal, certainly something that would have been easy to give if there was some kind of agenda against us. Didn’t notice it at the time.

Would agree that, while it’s in fans nature to remember the decisions that go against you, we have had several more big ones go against us than for than us.

 

[Perton Wolf]

There's a school of thought that the behaviour of professional players towards referee's at the highest levels encourage the disrespect shown to officials at grass roots level. I'd agree it probably does.

Officials at the highest level should be mindful of the fact that their actions may well have consequences too.

Only the general public can far more easily attack a referee on a park with fifty people looking on and no police presence, than invade a pitch in front of thirty thousand and smash up a PGMOL employee.

I'm in no way condoning it, but I imagine dodgy decisions on a Saturday afternoon are often the catalyst for slapping a ref on a Sunday morning.

No they aren't, what a ridiculous thing to say. A thug deciding to assault a ref on a Sunday morning is not related to whatever dodgy incident has been shown on MOTD the night before.

We can all get ****ed off about some of the recent decisions that have gone against us recently but a lot of posters on here should reflect on some of their posts the last few days/weeks. Also, when folk say "I'm in no way condoning it" then it's a bit of a cop out. The fact you feel the need to say that, tells us that it could be interpreted that you are, probably because that's exactly the case.

 

[Bill S Preston Esq.]

No they aren't, what a ridiculous thing to say. A thug deciding to assault a ref on a Sunday morning is not related to whatever dodgy incident has been shown on MOTD the night before.

We can all get ****ed off about some of the recent decisions that have gone against us recently but a lot of posters on here should reflect on some of their posts the last few days/weeks. Also, when folk say "I'm in no way condoning it" then it's a bit of a cop out. The fact you feel the need to say that, tells us that it could be interpreted that you are, probably because that's exactly the case.

Ah so I do condone it? Despite saying I don't? Okay then pal, thanks for your input.

 

[Matthew Clark]

Corrupt or not I don't know but what is apparent is the fast declining standard of referees in the PL. I cannot remember the last good ref this country had, Clattenberg maybe? The games too quick for them now.

Also Sky Sports having 'ref watch' on a Monday morning as they go through the contentious decisions of the weekend and on BT Sport if there's a penalty claim then within seconds they cut to Peter Walton for his opinion I don't think helps. Just heaps more pressure onto refs for the following weeks

But the use of VAR is truly shocking, it should be almost 100% correct if it goes to VAR but it's operated completely wrong. I don't want any of this 'clear and obvious error' crap, if its a foul then it's a foul, if its a handball then it's handball, if its offside then it's offside

 

[bigwolf]

Corrupt or not I don't know but what is apparent is the fast declining standard of referees in the PL. I cannot remember the last good ref this country had, Clattenberg maybe? The games too quick for them now.

Also Sky Sports having 'ref watch' on a Monday morning as they go through the contentious decisions of the weekend and on BT Sport if there's a penalty claim then within seconds they cut to Peter Walton for his opinion I don't think helps. Just heaps more pressure onto refs for the following weeks

But the use of VAR is truly shocking, it should be almost 100% correct if it goes to VAR but it's operated completely wrong. I don't want any of this 'clear and obvious error' crap, if its a foul then it's a foul, if its a handball then it's handball, if its offside then it's offside

You make a good point about the endless dissection of decisions and instant comments. It helps create the constant circus around referees.

I don't believe the standard of on field refereeing is anywhere near as bad as people make out.

There have been crap refs right throughout the history of the premier league. Rennie anyone?

But there is a narrative that has been built slowly over past years about how refereeing standards have dropped. And any decision that looks poor just fuels it further. When the reality those decisions have een happening for decades.

VAR has led to further pressure for refs and expectations from fans that it will solve world hunger and poverty. But it won't.

And whilst it has got many many many decisions right it is obvious it's implementation has been average at best and needs to be addressed.

 

[Hoganstolemywife]

Did anyone see the Palace highlights? How doucoure didn't get sent off is beyond me

 

[derbyrameater]

substitute refs, as they must be exhausted with the running they do, if they keep up with play, also like players having a stinker get subbed why not refs?

 

[JOSWolf]

Have the club had an explanation for the shambles on Saturday evening?

 

[Bryce]

Did anyone see the Palace highlights? How doucoure didn't get sent off is beyond me

he tried twice in a minute after a booking.

 

[Sedgley Gold N Black]

If true, doubt anything will be done but if someone goes down base on a bad decision I can see someone challenging them.

Don’t know why they are baffled though. They should be more surprised it’s taken this long for someone to do it. View attachment 33540

Probably as they thought is that all, we've been mugging Wolves off for a few years now.

 

[Contrarian]

Not really disagreeing - 100% agree with the Sa one, but keepers often do. Not a completely isolated incident.

re Sarabia one, could agree with you (sort of) but then Newcastle goal gets disallowed for the push before the header. (Which I think we may have got if Jonny had gone down theatrically)

I don’t know if I’d use the word conspiracy, but we do seem to get some bloody odd decisions. But you are 100% right about poor officials… and getting worse

It's not a conspiracy at all. It's just that we aren't important enough to be given that extra consideration that the likes of Man U and Liverpool get. It's possible that all the minor incidents in matches between "The Other 14" do balance out. And the reason we get no penalties is because we aren't aggresive and direct enough around the opponents area. But between the big 6 and the other 14 in general, the imbalance in crucial decisions is close to blatant.

 

[northnorfolkwolf]

It's not a conspiracy at all. It's just that we aren't important enough to be given that extra consideration that the likes of Man U and Liverpool get. It's possible that all the minor incidents in matches between "The Other 14" do balance out. And the reason we get no penalties is because we aren't aggresive and direct enough around the opponents area. But between the big 6 and the other 14 in general, the imbalance in crucial decisions is close to blatant.

It's bias. It's not right but imv it's human nature; if you're officiating at a raucous OT or Anfield and there's difficult decision to make quickly the odds are your decision will favour Utd or Liverpool. It's very easy to prove with stats (sendings off, pens given etc) going back over 10/20 years of the Prem that the big 6, even home teams, get the majority of benefits of the doubt. You would think that VAR would step in to equalise things?

 

[Contrarian]

It's bias. It's not right but imv it's human nature; if you're officiating at a raucous OT or Anfield and there's difficult decision to make quickly the odds are your decision will favour Utd or Liverpool. It's very easy to prove with stats (sendings off, pens given etc) going back over 10/20 years of the Prem that the big 6, even home teams, get the majority of benefits of the doubt. You would think that VAR would step in to equalise things?

Yes, exactly your last line. When it was talked about for years, I thought VAR would be a good idea precisely because it would even out that bias. Having seen how it's worked in practice, it's made it worse! And I realise how naive I was. It now seems even more difficult for refs to make a courageous (but correct) decision on the pitch. That refs these days seem to have no courage doesn't help. Don't know why. They make awful decisions most weeks yet still carry on, getting paid far more than far better refs did 30 - 40 years ago.

If I was a conspiracy theorist (which I'm not ... so *they* say), I'd wonder if VAR took so long to introduce in football precisely because they were worried the objectivity could put the likes of Brighton in the Champions League ahead of Man U. When they figured out how to prevent this, then they finally introduced it. Adding in the "obvious error" clause and having it run by a small cabal of refs , has done the trick.

Just remembering a goal Neves scored v Man U a few seasons ago - how they spent 5 minutes drawing and redrawing lines checking for offside. Like they really wanted it to be offside. It wasn't given that time. Similar in several matches against the teams we all know. But have we ever had 5 minutes of checking for a goal against us?

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

The referees are awful time to start promoting younger less bias officials to the higher levels

 

[arctic rime]

The referees are awful time to start promoting younger less bias officials to the higher levels

Agreed

 

[Sammy Chungs Tracksuit]

Like you say, it’s all opinions.

You believe that that PGMOL are out to get us and you’re entitled to do so.

My question would be why?

A lot of it seems to stems back to the Doc handball decision 3 years ago. If you look at the way handball was being implemented back then, if I’m honest, it really wasn’t that surprising a decision. I remember watching Spurs v Newcastle around that time. Newcastle got a 97th minute equaliser with a penalty that was given for the ball flicking off a defenders elbow. Absolute nonsense, but proves to me at least, that these were being given not just against us.

I’m in total agreement with anyone who says that VAR isn’t working and personally wish it would **** off.

Decisions against Brighton, Arsenal and Chelsea in recent weeks have been comically bad. It isn’t just us.

I get annoyed with the conspiracy stuff, I may have mentioned it a couple of times. Main two reasons are - 1) if fans only bring up what’s gone against them then it means nothing. Will just get passed off as sour grapes.

2) takes away from from discussing the actual football. Our performance, line up and substitutions yesterday were, in my opinion, crap. Hardly gets mentioned because all folk want to talk about is the ref.

Like I say, I thing the standard of officiating is poor across the league. Just think talk of agendas and all that is wrong and takes away from the real issue.

We dont necessarily know the why - but it doesnt mean there isnt a why.
It could be plain and simple corruption.
It could be bias.
It could be an error.
What it cant be statistically is a constant set of errors all going the same way time after time,

I dont know what the odds on a home win for Newcastle were but I would imagine it probably was just under evens with Newcastle's poor recent form and our fairly reasonable form. Lets imagine a scenario where ref and VAR officials were in cahoots with a betting syndicate on a Newcastle home win. I'm not saying they were but human nature constantly shows this is far from impossible. Any money might be going on in the massive far east gambling markets well away from UK scrutiny.

Now accept that if my scenario was true and VAR had to review a solid red card and penalty incident early into the game - wouldnt the officials be looking to avoid the scoreline going the wrong way with a side down to 10 men? I'm not saying this scenario was true but if they were up to it then the decision made is exactly the kind of decision you might have expected. Ditto the Arsenal game at Molineux.

Is it really that far fetched to imagine that some refs are bent? A spanish official is implciated in large sums of money being paid by Barca and seemingly had limited funds himself. He could easily have been an orchestrator. I repeat I an not accusing the officials of this crime, I'm merely saying it is not impossible.

 

[Flump]

I dont know what the odds on a home win for Newcastle were but I would imagine it probably was just under evens with Newcastle's poor recent form and our fairly reasonable form. Lets imagine a scenario where ref and VAR officials were in cahoots with a betting syndicate on a Newcastle home win. I'm not saying they were but human nature constantly shows this is far from impossible. Any money might be going on in the massive far east gambling markets well away from UK scrutiny.

Now accept that if my scenario was true and VAR had to review a solid red card and penalty incident early into the game - wouldnt the officials be looking to avoid the scoreline going the wrong way with a side down to 10 men? I'm not saying this scenario was true but if they were up to it then the decision made is exactly the kind of decision you might have expected. Ditto the Arsenal game at Molineux.

Is it really that far fetched to imagine that some refs are bent?

Yes, I think it is that far fetched.

For a start, if it was all for a betting scam, why is everyone always betting against Wolves?!

 

[Sammy Chungs Tracksuit]

Yes, I think it is that far fetched.

For a start, if it was all for a betting scam, why is everyone always betting against Wolves?!

Fair question. Maybe we fit a certain profile for betting on results going against us. We are good enough to get decent oddds on a win against us but we are not a big enough club for there to be a massive outcry if there is a shocking decision against us in games where we were underdogs anyway.

The odds of Wolves losing at home to Arsenal and Wolves losing away to an out of form Newcastle in fair games were probably about 50/50. Bent officiating makes it about 80/20. The Wolves v Arsenal match report on the BBC didnt even mention the huge penalty call and non red card against us and it was all about how brilliant Arsenal are.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63523921

 

[Hot Fuss]

We dont necessarily know the why - but it doesnt mean there isnt a why.
It could be plain and simple corruption.
It could be bias.
It could be an error.
What it cant be statistically is a constant set of errors all going the same way time after time,

I dont know what the odds on a home win for Newcastle were but I would imagine it probably was just under evens with Newcastle's poor recent form and our fairly reasonable form. Lets imagine a scenario where ref and VAR officials were in cahoots with a betting syndicate on a Newcastle home win. I'm not saying they were but human nature constantly shows this is far from impossible. Any money might be going on in the massive far east gambling markets well away from UK scrutiny.

Now accept that if my scenario was true and VAR had to review a solid red card and penalty incident early into the game - wouldnt the officials be looking to avoid the scoreline going the wrong way with a side down to 10 men? I'm not saying this scenario was true but if they were up to it then the decision made is exactly the kind of decision you might have expected. Ditto the Arsenal game at Molineux.

Is it really that far fetched to imagine that some refs are bent? A spanish official is implciated in large sums of money being paid by Barca and seemingly had limited funds himself. He could easily have been an orchestrator. I repeat I a not accusing the officials of this crime, I'm merely saying it is not impossible.

wouldn’t it make more sense for this betting syndicate in the far east that’s free of Uk scrutiny to knobble a game in the Scottish second division where there’s no VAR, hardly any crowd and no one’s watching on telly, rather than a premier league game, live on sky with 50000 in the ground?