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primarily, I think we were 'sold' the idea that VAR would eliminate the bias (or incompetence) of individuals and technology would ensure a fairer, more level playing field.
In the event, other than binary decisions like offside, VAR has served only to increase the number of individuals whose bias actually comes into play.
But I also think PGMOL has been dreadfully passive in deciding where the standard is going to be set at set-pieces and in particular corners. Arsenal have made a virtue of set-pieces as a specific tactic (part of Arteta's marginal gains schtick).
Once Arsenal and others discover the edge they can exploit at corners/set-pieces, then inevitably comes the reaction from defending teams.
There's nothing wrong per se in being physically dominant at corners, but the line between physicality versus foul-play - the wrestling, by defenders as well as attackers, doesn't seem to me to have been drawn and is left to the discretion of the individual referee (and then subsequently the VAR officials).
It's dead easy to say that Silva on Rohl was too much but the West Ham lad on Raya wasn't enough. But they're both subjective calls which you can argue either way.
The Laws of the Game don't seem to be equivocal enough to cope with how corners are being played out in our League, so I think its for the PGMOL to give their referees better guidance which can then be communicated to teams.
If (at the very least) defenders and attackers know what referees will and won't let them get away with - and then that standard is rigorously and consistently kept to by all the refs, then you'd hope we could start to eliminate what's becoming a pretty ugly part of PL football.
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the claims of corruption are back...I wonder do those of you who suggest that mean, corruption as in, the game is corrupted by poor decision and/or a general bias to the bigger clubs? I am right on board with that.....but I think some of you mean more than that you actually think the EPL are fixing decisions to go one way or the other, i am not on board with that, because nobody has ever come up with remotely plausible answers to....
When and who has the secret meetings to decide which way to fix....why has there never been any inkling that these meeting happen?
How do they then communicate that to the var and on pitch teams....again thats hundreds of people involved and not one leak ever?
There are many more questions that make the whole idea laughable.
While a big percentage of fans believe this we can never hope to improve things....bad refereeing, unconscious bias, they are things that could be worked on if we pressured the EPL, but thats harder when half of fans just think its deliberate...how do you fix that?
Also those who think EPL or FA, or Uefa or FIFA are fixing games.....why the fuck do you spend your time and money on the game?
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