Random footie

[Durhamfootman]

Ha.... got to give Ratcliffe 10 out of 10 for bare faced cheek. He thinks Old Trafford needs replacing, because it's falling apart at the seams, so is mooting the idea that building a brand spanking new stadium could make OT a "national stadium for the north" in his words, or at least words to that effect.

Of course, he continues, a national stadium for the north should probably be funded by the FA or the govt or at least somebody not called Man Utd

when I saw that I nearly wet myself laughing..... the big daft bollock

[sussexpob]

Watching the Valencia v Madrid game, and sadly it looks like Valencia defender Moucthar Diakhaby just got an absolute horrendous injury. Tchouamendi from Madrid was running in to challenge the ball and seemingly lost his footing just as Diakhaby stretched out to kick the ball... the Real lad then landed full force into his outstretched leg, and trapped it under him as the Diakhaby's momentum took his body the opposite direction.

Both sets of players were visually in shock, and Diakhaby was clearly in a state of extreme pain.

I cross my fingers and toes that doesn't look anywhere near as bad as it seems....

[andy]

Watching the PSG game, they're playing bottom of the table Clermont and are 1-0 down after an hour...they are dreadful....the standard of french football these days is shocking

[sussexpob]

God Bless the corruption in Belgian Football.

Christian Burgess was sent of a couple of weeks ago for a ridiculous red card in a match v Genk. Attempting to take a throw on deep in injury time with Union 2-1 down, the Genk striker wanting to waste time decided to sprint to Burgess and attempt to block the throw coming in by standing on the line where Burgess was lining up. Burgess, not wanting to waste time, threw it in with the Genk player then jumping a metre of the ground to block the ball... the ball then hit him square in the face, and the referee sent off Burgess for violent conduct. The Genk player, on a yellow, was not booked for time wasting or purposefully prevent the quick throw. Everyone in the Belgian press complained of a grave misjustice.

After the game, a disciplinary hearing quashed the red card on the Monday, a decision that was made without inviting the club or player to the hearing. The Belgian FA, not happy with its independent decision panel, appealled this decision asking for a 3 game ban (crazy in itself, as the panel had quashed a 1 game ban). Burgess, who was not in attendence, then received the original letter informing him of his automatic ban for a red card from the FA, issued after the hearing of his ban had been quashed, and which no longer applied. At no stage in the next 6 days did the Belgian FA inform him of the fact his ban had been quashed.

Union then played Cercle with Burgess watching in the stands serving his phantom ban. During the game, the Belgian FA released a press release expressing shock that in pre-match interviews, Union players and managers had referenced him being banned, and stating that his ban was under appeal with the player eligible to play that week. There is a funny video of our keeper, Antony Moris, being told of it after the game in an interview and losing the plot.

Cut to this week after the Cercle game, and the Belgian FA then said in lieu of a decision concerning his ban, his original ban of one game would have to stand. This was totally wrong, and still no reference was made to the tribunal that had acquitted him. Union, having only been told of his ban for Cercle then expressed puzzlement that not only had the FA broke their own rules and were acting against the independent tribunals decisions, but if he had been banned for one game, then the only documentation referring to it officially was from the FA for that Cercle game he missed. Essentially, he had served his ban if there was one, end of discussion.

To cut a long epic short, the FA then claimed his three game ban being appealed applied before the case disproved the FAs case, which is flattly illegal. Union served the FA notice of legal action, and as per Belgian law, the instant preliminary hearing required to allow a legal case to progress found huge problems with the FAs position, ones that are only explainable in purposeful actions.

No sooner had the court asked the FA explain themselves, that the tribunal magically became decided .... although seeing as though all the Belgian FA legal team were in court, its quite obvious that no tribunal had taken place. It seems that it had taken place days before, and had once again affirmed Burgess' ban being quashed. So the Belgian FA had essentially gone bandit to make sure Burgess was missing at least 2 games.

The sh*t will now hit the fan, but this is the 4th dubious case where the FA have done this before teams play Anderlecht. We already had the result of Genk V Anderlecht overturned in a court because the referee gave a goal by VAR while his discussions with his team proved he had noticed an infringement by Anderlecht, but informed the goal could be given regardless. I think that referee was fired. I hope Union see the court case out. Frankly bored of the consistent bias and unquestionably tainted refereeing decisions when ever we play a big Flemish club. Always from the same two referees who happened to be from Brugge and Antwerp respectively. And then all referees making sure Anderlecht always win

[sussexpob]

Just as a recent example of this clear corruption, take a look at this foul against Union defender Machida a couple of weeks ago in Antwerp. He gets hit in the neck by a player with his feet nearly 2 meters off the ground. The referee did not refer it to VAR, and the video referee claims he could not contact the referee to refer him to the screen for the clear red card, even when the referee is seen talking on his microphone to VAR for 30 seconds.

https://twitter.com/medioclubID/status/ ... 0644728905

Machida himself was then given a second yellow card when the referee picked out the wrong player for a foul on the break. To cap it all off, VAR then applied the old handball rule in awarding Antwerp their last minute equaliser, which they later apologised for and admitted was a clear error.

I dont know why I waste my weekends watching Belgian football, its clearly fixed.

[Durhamfootman]

blimey... that looks like the sort of 'yellow' card tackle usually committed on Sean Longstaff

doubtless the ref decided that the offending player was trying to pull out of the challenge

[sussexpob]

People always talk about how many poor decisions referee make on big decisions, but I think the most annoying and puzzling thing is how they struggle so much to stop people time wasting.

I was watching Brugge v Antwerp today. In the last ten minutes alone, Brugge successfully got the referee to stop play for three phantom head injuries, the best of which involved the referee stopping an Antwerp counter attack after noticing a player was down at the other end of the field.... said player had fouled the goal keeper, pretended to be injured, realised he was actually out of play as the keeper booted it up, then got up and ran a few metres, threw himself back on the floor holding his head, and there we go.... 2 minutes wasted. The funniest thing was the referee appeared to lecture him for pretending to be injured AFTER stopping play for what he thought was an injury... guess the thought process there. No card. Another incident, with Antwerp waiting to cross a free kick in, twice a Brugge player passed the ball and kicked it away. No card for the most blatant of cards ever.

In the end, we got 7 minutes injury time. In reality, that amounted to a VAR check (from the 88th to the 92nd minute) which resulted in a free kick, from that kick we got another phantom head injury, play stopped for 2 minutes. From the free kick for the phantom foul/head injury, a long ball then resulted in a free kick to Brugge with another phantom injury and another 2 minute stoppage. From that free kick we got a corner.... which Vanaken then refused to take, got lectured by the referee instead of a card, finally kicked it in after messing around with the placement of the ball after being told to get on with it, ball went out, ref blows his whistle 10 seconds early.

I'd guess all in all, we got about 10 kicks off the football in the last 15 minutes of the game.

P*** poor

[Durhamfootman]

astonishing

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/vi ... v02xj9e73o

[Durhamfootman]

Paqueta in trouble

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/ar ... llxjxq955o

[sussexpob]

Paqueta in trouble

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/ar ... llxjxq955o

I watched a documentary about him on French TV a while back while he was at Lyon. His family moved to the big city to try to help his career when he was a young kid, and they were poor. He grew up in one of Rio's Favela's (ghettos). These places are famous for their lawlessness and for the criminal gangs that takeover.

I think why on Earth would a PL footballer earning 6 figures a week get in with organised cirminals to match-fix, and the only conclusion that seems plausible is that his parents must have struck some kind of deal with the local godfather at some point to make ends meet, and he came back for his favour in return. It sounds stupid I know, but its the only reason that would make sense.

His career is finished if these charges stick. He will never play professional football again....and rightly. I had sympathy for Aamer, young, naive, was earning basically nothing at the time, influenced by older, senior pros. Pacqueta has no excuse.... hes rich, a star player at his club, a Brazil international......

What a ******** idiot.

[Durhamfootman]

who knows why he did it, if indeed he has done it, but yes..... what an idiot.

I think he was a player that Ashworth tried to buy for Newcastle along with Tonali last summer. Maybe he needs to rethink the way he goes about things when he comes back to work..... in 18 months time

[sussexpob]

Last game of the season here in Belgium. Union need a miracle to win the championship....

Lets see what happens. Come on Cercle Brugge, do us favour lads...

[sussexpob]

No one would win any surprises for guessing that the season ended in farce, with the title being decided on a very late and hugely controversial VAR call. And no prizes for also guessing that the call went in favour of the bigger side..... because its not like that ever happens. Never ever... Union did their part. 2-0 up and Genk down to 10 men coming past the 80th minute, a roar in the stands broke out. Cercle had just gone 1-0 up at Brugge, and Union were on top with minutes to go. The celebrations turned to frantic refreshing of phone screens as the almost inevitable "VAR check in progress" flashed up after the goal had been registered.

It took 7.5 minutes for the referee to decide he had made a clear error...... it was obviously that clear.

Cercle had won a free kick on the edge of the box, and after a scramble in the box the ball was bundled home for a goal. The referee initially awarded the goal, but referred it to VAR because he wanted to make sure the ball crossed the line. He was told to award the goal. He then asked VAR about a possible handball, and was told to award the goal. Third time lucky, he then asked for a possible offside, and VAR then went to check it.

The VAR booth could not trace the line to the last defender and the attacker challenging for the ball. It was so tight, they couldn't plot different lines. About 5 metres down the line of players, one Cercle player had jumped slightly offside, but when the ball came into the box he was miles away and not interferring with any play (you have to be in a position to challange for the ball to be interferring, and he was several meters away). The cross came in, the Brugge defender attempts to head it clear, he messed up the header and it drops straight to this player. He then scores.... The VAR booth instructed the referee that the person challenging the cross with the Brugge defender was onside, but that the referee needed to go to the monitor to decide if he thought the initial phase of play had ended. If he thought it had not, then the goalscorer was indeed challenging the ball, and was indeed offside.

The only problem is, this is not the rule. Once the Brugge defender touches the ball (a deliberate attempt to play it as the rules state) he automatically plays everyone onside, that is the frigging rule. You CANNOT be offside if an opponent has touched the ball last, and once the defender touches it, a completely new phase of play begins until the attacking team recover the ball. The referee in his infinite wisdom decided that there was no change in phase. He deemed Lopez offside, and ruled out the goal, which amounted to him misapplying two seperate laws of the game in complete error.

The short of it is..... the referee decided a player 5 meters away from a ball being contested by other players, was in essence directly challenging for it. I don't think it takes much explanation to see that is total, utter b*llshit.

I guess you can read all you want into the honesty of the decision when, coming away from the monitor, the referee looked embarrased as he disallowed the goal. I invite you to type Brugge into Twitter and see that I am not being biased. The media are up in arms about it. Clearly a corrupt referee awarding the title to the big team. After a season of terrible calls and watching Anderlecht and Brugge win points on terrible decisions, its not hard to see whats going on.

I am left wondering whether I will bother with my season ticket next year. Why support Belgian football when its clearly corrupt as hell? Its not the first time either, like when Union had two offside goals ruled out which were 3 yards on side, and ended up knocked out the Cup semi-final a few years back.

Apparently honest mistakes they tell us. Then 12 months later Mechelen were relegated for match fixing. Anderlecht, Brugge, Mechelen..... all implemented in match finxing scandals in recent times, and all with a well marked history of bribing refs.

Just ask Forest fans..... that Anderlecht game back in the 80s is famous for the lengths the referee went to earn his bung.

[sussexpob]

I guess all of the above comes before we even mention the fact that Brugge finished the regular season 19 points behind Union. The Belgian FA at the last minute (after the last league phase game) changed the rules about the points for the playoff phase by rounding the points of the champion down instead of up, with no explanation or reason, in a move widely seen as trying to preseve the contest for other teams by reducing how much Union were ahead. That rounding of points ended up winning Brugge the title. Isnt it funny, because when Brugge or Anderlecht win the classic phase, we never get that. But I guess for the Belgian FA they needed a top side to still have a shot at the title.

In the end, Union finish second despite outscoing everyone by 8 points over the 40 matches. Work that one out... only in Belgium can such a thing happen.

Union were already considering a court case over the points rounding being changed contrary to the Belgian FAs own constitution, I guess after yesterday they will be consulting the lawyers.

But that wont solve anything. Its the double header away to Anwerp where we lost 4 points to atricious referring. The red card at Genk for no reason. The offside goal Cercle scored that lost us points.... the list goes on.

Its hard to accept the honesty of it, when it seems every single thing is going against you, and most of the time its for reasons that cannot be justified.

I moaning. I should shut up... still angry

[Durhamfootman]

all very depressing, SP