This season shows us we can't trust the whistle anymore
It is purely exhausting. What we all feel right now is nothing short of frustration, and its spreading across the pitch to the stands, the players, the fans and all that surrounds this club. This feeling of suffocation caused by a season derailed by injuries, lack of ambition, bad managerial appointments and, heading into Sunday's clash with Everton staring into the possibility of relegation, a growing sense amongst supporters that every marginal moment seems to break against us.
For months now, social media, tabloids, and news sites have compiled a list with screenshots, freeze frames and clips of such abhorent refereeing decisions that bring into question the integrity of PGMOL, the referees and VAR. Penalties not given, goals ruled out, fouls and red cards applied inconsistently. One phrase appears over and over and over again.
"Officiated differently".
That perception has become impossible to separate from our season. It is as comparable to dying by a thousand cuts and having no power to do anything about it except clutch at our hearts everytime a decision should go our way ultimately doesn't.
Which brings us to the big issue with PGMOL and Var. It isn't one isolated controversy. The whole season has never been about that. It is the accumulation that brings this sense of distrust with it.
The Bentancur incident against Newcastle where he was wrestled and we ended up conceding a penalty, the repeated physical treatment of Vicario at corners that would be instantly called out for other goalkeepers, challenges that bring red cards one week and then the next is described by pundits as just "part of the game". Don't even get me started on the bias commentary and view our club has on programs like CBS, Sky Sports etc.
What I'm trying to say is we can bear with mistakes as they can happen. What is truly unacceptable is the inconsistency. VAR was sold to the premier league with the goal of eliminating clear injustices that could occur due to referee errors. Instead, it feels like every decision feels more controversial because what we expect is precision; instead what we receive is interpretation. The system has not increased transparency or accountability at all. In fact, it has shielded officiating standing behind vague statements and explanations, post match statements that arrive only after the damage has already been done.
Referees rarely face visible consequences for decisive mistakes, while we as a club and supporters of our club are left to absorb the fallout in lost points, lost momentum and potentially an entire season collapsing on the cusp of relegation. The technology that was meant to eliminate controversy has instead amplified distrust and has turned major decisions into inconsistentcy and interprestation.
One week a push is enough to overturn a goal, and then the next, an almost indentical challege is waved through. Handballs have become, as I like to put it, like a piece of art. What once was objective has become rather subjective and in a game of margins like football, this cannot stand. How can VAR spend five minutes drawing microscopic lines that offsides only to spend five seconds viewing a blatant infringement on a player in the penalty area?
Apologies do not restores points, we are well past apologies. What I will not do is blame VAR and PGMOL for the position we are in. This is all our own doing. They have just made a shit season even worse and have not helped us in a season that sees us one game from relegation. Maybe the beleif I have is emotional, and maybe every fanbase feels persecuted when their season collapses in such a mangger. But perception does matter in football. And right now, it feels like we are fighting two battles at once. Our own failures and refereeing that has become hard to trust.
Perhaps the most frustrtaing part of all this is that we ourselves are too silent to follow up, we just sit and absorb all these controversies. We haven't issued statements or anything that would put public pressure out. Perception again matters. Managers can speak, boards can release statements and these narratives can be made public and brought into light. Why do we look so passive while these decisions that go against us pile up week after week? It just feels like the club has allowed itself to become an easy target, a side that doesn't demand accountability and is easy to slap around. NO ONE is asking for conspiracies or special treatment. We just want our club to defend itself, and for the refs and VAR to get their head out of their ass.
Onto Sunday and we don't only need a result, we pray to the footballing gods that for once, can we just have a football match where the story afterward is the football match itself and not the injustice that shafts us? COYS!!!!!!!!!