Another sign as to how far off we are from being a serious soccer country. When the head of refereeing or his number two insists on a review in the US, all you get is an article in the Athletic behind a paywall. In Italy, you get charged with sports fraud.
Italian soccer rocked by another refereeing scandal as head of referees Rocchi faces fraud probe - Yahoo Sports
Nary a peep about El Classico. I only caught the last 20 minutes or so. I think Real was perfectly happy with 7 seconds of stoppage time.
This seems like an obvious penalty and, possibly, even a red card: https://streamff.com/v/f076f26b#google_vignette But I guess VAR only works when it works. When it doesn't, it's okay.
Who wants to bet if Bellingham elbowed a Barca defender and scored a goal that VAR would swoop in and "save the day?" If the game actually mattered for both teams and it was later maybe later in the match, I think we get a review. Eh, the season is done and Real are done "check complete." Just so arbitrary and random. I have had my issues with Spanish refereeing for years. One thing I have always admired about them is they truly understand the spirit and point of stoppage time. None of this play 8 minutes when it is 4-0 nonsense that we see in MLS and EPL. The league is done, the season is done. End it at 90 and let's go home.
Thoughts on the Celtic penalty that may have shifted the championship race? (Rather biased commentary, and the video of VAR, is here CORRUPTION IN SCOTLAND❌🏴CELTIC HAVE JUST BEEN GIVEN A PENALTY IN THE 93RD MINUTE FOR THIS?!😡🤬Heartbreaking for Hearts💔 https://t.co/JBGAYWvy1g— The 44 ⚽️ (@The_Forty_Four) May 13, 2026 )
Who are these people? Can you show them to me? Because I personally never saw that argument. VAR was introduced in 2018 so we all had internet.... it should be easy to find the VAR was gonna solve all our problems crowd I can find plenty of examples of my side https://football-italia.net/var-eliminates-errors-not-controversy/ Referee designator Nicola Rizzoli says the objective of VAR ‘isn’t to eliminate controversy but rather the big and glaring errors’. https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/soc...-webb-var-get-better/11qdpfmhhbg1lhkng6x7a9go Howard Webb says that the usage of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology will never be able to remove all controversy from the game, but to aim is to move as close to perfection as possible. Here is me: I have always maintained that VAR will mean a big improvement but people will always be people that will argue against the truth no matter what https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/m...occo-kaliningrad.2084419/page-4#post-36804051 Again can you do the same for the claim you made? Because from I remember the "VAR sux" crowd has always existed since it was introduced
🚨Celtic have released footage that still clearly shows the ball coming off the head of the defenderAwful decision from VAR❌ pic.twitter.com/GhbX4jg82p— Now Football (@Nowfootball) May 14, 2026
FWIW, Graham Scott weighed in via The Athletic, noting that he was baffled. I won’t quote the whole thing, but here is his conclusion: “The ball may have brushed Nicholson’s hand in the duel, but there is no evidence of a deliberate act, and his hand and arm were in line with part of his body, which is usually sufficient mitigation for the referee to play on and the VAR to leave well alone.” https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7276683/2026/05/13/celtic-penalty-handball-hearts-scottish-title/
That's a nonsense opinion... I mean, the defender's hand is at his forehead. If there is contact with the hand (before it hits the head), it's clearly a handball offense.
Is there anywhere you can get insight into the rationale (aside from refs not eligible due to what association or where they live precluding them from presiding over certain teams) as to why or how referees are chosen or not chosen in the Premier League? I am particularly interested in what is going on with Rob Jones. He is one who's work I watch with particular attention but I had just found myself thinking that I had not seen him centering a match lately. That may be due to my not having been able to watch as many matches for clubs I do not support but also curious if he was low-key being disciplined or rested or some other reason he was not super active. For instance there are some group 1 refs this week centering and doing VAR or 4th roles while Rob Jones is only a fourth in Arsenal v Burnley, his sole appointment in the PL this matchweek.
I don't know if it hit his hand or not. I can't tell. On one hand (pun not intended) it seems almost impossible that the ball didn't hit his hand considering where his hand was. On the other hand (pun not indended), it just doesn't seem physically possible for the ball to come back that far if it hit his hand. For it to come back that far out, it must have only been headed. The point I have been trying to make is that our enjoyment of the sport is not being improved with VAR and these arbitrary interventions. Instead of talking about one of the great stories in European soccer history, everyone now is analyzing hand held footage deciding whether the ball hit the defenders hand or not and discussing VAR. How is this fun? All of this controversy and pains are worth it so VAR can come in and save the day once a season to disallow a goal for a foul on the goal keeper? All of these random interventions and non-interventions are worth it for the one time a season VAR can come in, genuinely, be the hero? This is the first time we are discussing the Scottish league on here in how many years and for the wrong reasons and all because of VAR. The sport worked perfectly fine without VAR. We had this handling happen 24 years ago in a World Cup full of scandalous decisions and no one genuinely remembers (except for Mexican fans). Yet, in a twist of irony US fans and players are still talking to this day talk about a genuinely more debatable handball decision in the next game. Every podcast that the players from that team appear on keep talking about "if that handball on Torsten Frings was called, I would have played in a World Cup final."
What are you relying on for the fact that a hand at his forehead is so "clearly" a HB offense that it is a "nonsense opinion" to disagree with you? I don't think there is any credible argument it was deliberate as he is focussed on and successfully heads the ball. His hand is up because he is jumping and his arm is jostled by an opponent. His hand isn't out in front of his forehead, but right at his forehead. So he isn't making himself unnaturally bigger--his size is exactly the same as if his hand wasn't there. So what is the offense under the LOTG?
Scottish FA release. https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/news/a-scottish-fa-statement/?rid=13929 Apparently personal information was released and police protecing Beaton's house. Sigh. The Gentlemen's Game.
At that point, it was far from fine. The players were getting faster and fitter and the game was changing and the referees were missing more as a result. Few had a rooting interest in the Ireland/France Henry hand ball match, but everyone felt bad that it was missed. Then we had WC 2010 where almost every AR except England's Cann was missing offsides by yards (not inches), so something finally had to be done. We all thought the subjectivity would be gone with some sort of video replay system but now we're checking the APP and looking at things no one would have thought were significant to a goal and seeing that "Clear and Obvious" is not seen the same way by every crew. I know it's been discussed here in various threads that we're never going back (unfortunately, because it's not worth the added issues it caused because of the folks involved in the implementation and training), but a lot of things were getting missed pre-VAR and now the controversies surrounding the inconsistencies week-to-week are replacing the stories in the media instead of the old complaining of missed calls pre-VAR.
Really? I don’t think it was close to “all” of us that thought that. I think many of us pointed out that soccer was going to be using VAR review for subjective decisions in a way that was different from most sports and that looking at them on video wouldn’t make them any less subjective or controversial. And many of us pointed out that video review always expanded beyond its original scope and would inevitably do so in soccer. And we were right on both fronts.
I am sorry but this just isn’t true. I mean, the faster and fitter is. But so were referees. Go back to the 90s and 80s (or, God forbid, earlier) and try telling me that referees were missing less then than they were in 2010 or 2014. It’s just so clearly false. Referees got better and more professional by leaps and bounds. Yes, the game was faster. And there were more cameras. And more global coverage. So mistakes felt bigger and got more scrutiny. But on the day-to-day, play-to-play aspect of officiating the game overall? It is impossible to assert referees were missing more in 2010 than they were in, say, 1990. One of the top 3 players in the world got into the World Cup with blatant cheating. It’s not that anyone was rooting for or against France or Ireland. It was a World Cup decider with a famous player, of course there was going to be tons of coverage even if not everyone was a partisan. This feels like an exaggerated description of 2002, not 2010. Take out Argentina v Mexico and I challenge you to show me one incorrect offside from that WC that was at least a yard offside. Again, the ability of ARs in 2010 was incredible compared to previous years. In no way, outside the one egregious case, was offside at the 2010 tournament a reason why “something had to be done.” I know this isn’t aimed at me, but I feel personally gaslit reading stuff like this. I can’t fathom how many times I pointed out we were just adding a second layer of subjectivity, rather than eliminating it.
I think you or anyone else can make arguments about unnatural in either direction. Though I tend to agree with you. What gets me here is just the idea at all that there needed to be an intervention. First, at the subjective level on the merits of the decision. We’ve been addressing that here. But second, on the idea that this is some travesty if not called. The alleged offence is so clearly not consequential. No one else is heading the ball. Even if it hits the hand, it also hits the head and is cleared from the PA. There’s no attacking threat. Is there even an appeal? I know, I know, none of this is supposed to be in the VAR’s consideration. But if you go back to purpose of VAR, it should be. On the other thread it was said a title-deciding mistake was avoided. I’d posit the exact opposite. We are NEVER talking about this play without VAR. In other words, a title-deciding intervention was created. Whether or not the outcome was narrowly correct or defensible on the LOTG merits seems beside the point.
My main issue with the Celtic v Hearts game has nothing to do with VAR, but with the amount of added time that was played. Within the 8 minutes of original added time, there were 4 yellow cards across 3 separate stoppages, including one for delaying the restart. Each of these 3 stoppages took (counting conservatively) 20 seconds to administer. Then the 3-1 goal was scored at 97:29 and a ball was never kicked again. So there really should have been about 1:30 left in the game, conservatively. Very unlikely to score two goals in that time, but not impossible. It has to be played to completion. The referee should have resumed play and finished the game out after the field was cleared. There were also a pair of Celtic goal kicks / free kicks for which the ball was out of play for 45+ seconds each, and a situation where the goalkeeper fell on the ball and took 14 seconds (a lot more than 8!) before releasing it to play. These are not, strictly speaking, situations for which the referee should add time, but some proactive management would’ve been nice. One funny-but-not-so-funny situation earlier in added time: a Hearts player who was clearly injured during a stoppage of play decided to get up and hobble back towards play rather than receive appropriate treatment. Evidently, players do not trust that the referee will add back all the time for an injury stoppage, and why should they? Too many referees are asleep at the wheel when it comes to keeping track of lost time.
Well that goal decided the title because of the VAR intervention in the prior match. Without it Celtic would not have won either.* * - Yes, I recognize that if Celtic came into this game not just needing to win, but to win by at least 3 goals, the game most likely plays out completely differently and who knows what happens.