Greetings everyone! The 2008/09 season has been very exciting so far. This season's first half has been the most exciting so far since a long time. Unfortunately, it seems that ref errors have overshadowed some aspects of the excitement and many people are confused. This thread will attempt to examine the ref errors in the first half of the 2008/09 season and determine the impact these errors had on the points in the league table. Alright first off, let's have a quick recap of the first half of the season and the current standings so far: 1 Sivasspor...... 34 2 Trabzonspor.. 34 3 Galatasaray... 33 4 Fenerbahçe... 32 5 Ankaraspor.... 30 6 Beşiktaş........ 28 7 Kayserispor... 27 8 Gaziantep...... 25 9 Bursaspor...... 22 Please note that the analysis is done for the "big 4" only (Besiktas, Fenerbahce, Galatasaray, Trabzonspor). This is due to the reason that only these matches are broadcasted live and therefore they were the only matches I could analyze. Matches written in italics like this outline a match that had a ref error having effect on the scoreline. (Things written in parantheses like this provide an explanation of the ref's error) [Numbers written in this, shows the amount of points that the ref error had effect on a team as a result] Now let's take a look at each match and point out the ref errors: (note: All penalties are assumed to be a certain goal) Week 1: Gaziantepspor: 1 - Fenerbahçe: 0 Trabzonspor: 2 - Ankaraspor: 0 Antalyaspor: 2 - Beşiktaş: 3 Galatasaray: 4 - Denizlispor: 1 Week 2: Beşiktaş: 2 - Konyaspor: 0 Ankaragücü: 1 - Trabzonspor: 2 (Trabzon had Umut's goal disallowed, when it was a clear goal. Should have been 1 - 3 to Trabzon. Had no effect on the points) [TS: 0] Kayserispor: 0 - Galatasaray: 0 Fenerbahçe: 2 - İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor: 0 (The ref destroyed this match. IBB were left with 10 players and still dominated Fener. It was when they got reduced down to 9 that they conceded 2 inevitable goals. Both the red cards were of doubt and it didn't look like Fener could have beaten a 11 man IBB) [FB: -2] Week 3: Galatasaray: 1 - Antalyaspor: 1 Hacettepe: 2 - Fenerbahçe: 1 Trabzonspor: 0 - Beşiktaş: 0 Week 4: Fenerbahçe: 3 - Gençlerbirliği: 0 Kocaelispor: 1 - Galatasaray: 4 Beşiktaş: 3 - Gaziantepspor: 0 Denizlispor: 0 - Trabzonspor: 1 Week 5: Sivasspor: 2 - Fenerbahçe: 1 Galatasaray: 4 - Konyaspor: 1 İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor: 1 - Beşiktaş: 1 (Nobre's goal was disallowed. Should have been 1-2 to BJK) [BJK: +2] Trabzonspor: 3 - Antalyaspor: 2 Week 6: Bursaspor: 2 - Galatasaray: 1 Fenerbahçe: 1 - Kayserispor: 4 (Ref made a wrong offside call on Aghahowa who was clear on sight for goal. Should have been 1-5 for Kayseri. Had no effect on the points) [FB: 0] Konyaspor: 2 - Trabzonspor: 3 Beşiktaş: 2 - Hacettepe: 1 Week 7: Gençlerbirliği: 1 - Beşiktaş: 3 Kocaelispor: 2 - Fenerbahçe: 3 (A football match is 90 minutes, not 100. Enough said. Should have ended 2-2) [FB: -2] Galatasaray: 3 - Trabzonspor: 0 (Servet scored a goal with his hand. Should have ended 2-0. No effect on points) [GS: 0] [TS: 0] Week 8: Fenerbahçe: 5 - Bursaspor: 2 Eskişehirspor: 4 - Galatasaray: 2 (Baros controlled the ball with his hand before scoring. Should have ended 4-1. No effect on points) [GS: 0] Trabzonspor: 1 - Gaziantepspor: 1 Beşiktaş: 1 - Sivasspor: 1 Week 9: Eskişehirspor: 2 - Fenerbahçe: 2 (Es es were robbed of a goal that had blatantly crossed the line. Should have ended 3-2) [FB: -1] Kayserispor: 1 - Beşiktaş: 0 İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor: 0 - Trabzonspor: 4 Galatasaray: 3 - Gaziantepspor: 1 (Umit Karan was offside before nodding it down for Arda. Should have ended 2-1. No effect on points) [GS: 0] Week 10: Beşiktaş: 5 - Kocaelispor: 2 Fenerbahçe: 4 - Galatasaray: 1 Trabzonspor: 1 - Hacettepe: 0 Week 11: Bursaspor: 0 - Beşiktaş: 0 Galatasaray: 2 - İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor: 0 Gençlerbirliği: 0 - Trabzonspor: 1 Fenerbahçe: 2 - Ankaraspor: 0 (The ref missed a blatant penalty on Ozer Hurmaci when the score was 0-0. Nevertheless let's assume it would have ended 2-1) [FB: 0] Week 12: Beşiktaş: 2 - Eskişehirspor: 0 Ankaragücü: 0 - Fenerbahçe: 0 Ankaraspor: 0 - Galatasaray: 0 (Arda had his shirt pulled in the box which was not called. Should have ended 0-1) [GS: +2] Trabzonspor: 0 - Sivasspor: 0 Week 13: Fenerbahçe: 2 - Beşiktaş: 1 (Cisse certainly didn't deserve the first yellow card. However the scoreline was 2-1 when it occurred so it's very hard to project if BJK would have pulled back. Let's assume it would have ended at the same score) [FB: 0] [BJK: 0] Kayserispor: 1 - Trabzonspor: 1 (Amusing match. Trabzon's goal clearly didn't cross the line. However, Kayseri's penalty was nowhere near either. No effect on points) [TS: 0] Galatasaray: 3 - Hacettepe: 1 (Another amusing match. The ref got the first yellow card wrong in which the same player got ejected for a rightful second yellow card. GS was up 2-1 when he received his first yellow card and 3-1 when the player was dismissed. No effect on points) [GS: 0] Week 14: Beşiktaş: 1 - Ankaraspor: 3 Denizlispor: 0 - Fenerbahçe: 1 (Deivid had a goal that the ref didn't count. Should have ended 0-2 to FB. No effect on points) [FB: 0] Ankaragücü: 0 - Galatasaray: 3 Trabzonspor: 2 - Kocaelispor: 1 Week 15: Fenerbahçe: 2 - Antalyaspor: 0 Gençlerbirliği: 1 - Galatasaray: 3 Bursaspor: 2 - Trabzonspor: 1 (Sercan's goal was an offside by a mile. Should have ended 1-1) [TS: +1] Beşiktaş: 1 - Ankaragücü: 0 Week 16: Konyaspor: 1 - Fenerbahçe: 2 (Onder scored a goal with his arm. The ref allowed the goal because "it wasn't offside". Amusing, should have ended 1-1) [FB: -2] Galatasaray: 4 - Beşiktaş: 2 (Servet's goal is thought to be a foul. However, we're assuming Nobre's goal in Week 5 was valid, so this is not a foul. Delgado getting booted was just. Holosko controlled the ball with his hand before scoring the second goal. Nevertheless, the outcome of the points won't change) [GS: 0] [BJK: 0] Trabzonspor: 2 - Eskişehirspor: 1 (Trabzon's penalty was nowhere near. The penalty was not converted though. No effect on points) [TS: 0] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Now let's take a look how the league table would have been if we omit the ref errors affecting the scoreline: 1 Galatasaray... 35 2 Trabzonspor.. 35 3 Sivasspor...... 34 4 Ankaraspor.... 30 5 Beşiktaş........ 30 6 Kayserispor... 27 7 Fenerbahçe... 25 8 Gaziantep...... 25 9 Bursaspor...... 20 Please remember that only the matches for the "big 4" were analysed. I'm sure the table would look a bit different if we omit every ref error for the matches of the other teams. I may have made some errors myself here during my analysis, so please comment on them or anything you may disagree with, so we can change them around and get a more accurate league table that omits ref errors! Oh and yes, I'm a GS fan but I reckon I'm sensible enough to not be a fanatic. If you believe I'm not objective for any of the evaluation made please present FACTS to counter the evaluation. I believe this has been as objective as possible. For example I do remember a goal that Baros scored where he pushed a defender and then headed the ball in, but I can't seem to remember which match that was so I left that untouched. I also remember Tello scoring a goal from a corner kick that wasn't counted. I would really appreciate it if you could shed light on these cases as to what matches they were in and any other certain ref error there have been that I forgot to mention! (But please don't make ridiculous comments such as "The ball hit Onder's chest in the Konyaspor-Fenerbahçe match, and not his arm!") Now let's see how the teams will do in the January transfer window! Cheers!