How do you blokes enjoy a football match when you're either constantly raging at the ref or looking to rage at the ref?

Not just here but the vitriol and hate that comes spewing out on social media following a match is unhinged

I watched that semi the other night that Faghani reffed (and the MV / Nix match) and thought to myself, 'yeah maybe that was a bit soft' or 'I'm not sure if he got that right' but when I turned the TV off I wasn't seething and full of hate.

Looked to me that a lot of stuff went both ways and not for a minute did I think the ref dudded a particular team.

These excruciating post mortems parsing the minutiae of every decision must be so tiresome.



The other week I saw a quick free kick taken from about 10m from where the foul was. Ball was played somewhere, the player took a shit touch and possession changed. Did the commentators go on and on and on about the fact the ball wasn't taken near the foul? No they didn't. Wasn't even commented on BUT had that led to a goal then all hell would have broken loose.

Why?

It's either a problem or not or is it only a problem when it leads to a goal?

Seems it's only a problem if it leads to a goal.


Try this. Just say to yourself when the ref blows or doesn't blow 'yeah I can see how he might have/didn't give that'.

It'll do wonders for your mental health and enjoyment of the game.  

Not sure if I am part of your seething mob group by proximity or not.

I agree with your sentiments entirely, but I will say that football is such an invested and passionate game that a decision against what seems blatantly obvious does not always give room for an open minded and considerate thought process. I do not walk away from a game hating refs, but I do often call their judgement on specific incidents into question.

I look at the yellow card Faghani gave Doka when he thought the final whistle had blown and booted the ball up in the air. There is no world where it is reasonable for that yellow to be issued. Doka honestly thought Faghani had blown the whistle and the game was over. There was no harm done by him kicking the ball in exultation in that moment and no interruption to the game given it was in a moment of stoppage. I cannot accept that the ref decided he had deliberately done it to waste time and issued the card without a moment's thought that it might have been a reasonable action in that moment by Doka. That moment of officiating will stay with me long after the game because it was just unfair and a simple chat would have explained it.

On the flipside, the assistant coach given 2 yellows and sent off was entirely deserved due to the emotional immaturity of the recipient. He was never going to change the refs mind and he was clear in his rebellious dissent. He had to accept the level of responsibility and leadership that being a coach warrants for the example it sets his players and he failed in that.

The most I can concede is that on the back of all the backchat throughout the game, maybe Faghani had just had enough of it and took everything as dissent or unsportsmanlike behaviour by the end.

It is wrong to hate a ref. It is not wrong to question specific decisions in a non-aggressive fashion.

Well said. 

Yeah but you've got popovic coaching as a huge offset. The guy is then kiss of death in Grand finals. 

While I pretty much agree with all of this, the thing that riles players, coaches and fans is inconsistency.

Faghani refs so differently from just about all other refs and that is a problem. Players are used to a reasonably consistent level of officiating, and then Faghani comes along and doesn't observe the usual levels. He ignores all fouls until the players start getting lippy and then the cards come out.

One or two clubs are aware of this and are better at getting the best of the Faghani whim... others are less adept and tend to be on the wrong side. That should not be allowed to happen.

If you're not 'part of the seething mob' your membership is awaiting approval. (winkingemoji.jpg)

Read the underlined bit first and then read the bolded bit above.

Does that square with what you've just written? (And, you don't even follow either of these teams.)


Your penultimate paragraph might (might not though) explain a few things. Maybe he'd had a gutful by then. Maybe in all the hub bub he didn't hear the whistle from the crowd and said 'fuck this bloke, have a slice of cheese'.

Maybe, and this is wild, maybe he made a mistake?

Well happily for you Faghani has not been appointed for the GF. 

I've just read on FB that Alex King is doing the centre for the GF. You'll not be surprised when I tell you out of the dozens of comments about his appointment 95% are less than complimentary with a fair few flat out abusive.

Yay! 

It does sit square with me.

Fairness is a strong motivator for me personally and when I see something so blatantly unfair it sits in my head. I am not thinking nasty or aggressive thoughts about Faghani though. Until that game I actually had a lot of respect for him and his judgement including his positive action in cutting out bullshit backchat. I know that sometimes what I would consider reasonable emotional outbursts resulted in cards and I accept that given my dislike of the ref swarming tactics of 'entitled' players.

But the card to Doka was a purely authoritarian or emotional outburst from someone paid to think first. He could have asked why Doka kicked the ball away and still issued a card - I would hope he would have seen sense though.

I know that next time I see an apparently authoritarian reaction from Faghani it will accumulate in my memory. Whether I am being unfair being influenced by a single incident like that - I accept it could be considered somewhat hypocritical.

Well it's gonna be wonderful. CCM home ground only holds 20,000 seats.

Will be a record grand final. Record crows. Record money made. Record tv ratings too 

I would argue that is largely due to Popa-ball (which is why I want him gone, irrespective of what happens on Saturday). But our defence has been really solid in recent weeks. Plus CCM don't have the avenues to goal as they once did. Of course, we need to find a way to score ourselves and that's why I am putting the blowtorch on Bruno. If he fires, we win. But I wouldn't be expecting an avalanche of goals on Saturday. 1 goal will probably decide it. 

The other day I held the whistle for a girls u10 game

Don't want to sound like a hero but I am not small, I have tattoos and I have trained kickboxing all my life and pretty much look like it. Point is I still had idiots who were just AFL parents and a coach who was an AFL guy arguing with everything. As if I cared or were cheating fro one side, I bit my tongue despite my natural instincts. 

If I have people willing to shout out at me, I can only imagine what poor kids or others have to deal with. People are unhinged. 

So maybe he had a bad day.

And now because of this one 'bad' game (in your opinion) you've lost respect for him as an official.

I'm not trying to pick on you, you're not the only bloke that thinks like this. There's literally thousands banging away at their keyboards after every match.

When I first started reffing I was doing an AR and copping a shitload from these fuckwits near me. Like a fool I had a crack back. As soon as they knew they were in my head they didn't let up.

Long story short I got a phone call from the head of the referees for my area a couple of days later and he goes 'did you challenge a supporter to a fight in that match you did on the weekend?'

The fuckers had put a complaint in. Hahahaha whoops.

Sheepishly I had to admit I did, there were plenty of witnesses so it wasn't like it was he said, she said. Told him my story and he goes 'you can't do that' and I'm like yeah, yeah, they got inside my head, blah blah, super apologetic.

The only thing that saved me from getting a formal sanction was I knew the president of the club I was at and he told the committee to not make it a formal complaint.

Anyway after that I just laugh at peanut supporters now. The level of ignorance about the game and the laws from the commentary that goes on behind you makes it tough not to say something though.  

Muzza, I go back to the times of the past, play to the whistle, what goes around comes around, no one is perfect players or officials.
Allow the rope till you need to set the boundaries, thats all I liek to see officials impose.
I like a bit of biffo, allow it till the one is OTT after having been warned.
Bad calls - wrong calls, I just move on who cares, thats the game, well the game of the past and the way I see it now.
Too many people/supporters take it too seriously, like stoopid VAR, get over it, its a game afterall.
Like SM etcetc people have too much to say, stfu, play on.
You win some you lose, yes due to officials or not, nothing new here.

ha hah awesome 

But yeah as for not knowing the rules, this carnt actually came on the pitch to argue against a penalty, I said it's not a penalty, I gave a free kick 'What for?' "cause she kicked her when she didn't have the ball" "oh, I didn't see it"  

Idiot

At an under 10s match they came onto the field? That's nuts. 

Now imagine a 15 year old kid reffing his first year getting screamed at by adults. That's why there's a 40% churn rate for first year refs. A couple of months of that and they're 'fuck this'.

Some idiot came onto the pitch to remonstrate?

Surely someone filmed it. Life time ban in my book.

I am not feeling attacked or picked on - just happily comparing my views from the stands with your respected opinions from the blood and sweat/pea in the pipe end.

I have never booed a ref coming off the pitch and wouldn't. I respect the officials - but I believe I have the right to question their judgement at times. That is why I post comments about officials. Sometimes I learn I have it wrong. Other times I have my concerns confirmed. Normally that ends the discussion and on to the next game. But sometimes a series of incidents or games show multiple unexpected decisions and that becomes a trend just the same as a player making several mistakes accumulates to change your opinion of that person as a player.

It is an impossible job. No question. Being an official and automatically being given respect is a given from me. Nothing in that gives automatic acceptance of decisions made though. I do not disrespect Faghani in his position one bit. I have lost a bit of respect for his judgement.

Some poor decisions by officials deserve follow up action - same as some poor decisions by players or coaches warrant it.

Go on.....

What is sufficient punishment for a couple of SUBJECTIVE calls that YOU THINK were wrong when you weren't standing where he was standing, listening to what he was listening to, seeing what he was seeing, that all happened faster than you can imagine when you're actually there at close quarters?

Referees are dropped for bad performances. I don't understand what people want here. A stint in the stocks in the town square, a remorseful public apology, self flagellation? 

One other thing.  The bloke we all love, Ange, never pisses and moans about refs. (Or if he does it's very rarely. )

Never blames them for their losses.

Maybe Australian football fans could be a bit more like Ange?

Was never averse to a complaint in the A League and has complained a number of times this season- - the one that comes to mind was against Everton  Ange is no saint and he has never claimed to be 

As a parent I of an U13 player once had to step in forcefully to protect a 15 year old ref from abuse and physical intimidation from there parents of my sons team mates. The way grown adults behave at kids football matches can be a disgraceful. 

I did not explain myself well enough so I can understand your response.

I was referring in general to decisions/poor performances by officials needing action/review. It was a conclusion in general and not specific to Faghani. That action could take any form and I know that there is some review after matches anyway - as you say with some referees dropped after bad performances. My point there was that it is an appropriate and understandable thing for fans to question and discuss the decisions in the game that they feel aggrieved by, and there is a need for something to be done when there is a lesson to be learned. 'Mistakes' of a significant nature that follow a pattern over a number of games are no longer mistakes if there was an opportunity to improve (again a general conclusion).

Showing respect to an official does not mean liking their decisions or agreeing with them - just recognising that they are doing a tough job and bearing that in mind when calling out what we as individuals see as clangers - along the lines of 'I know their job is tough and appreciate that they do it - but he fked up there'. No show of disrespect in that in my head. Games can turn on those decisions especially if there is a card involved. Would you expect invested people to just pass it off without comment?

At this level I expect less emotional responses and more composure from officials. In my eyes that is not too much to ask.

For Faghani, I would love to think he might rewatch the game or the incidents, recognise how his action in the moment was not right for the circumstances and let Doka at least know that he had not heard any whistle and it appeared like Doka had just booted the ball in frustration. I can't see that happening but at the least I would expect someone to suggest to Faghani that in a situation like that he might take more time to consider or chat to the player involved before whipping the card out.

If nothing more is said on the Doka card within the system itself I think the refereeing system has dropped the ball. I don't expect any such discussion/review to be made public, but that is the risk of keeping it in-house. It means that because we hear no more, fans like me will make sure that there is some mention of it on forums like ours because it does deserve to be mentioned. As they say in the UK 'See it. Say it. Sorted'.

To go way back - when Marrone was red carded for 'tackling' that prick of a ball boy, that was a moment that struck me as disgustingly unfair and has stayed with me. I could not tell you who the ref was that day - I have not kept them in my head as a bad individual - but the decision still lives in my memory as one of the worst unfair moments I have seen in football. Doka's card is not in that realm by any stretch but it does sit in the 'really bloody unfair' box and that is how my head works.

I am not calling for Faghani to be dropped. I think he is a good referee. I am saying it is reasonable to draw attention to any howlers I see because that is something worth discussing on a football website that involves discussing moments of note in any game.

So apparently Arzani is not suspended for the GF.
Not entirely sure how/when those rules apply, but according to a FA official "A-Leagues Disciplinary Regulations, players cannot accrue enough yellow cards in the A-League Men or Women's Final Series to be suspended for any Finals Series matches." (source: Joey Lynch twitter).
Does anyone have any confirmation either way?
A-Leagues twitter has also been using him as part of their GF social media promos "eg: Catch Arzani in action this Saturday GF".

I think the issue is, we only have the FA's last published copy of the disciplinary regulations available publicly - under this, 3 yellows during the finals would be a suspension.

APL has obviously changed something - might just be that yellow cards wipe clean at the finals series (but suspensions carry over if applicable) - and not published these regulations.

There was a handball very similar to Balard's last night. No VAR of course - but the commentators all said that should be no penalty as his arm was in a normal position (as was Balard's). Just shows that the commentary is based on the team not the LOTG.

so apparently CCM have added 4 stalls of temp seating at the sauce bottles end. Good idea in theory, but i don't think they'll fit more than 150-200 people. They could/should have planned this better with the knowledge they have known for 2-3 weeks the GF was likely to be in Gosford. 

mate its gosford, sleepy hollows, one day at a time, they are going to speed :)

Born in Greece you mean? :P

You have to admit it's great to see such small club in this position.

So much better than the boring EPL, where You could've predicted the top 3 at the start of the season, money has ruined the PL.