The Most Suspicious Game - Possible Match Fixing? Human Error?

[Chris]

UD Almería seems to have fallen victim to some very suspicious decisions.

Brilliant opening goal by Almeria, it's the perfect start they could have asked for. The 2nd goal was a stunner! Now, to analyse the goal. The keeper played a very good long ball up the field, without the Almería player moving into the space it would have been wasted.

You see the Almería and Real Madrid players briefly clash.

Nothing in it, however, the reason I feel this needs to be pointed out is for a later decision which baffles me. As this could have easily been given a free kick in the defenders favour. Not that I would agree, but I have seen it happen in multiple leagues where the defender is offered the protection.

The penalty for Real Madrid was spot on. It could be considered harsh, but you can't keep your arms out like that when defending a corner.

Almería scored after a very quick break. Bellingham is caught naturally further in the Almería half, but the goal ends up being disallowed. Real Madrid then go on again to score, however, it's obvious that it comes off the arm of Vinícius Jr.

Decision goal stands?!?!

Belling's second goal was offside miles before it happened, why so slow to call it?

A Real Madrid player then clatters an Almería defender, similar to the build up leading to their goal that was disallowed. However, this was a foul and deserved to be issued a yellow card.

In the 98th minute, Real Madrid scored their third of the game and won.

Sensational game? I am sceptical of the decisions as they seem to heavily favour Real Madrid.

 

[Robbie]

We know in this Country that the top six sides are favoured and get all or most of the 50/50 decisions, it is no different in other Countries. In my opinion, TV money, & advertising revenue and Club revenue are all in the mix. What benefit would it be for a lesser side to win when there are so many big interests at stake? There was nothing wrong with Almeria's 3rd goal and it was clearly handball for Real Madrid's 2nd. VAR is killing the game too. It's getting to the point where VAR is actually more of a negative than a positive and it doesn't stop the wrong decisions being made. We are now seeing controversial decisions being made more than ever, and VAR is behind it.

VAR needs scraping apart from goal line technology and reviewing sending off decisions.

 

[Chris]

VAR would actually work if officials used it correctly.

In football, it doesn't quite work well, but it is either human error or something else that tends to make it look worse. Many other sports have a similar system to VAR, such as rugby, and they get most decisions spot on without the need for it.

There's something iffy about the way the referee in these games takes so long to watch the VAR, whilst appearing to have already precluded what actions he's going to take. It might not be match fixing as such, but rather biasedness towards Real Madrid which is an underlining issue that cheats football from its true enjoyment.

[Robbie]

@Chris I see in the international rugby games, you can hear what the ref and VAR officials are saying to each other. I believe football rejected that. I wonder if that was the norm in football it would cut out many of the mistakes.

[Chris]

You should be able to hear the discussions ongoing, as it would bring further transparency and better understanding of the decisions. The issue is, I don't think football likes to be fully transparent for whatever reason.

If you could hear the discussion and make sure whoever controls the VAR relies on their opinion, there's little to go wrong.

[Robbie]

@Chris they could go even go further, in relation to serious foul play resulting in yellow or red cards. Why not give the power to the VAR Ref?

The on field Ref could give the player committing the serious foul play notification that he's on notice while VAR decide if he gets a yellow or red card. 

We've seen players sent off who shouldn't have gone. VAR could be used for both yellow and red cards. This way the play won't be held up while decisions are being made.

[liampie]

how the hand ball was not noticed does seem very corrupt, as does the disallowed goal that was scored to make the game 3-1. the player was caught in the motion of being turned those things happen and unless it was done on purpose which i dont think this was leaves a bit of a bitter taste in the poor decisions. it seems they rely too much on var instead of watching the game.

otherwise the referee and officials are just incompetent.