Liverpool FC Forum

Didn't realise there was a separate VAR thread. I copy my post and Kazza's reply:

Reg: Howard Webb, the VAR refs and the refs on the field - they're all mates. There's no demarcation between the people nor their roles, they all swap hats and have one golden rule: never disagree with a mate. They need to create a separate structure for VAR and on field refs. German refs VAR our games, our refs VAR their games. VAR and on field refs shouldn't meet eachother, shouldn't know eachother. It's prison guards and prisoners swapping roles once a week.


Kazza: I think that is about it, they back each other up and don’t want to take away a fellow referee’s livelihood, just like they probably all knew Coote was how he was. It’s about accountability though, referees have a duty to referee correctly or they should be replaced by someone that will. When you watch these ex refs on tv defending their mates it’s so transparent and you can see the defensiveness in their face. It took someone seceretly filming Coote then posting it for anyone to have known, I’m sure the refs knew though.

On Coote, we all knew he wasn’t reffing fairly with us, and when we lost because of him the country and fellow supporters  would make fun of anyone that was blaming the ref as whining. As it happens he was not reffing fairly with Liverpool and that is now proven, so those supporters that could see the obvious bias were proven correct. I think we can say about both referees that officiated the City match, Micheal Oliver and Kavanagh are biased against Liverpool, and if not anti Liverpool then certainly pro City.

Reg » Tue Nov 18, 2025 12:10 pm wrote:Didn't realise there was a separate VAR thread. I copy my post and Kazza's reply:

Reg: Howard Webb, the VAR refs and the refs on the field - they're all mates. There's no demarcation between the people nor their roles, they all swap hats and have one golden rule: never disagree with a mate. They need to create a separate structure for VAR and on field refs. German refs VAR our games, our refs VAR their games. VAR and on field refs shouldn't meet eachother, shouldn't know eachother. It's prison guards and prisoners swapping roles once a week.


Kazza: I think that is about it, they back each other up and don’t want to take away a fellow referee’s livelihood, just like they probably all knew Coote was how he was. It’s about accountability though, referees have a duty to referee correctly or they should be replaced by someone that will. When you watch these ex refs on tv defending their mates it’s so transparent and you can see the defensiveness in their face. It took someone seceretly filming Coote then posting it for anyone to have known, I’m sure the refs knew though.

On Coote, we all knew he wasn’t reffing fairly with us, and when we lost because of him the country and fellow supporters  would make fun of anyone that was blaming the ref as whining. As it happens he was not reffing fairly with Liverpool and that is now proven, so those supporters that could see the obvious bias were proven correct. I think we can say about both referees that officiated the City match, Micheal Oliver and Kavanagh are biased against Liverpool, and if not anti Liverpool then certainly pro City.

Thing is that when they ref against us then they get a lot of stick wherever they go across the country by Liverpool supporters then they probably hate the club more, it’s a vicious cycle. So it may start off supporting City but it soon turns to hating Liverpool. In any case, the team is doing better at sliding down the table by themselves as opposed to anything the refs are doing.

Some god awful decisions on pens in the past two fixtures in the CL. I've been critical of English refs in the past, mostly because I suspected corruption favouring Man City, but the inconsistency and subsequent confusion created by the CL refs and VAR is really jarring. They seem quite incompetent truth be told.