Thommo's perm » Mon Oct 08, 2012 11:11 pm wrote:So you agree that by not awarding him a penalty they are giving the opposition an unfair advantage and therefore cheating? Yes he was wrong to do what he did yesterday, mainly because he looked foolish and it was embarrassing. But hey, we all do stupid things.
What has happened since the season started has nothing whatsoever to do with things being "clear cut" or not. He is being punished by reputation, not actions, and by rights so is the team because referees are chosing to dismiss legitimate claims. These same claims would, by the way, be seen as fair if they came from different players. Pure and blatant bias and discrimination.
Shocking!
On the first point, if you mean the incident against Norwich where he was bundled over in the box then I agree. For me that was a clear pen. We obviously can't say for sure whether his reputation as a diver, a trouble maker, or whatever caused him not to get that decison, but given how much negative media coverage Suarez has received I think it's a fair possibility that it featured in the ref's mind somewhere and may well have influenced his decision. The cynics will perhaps go further and argue that ref's are making a concious effort to punish Suarez, that there is perhaps even an orchestrated campaign against the club to that effect etc. but I don't go along with any of that. Ref's are given a hard enough time as it is without getting themselves involved in conspiracies. I do however think Ref's have to make a concious effort to reach decisions on the basis of the laws of the game alone; that is, independently of a player's reputation, any previous decisions that may lead to a belief that the game needs 'evening up' and the like. Whether that sense of independence is emphasised enough in football I'm not so sure. I often hear players, commentators and people in the game speculate that ref's give certain decisions in order to 'even things up' i.e. having made a dubious call earlier in the game, so it is definitely a concern. As in so many other professions where decisions have to be made strictly on the basis of a set of rules, a strong ethos of independence is needed on the part of those responsible for the application of those rules in order, ultimately, for fairness and certainty to prevail. That's particularly important for ref's in the game of football, where players, managers and fans alike are all seeking to exert influence over decisions which have to be made in a timely fashion.