Right now, Mike Riley is in charge of England officials, Fut 24 Coins  and he was unpopular even for a referee in his own days on the field, which doesnt bode well. It clear referees get sickening amounts of abuse, will always be told they made the wrong call no matter what, and are vastly underpaid compared to the men they share a field with. There are deeper issues here, but it hard to support the referees when they constantly hide behind complex and confusing rules they had a hand in writing (was Murphy foul not clear and obvious? What of Diaz?) and neither Riley nor anyone else from the organisation fronts up and discusses matters the way players and managers do. It seems a little rich that Thomas Tuchel has to answer for the invasion of Ukraine when a referee isnt even expected to answer for a penalty decision.

Riley is something of a throwback figure, and the game has modernised. We have seen this with managers - Mourinho has lost his superpowers. Rafa Benitez, one of the most defensively sound coaches in Premier League history, turned Everton into a sieve. Steve Bruce and Sam Allardyce keep-it-simple-stupid football has been woefully exposed in the modern era. Riley is still teaching keep-it-simple-stupid refereeing. It is still being woefully exposed. Liverpool fans may be somewhat willing to let VAR lack of intervention slide this weekend, given the team won and Diaz was fine. Newcastle fans less so. A few weeks ago Chelsea were on the other end, complaining of unfair offside lines against Liverpool in the League Cup final. It a huge talking point, yet it not in FC at all.

In international tournaments, VAR works significantly better. Part of that is because there is a cluster of elite referees, part of it is because international football is slower, but mostly it because VAR is used correctly. In international tournaments, the VAR only has to think it worth the on-field ref having another look to check what he thinks. In the PL, it has to be a clear and obvious error, meaning go to the monitor is tantamount to you have got it badly wrong.

Since VAR in the PL means correcting your mate, it doesnt happen unless theyre 100 percent sure. With Murphy, for example, the reasoning was that the VAR did not believe there was enough of a shirt pull to warrant him falling to the floor, which may be correct. But these days you need to highlight a foul to stand any chance. Never mind that the ref gave a corner, clearly thinking Chalobah had tackled Murphy, even though he twice made contact with Murphy leg  Cheap FC 24 Coins and never touched the ball. He made an error. Though, because Murphy went down easily, it was deemed to not be a clear and obvious one. Clearly, obviously, VAR is broken. My god though, it entertaining. It needs to be in FC.