To claim that referees are dishonest is as laughable as it is disgusting, writes IAN LADYMAN. The clubs are the bad guys here

There was a time when the decision made by the bloke with the whistle was final. Sure, he made mistakes. But this was accepted as part of sport, part of life. He made his call and we all went home and had a quiet grumble.

But that was before we started to demand perfection from a frenetically competitive environment that is not remotely set up to sustain it. 

That was before cameras on the goal-line mushroomed to six angles on every different tackle and, inevitably, before red lines were drawn across the pitch by men sitting in car parks in west London dressed in pristine outfits and looking for all the world like boys who haven’t quite been good enough to be picked for the school team.

And now we are here, marooned in a VAR world that has made things worse instead of better. That inane pursuit of perfection has not taken us in that direction and was never going to. Instead it’s shunted us all down a blind alley called chaos that had anarchy and open revolt waiting for us behind the dustbins.

We could make all this about one club and its megalomaniac owner. We could grind Nottingham Forest’s name into the dust and count the days until the inevitable FA charges land on their doorstep. 

But Forest seem quite capable of drawing damaging attention to themselves without any help and, besides, this is not just about them. No, this is about the abysmal sense of entitlement that started to fester among top-flight clubs once we somehow managed to give them the impression that decisions made on the field of play are no longer final but in some shape or form open to debate and negotiation.

This, in short, is what VAR has done. It has taken the power away from the match officials out in the middle of the action. It has encouraged the view that calls made by referees are there to be challenged, changed or clarified. And that was always going to happen. The very culture and essence of how a decision is made has been fundamentally changed by technology that was supposed to lead us into some kind of sporting nirvana.

Forest have embarrassed themselves, for sure. A great club is being recklessly steered by its owner Evangelos Marinakis.

But they are not the first to tread this undignified path this season. Liverpool were the front runners, releasing a statement asking for ‘transparency’ after a VAR cock-up wrongly allowed an on-field call to disallow a Luis Diaz goal at Tottenham to stand in September. Then, after November’s defeat at Newcastle, Arsenal followed suit, asking the PGMOL — the Premier League’s refereeing arm —to address standards of officiating. 

The tone was not as confrontational nor accusatory as that struck by Forest after Sunday’s defeat at Everton. But the underlying message was clear, namely that clubs who felt wronged on matchday were no longer prepared to shake themselves down and move on to the next game.

Transparency is the word the clubs use when what they really want is a scapegoat. All of this is an attempt to bully officials and those who represent them into some kind of accountability and ownership of errors that ultimately helps nobody.

Forest were on the wrong end of Anthony Taylor’s decisions on Sunday. The referee and his VAR team had a dreadful day. Two of the three penalty claims were clear. They impacted the course of the game and that is hard to take. But this happens. It’s sport. It was never supposed to be fair.

For Forest to presume bias by VAR official Stuart Attwell before Sunday’s game and to insinuate it publicly in the aftermath was as scandalous a move as I have seen by a Premier League club this season.

Referees are asked to declare club allegiance at the start of every campaign and indeed those of immediate family members. Officials are subsequently not assigned matches involving these teams nor indeed of close geographical rivals. Other factors — such as league positions and the perceived significance of a particular game — are not taken into account and nor should they be.

Our referees and assistants are not perfect and never will be. They must always aim to be better and Sunday at Goodison Park underlined that. But they are professional men and women paid to make honest and unemotional decisions without prejudice. The moment we begin to doubt whether that is happening is the moment the very fabric of what happens up and down the country every weekend begins to fall apart.

I don’t care who our referees support. They are adults. Their performances are monitored and peer-reviewed every step of the way. If they make mistakes, they will be demoted, rested or shunted down the leagues. That’s enough.

PGMOL head Howard Webb, despite his very best of intentions, has not helped matters. By playing VAR conversations on TV shows and standing before cameras explaining the thought processes behind decisions has not satisfied a thirst for disclosure. It’s done the opposite. Now our clubs, managers, players and supporters simply want more. They feel they should be granted such microscopic examination every time something happens on a pitch that they don’t necessary like.

This is the thing about modern football at the highest level. Any expressed desire to serve the good of the game should be viewed with suspicion. Usually it’s a thinly disguised land grab or clumsy grasp for power. It’s driven by self-interest and more often than not as obvious as a ball sitting on a centre spot.

Frankly, the suggestion that our referees are dishonest is as laughable as it is disgusting. Next time you are in a football stadium and wish to know where the cheats are, you’ll find them running around with numbers and names on their back.