There is bias, somehow the referees and the TV folk that set the fixture list need to somehow make it fairer, that's all we want. Fitzy I'm sure you'd agree.
The first quick fix is to have proper technicians running VAR, not other referees that don't want to undermine colleagues.
Lets also have out of play technology extended to the field of play, they can do it already.
finally let's stop the referees flying first class on Etihad to moonlight overseas, it's such an obvious one, the optics are terrible and wouldn't be allowed in most other business settings.
Oh yea and the 12:30 kickoffs after international travel etc, just make it fairer across the 20 clubs rather than us gettin > 80% as it is right now.
Quite simple really in my opinion
(Also give us a break on the Manc refs, there are fucking loads)
This is a good post and I agree that those basic things being done would help nip these conspiracy theories in the bud very quickly. The refs being flown to the middle east in particular was an awful look IMO given the state ownership of two premier league clubs. That's a genuine direct conflict of interest and shouldn't be tolerated. Has that happened again since or was it a one-off?
My overall opinion on it though is that we are clouded by bias here and I agree totally with the sentiments of the OP. What best sums it up for me is the apparent grown up explanation of it, that it's not an out and out conspiracy it's just everyone's biased against us. Yet I also keep seeing people linking to Paul Tomkins article and citing it as definitive proof, as if Tomkins doesn't have any bias at all and indeed anything to gain from thousands of Liverpool fans clicking his links and reading his articles.
We are the biased ones here, as Liverpool fans. The same as Tottenham are utterly convinced there's a conspiracy against them, Arsenal too, basically every club outside the top six, as Man City were the year they didn't win it, as Everton are.
We tend to remember every decision that goes against us and forget or brush over the ones that went out way. Yeah we had that decision but we won 4-0 anyway so it doesn't matter. I'm guilty of it myself. We get so caught up in that feeling of being robbed that we hang to everything that seems to back it up.
The Rodri handball pisses me off so much that every time I see an image of it I have to instantly scroll past. However, in the home game at Anfield that season I think it was Milder who blatantly should've been sent off, and then we went 2-1 up a few minutes later. The ref that day was Paul Tierney, interestingly. In an alternate universe where we then hang on to those 3 points and win the league, regardless of the Rodri handball, City fans are still talking today about the red card that never was and the title they had stolen from them. You can also go back to the year we won the league, and the crucial game against City at Anfield where Trent handballed it in our penalty area, nothing was given and then we instantly scored at the other end. We all, myself included, laugh our heads off at Peps meltdown that day but it falls firmly into the category of things we'd be furious about if they had gone against us.
I also think there's probably a bit of an unfair view in refs and their professionalism. Just because they're from Manchester doesn't mean they will automatically favour Manchester clubs. In fact you can guarantee if we suddenly had refs from Liverpool we'd all be claiming they were blues out to get us. But the wider thing for me on the refs is that they've made it to the top of their profession and I have no doubt that they want to be the best, they want to referee champions league finals and world cup finals, they have to have that drive to make the abuse they get every week worth it. We don't look at players and think oh he was born in London of course he's not going to want to play well for Liverpool, or he isn't going to bother trying when he plays against Arsenal, etc. The fact is that Greater Manchester is one of the hotbeds of football around the country and you would expect there to be a share of refs from there.
Once football becomes your livelihood I think those biases that normal people may have ingrained in them very quickly disappear. Carragher managed to go from being a blue to a red, as did a few others, unthinkable to fans but possible for those involved in the game.
At the end of the day we are one of the most disliked clubs in the country, the flip side is we are also one of the two most loved. There's probably refs born in London who grew up supporting us, refs born in Newcastle who grew up hating us and everything in between. We are a powerhouse of the game and have far more influence than most clubs can dream of. We've got pundits in studios who played hundreds of games for us, newspaper columnists who idolised us, ex players and board members in prominent positions in the footballing governing bodies, we helped create the Premier League, helped push for a Super League, we're one of the big beasts of the game, not some small club getting bullied by the Mancs. We have power and influence everywhere which is why fans of every other team would laugh at the suggestion that everything is bent against us.
