No need to jump to conclusions. It’s not a conspiracy theory. At least I don’t believe the referees set out deliberately to “fix” the game. I am suggesting maybe it’s something that weighs on their minds. For example, some referees may not give a second yellow and a red upon the player committing a second yellow card offence because they might try to keep the game a contest. I don’t think others are out to get us intentionally.
when you said 'and they seemed to be fiddling with the lines to make him off' - that's kind of in 'fixing' territory wouldn't you say, maybe you didn't mean to word it that way but that is literally 'fixing' a decision if that were the case.
anyway, i get what you're saying above, personally i dont think 'keep it a contest' remotely enters their mind, because that isn't in their criteria for standard of work and ultimately they are judged by their decisions and control of the game and if their superiors judge them as dogshit, they aint getting the big games domestically or in europe/world cup (and we've seen demotions to lower leagues for refs that have had howlers)
i think the vast majority of refs (all?) simply want to get it right and as in all work arenas, some are better than others
VAR. where there are still some judgement calls to a degree, you'd hope only a tiny percentage are questionable and if you're the dude doing it, you haven't the excuses of a ref (fast play, positioning etc), we see what you see and if you're crap at that, well, i imagine you wont last long, so i think the dude's doing it are also making honest assessments on a case by case basis - some for sure are debateable (a few plain wrong in my eyes) but i think for the most part they're on track