Has Football become farcical?

Slot and Pep must be tearing their hair out

*become?

Exactly.  Once it sold out to TV it was all downhill.  This is a FIFA forced shambles long in the making.

enough to make pip spit

enough to make pip spit

Been farcical for years at the top level.

VAR the icing on the cake.

VAR and the multitude of multi phase rulings have done so.Horatio

What ye talking about its betball not football you could n t get a bet on a team in the 80s

The short answer is yes.
I dont think i have seen a penalty given that I would describe as 'stonewall' since 2017.

You know if it wasnt for ref controversies there would be very little to excite anyone. Forwards are more interested in going to ground than scoring goals.
Lots of technically competent players but very few have the freedom of someone like Grealish or Foden to really catch your eye.
No wonder Messi and Ronnie are holding out into their 40s. They are still head and shoulders above almost everyone else.

pro football is now about the money not football .

What Szob did was farcical, took the player out by pulling him back, then claimed he was pulled back looking for a FK. It was a clear red card offence and clear foul by Haaland for the same reason. Bizarre scenario anyone who writes the rules would never contemplate. Correct decision under the rules.

Neville - one of the defining moments of the season- what from 1-2 to 1-3 in the last second with no change of result? Bloke is a moron.

He is.  Simply loves the sound of his own voice.

FYI, Horatio, courtesy of The Chase, there is apparently a Horatio Nelson museum in Monmouth.  If you’re ever passing. 

uptheirons 08 Feb 26 22:49 
VAR and the multitude of multi phase rulings have done so.Horatio


Agreed UTI.....although I am a fan of a league 2 club the Prem was always the best of the best. I have now become to absolutely loathe the league.

Disloyal players who would leave any club for an extra fiver a week. A merry go round or Managers who are up for the sack if they lose 3 games on the spin.

VAR which has ruined every fans joy when their team scores a goal.

Yesterday's last 10 mins was a horrendous watch, even as a neutral.

Give me Non League football or lower league football any day of the week.

LoyalHoncho 09 Feb 26 05:09 
FYI, Horatio, courtesy of The Chase, there is apparently a Horatio Nelson museum in Monmouth.  If you’re ever passing.

I'd be incredibly bored LH

VAR has destroyed football.

What I wonder is what pressures were brought to bear upon FIFA to trial it and then bring it in.  And who brought those pressures?  If we accept that it was football people I.e., club ownerships who simply see £note signs then fair enough, but why do clubs continually vote to keep it, when it is demonstrably flawed and disliked by fans.  Is there anything the fans can do to have it discontinued?  I doubt it.  We’re stuck with it.

Wolverhampton Wanderers proposed to do away with VAR last year,look were they are now????????????
a big stick is being used IMVHO.

Var had to come in after the Frank lampard farce

Some people on here argued against it, very few.

We lost.

It all seemed so simple then, such bowlucks ineptitude would never be seen again. 

Feb 9, 2026 -- 3:23PM, ----you-have-to-laugh--- wrote:

Var had to come in after the Frank lampard farceSome people on here argued against it, very few. We lost.

That was goal line tech which no-one has an issue with.

The problem with VAR is it destroys the spontaneity & the fan experience.

That goal ruled out last week for Villa because the ball was out of play deep in their own half about 10 seconds earlier was horrendous!

I know that wesdag, and you know that.

But it was all bussed in together

... For same good of the game!!!

Like you say, it's actually killing the game by
wrecking spontaneity

I can defend it getting stuff right, but it's far too
intrusive to be supported.

Far better it was gone, or vastly reduced.

wait  until you hear these words from the TV company screening a match.
"WELL,VAR ARE GOING TO TAKE A LOOK AT THAT INCIDENT.SO WE WILL TAKE A QUICK BREAK  AND BE BACK SHORTLY

When the day the ball didnt need to be in the quadrant for a corner the game was finished imo....

I don't get that. Why do players pinch 6 inches when taking a corner. Every player in the league can kick the ball 40 yards and more. Invariably they place the ball outside the quadrant and then kick it too long !

The ball is placed on the quadrant line. It's never been placed inside the line/quadrant. The widest part of the ball is half a ball up from the ground. Once that is over a part of the line it is ok. They practice taking corners and place the ball there when they practice. Nothing wrong with it.

bloke gives a goal away doing a back heel in his 6 yd box
bloke gets himself sent off with 15 secs left 100 yds away from his goal when city had the ball
but lets blame VAR/reffs

My hate for VAR is not the decisions or the time taken, simply it totally destroys the pleasure of celebrating a goal, first thing I think of when a goal is scored is what is wrong with it, offside, foul, hand ball, as I have said many times, championship and lower divisions still have football every week without VAR and they are still going strong.

The "Whole of the Ball" Interpretation: A common, older strict interpretation was that the entire ball had to be within the boundary of the corner arc.

Yep, laws were rewritten end of 1990s iirc

No overhang allowed at school.

Took many a corner with my Kangaroo skin Patrick boots..

I got on the end of them,... Sometimes.

And these stupid hats that afro players are wearing , any law to how high they can be , or is it time to wear top hats for corners

Uefa referees' chief Roberto Rosetti says VAR is becoming too forensic.

"At the end of the season we need to speak about this," Rosetti said.

"Because we cannot go in this direction of microscopic VAR interventions. We love football like it is."