PGMOL Watch

Thank you!

Meanwhile, the FA have already handed a 1-match ban to Alex Bruce (Saltford's coach), following his abuse in the match against Cheltenham on the 21st of February.
Obviously, this is correct and the expected course of action.

But fans got angry when I said that justice "feels slower" with City...

Still waiting for a final verdict on the charges for misconduct to Rodri (bsky.app/profile/pgmo...).

He made his remarks on the 1st of Feb; the FA announced the charges on the 13th, setting the 18th for any appeal.
Still nothing, and Rodri has been able to play another 6 games, maybe 7 tonight.

Other thing to note, so far, is the territorial conflicts...

- in Wrexham-Chelsea, the VAR is Paul Howard from London
- in Leeds-Norwich (already mentioned above for possible officiating fatigue), the 4th is Thomas Kirk from Yorkshire

In the FA Cup, there are also double shifts for referees also involved in the Championship in the same period: Adam Herczeg, Thomas Kirk, Andrew Kitchen and Josh Smith.
Leeds-Norwich, already "cursed" with error-prone Darren England on the pitch, will have 4th, VAR and aVAR on their double shift.

FA Cup Fifth Round Proper match officials Find out which match officials are taking charge of ties in the Emirates FA Cup fifth round proper in 2025-26

Even when it's only 8 games, PGMOL just can't help it: they had to assign double shifts to referee John Brooks and assistant Con Hatzidakis.
www.thefa.com/news/2026/ma...

The officials for the Sunderland game will be announced after the rearranged Port Vale-Bristol City match tonight

I responded and wrote all this down out of politeness, but a couple of Newcastle fans keep doubting my honesty, clearly based on wrong assumptions.
So I guess I'll leave it here and go on with my analyses

Hopefully it's enough for you to keep following, but if not, so be it.

And by the way, I'm no geek but I suppose there are plenty of tools to find out exactly who I am, if that's all you need.
BlueSky needed to verify my identity as well, so... 🤷🏻‍♂️

This should answer most questions

Then I began to see interest in my opinions as someone with inside experience, on the field and with referees, so I started sharing my views on some match incidents, always quoting the actual rules and not just giving biased replies.
But this is all there is.

Now with my plenty of spare time, I have become passionate about data and had I not played football I would have studied art and design, so I wanted to play with infographics on this account (and I'm terrible at that), thinking it could have been of service somehow and enjoyable for me

I am also getting too old to let trolls or divisiveness affect my mental health. I'm focused on my family and my wellbeing and I haven't even taken on punditry because that's mainly for show and not "healthy".
I have lots of respect for those who can manage, but it's not for me.

On the disallowed replies...
1) I try to be equal: since I can't possibly reply to every comment, I don't allow any
2) I am not here to socialise
3) As proven by your message, it still doesn't prevent anyone from letting me know how they feel about my posts

For example, if I were to disclose that I played for Man United (I haven't), my posts would look tainted and biased, and so would be everyone's reply. Just imagine the comments under my recent posts on Rodri being charged by the FA... Come on...

Same if my behaviour with referees would come out

I'll keep replying to @woltemessi27.bsky.social here because it's not the first time I get comments about the disallowed replies by default, so I need to clarify this for everyone.

First of all, I remain anonymous because there is no reason to let my public image interfere with my posts...

[10/10] As guidance, and from experience, fouls on the GK tend to take precedence because they're a key player in a corner.
So this is a foul that always "wins" among competing decisions (it also happens first).

And that's what I wanted to check before posting.

[9/10] Had Chelsea scored from this corner, this would have likely been checked, and the goal disallowed, also because Sarr goes on with impeding Raya.
But it should have been identified when looking at the handball as well, as part of the whole passage of play.

[8/10] If we roll back another second, we get to the incident I was hoping to clarify with more images.
Unfortunately, this is what's available as of now. But you can see that Sarr is stomping on Raya's foot.
Anywhere else on the pitch this has always resulted in fouls and yellow cards this season

[7/10] As bad as it looks, a non-intervention in such a chaotic phase seems to be the guidance.
From the screenshot above, "players engaged in simultaneous and similar actions – play on is the preferred outcome in most cases".
Here then, England may have been right in not stopping the game.

[6/10] Here specifically:
- Rice>Hato (high impact)
- Hincapie>Chalobah>Timber (soft)
- Gyokeres>Enzo
- Sarr>Raya (high impact)
- Saliba and JP exposing each other's chest

Plenty of room for a decision either way.
However, mutual holding is usually not penalised: www.espn.co.uk/football/sto...

[5/10] But this was not the only officiating mistake in this same corner kick. It's actually the last, as there were other incidents for which England could have stopped the game even before the ball reached Rice's arm.

Starting with the holding.
An offence that was never penalised in either box.

[4/10] Just looking at recent matches, the Carabao Cup semi (above) or yesterday's #LEEMCI, it seems officials aren't too keen on awarding penalties when in doubt.

However, this sort of consistency should not be taken as evidence that the relative decisions were correct. In fact, they weren't

[3/10] Rice's movement is not just a consequence of holding Hato (and I'll get to that), but he deliberately raises his arm when the ball reaches him.
This action should result in a textbook penalty.

Annoyingly, this is an incident for which there seems to be some consistency in the officiating

[2/10] Now, as explained in the rules (see screenshot above), "not every touch of a player’s hand/arm with the ball is an offence" and Rice is not making himself "unnaturally bigger", but, as we see in this video, he "deliberately touches the ball with their arm moving the arm towards the ball"

I was waiting to see if there were other angles or the ref cam but no, not yet, so I'll use the images you may have already seen on MOTD

Starting with the handball.
The exact moment the ball touches Rice's arm, it's above the sleeve so, while not an excuse, it may have fooled the officials
[1/10]

And yet I am 😊
Thanks for sharing, by the way.

Footballers covering their mouths should be sent off - Gianni Infantino Players who cover their mouths when speaking to opponents during confrontations should be sent off, says Gianni Infantino.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...
At this point, I'm not entirely sure he even watches football games, but I'm not going to comment further

Here is something that will be addressed by the new rules for next season, with VAR checks for corners, though it seems that the Premier League intends to opt out despite several other incidents this season 🤷🏻‍♂️
In #ARSCHE, Sanchez touched the ball once before it went completely out.

With a pool of 30 refs to pick from, you may want to leave 3-4 matches between same-club appointments. And refs should really only be paired with the same club a maximum of 7 times in a season (all roles) to ensure fairness. But some are already on 8 or more (i.e Attwell to Everton)

So much went wrong in the first Chelsea corner in #ARSCHE, but I will wait to have the full video to talk about it, because there is also a foul on Raya before we even get to the handball. Hopefully MOTD or other shows will have that

And maybe these too (Cherki in #LEEMCI)...
Man, how I've had my fair share of studs stamped on my legs this way...
Also, the ball here was kicked away to waste time.