It’s fair to say that Simon Hooper isn’t the most popular of referees among Liverpool fans after a litany of controversial incidents in Saturday evening’s 2-1 defeat at Tottenham.
He showed red cards to two Reds players in north London, with Curtis Jones walking in the first half and Diogo Jota getting his marching orders after the interval.
The latter was dismissed after collecting two yellow cards, the first of which was wrongly awarded for an apparent trip on Destiny Udogie, with replays showing that the Spurs full-back caught his own leg when breaking upfield.
Within two minutes, the 26-year-old then picked up a second booking for a foul on the same player, an impetuousness which saw him slated by Gary Neville on Sky Sports commentary.
The latter offence wasn’t Jota’s finest moment, but nobody could blame him for being riled by the first yellow card he was shown by Hooper, who’ll cringe when he watches back that incident.
You can see the first booking below, taken from Sky Sports’ match coverage and shared on X by @sportsvi3119:
— Sportsvids (@sportsvi3119) September 30, 2023
England has one if not the worst footballing officials in the world. A big big shame to their referees and VAR officials. Fucking shame that such a good league is laced with the worst officiating decisions. Shame to EPL officials. Little wonder they often get overlooked in international competitions.
Absolutely disgraceful.
So bad the officials looked as though they had been given something for their back pockets by Spuds.
That first yellow by Jota has to be overturned and so no red. An honest ethical Udogie would have told the ref, but this lying creep just rolled around in fake agony….from kicking himself!
Should appeal the first red as well, Jones’s foot was going to where the ball was but the Spud so quickly moved the ball and his foot was there instead, that can happen at their great speed, but that plodding, crap ref wouldn’t appreciate it.
Jota’s first yellow has to be overturned thus no red.
An honest player would get up and tell the ref “I tripped” but this lying cheat didn’t.
When a manager criticises the match officials he is then fined by the FA. Let us see if they can change the decision for Diaz offside to which was now wrong and they should now award the goal to stand. Let us see if they have the balls to be the first to change that decision.
We grew up being proud of EPL, now you sit and witness corruption on display on live TV with EPL refs and you wonder where’s FA? In all this how can they be okay with it? They say a mistake is okay, a second one is acceptable, a third one? you’re a fool, a total disgrace and a complete shame is on display in EPL, so sad!!
Jota touched his foot 1 second before this, which is why he tripped over his own feet. Fair enough if you want to debate the yellow card, but this picture is not the smoking gun you seem to think it is.
Why aren’t Liverpool going to appeal against Jota’s 1st yellow card which was a total nonsense as the spurs player tripped over his own foot.
This is where Howard Webb’s rules are so unhelpful. Jota could have told him he was nowhere near the guy. But he would have been sent off for dissent. A litany of “human errors” and players are not allowed to protest? Does that sound like tyranny? Is tyranny not said to cover corruption? Very sad for football, no matter who you support.
One is bound to wonder whether the officials were making decisions based on what was transpiring in real time on the field of play.
1. VAR showing the referee still pictures in the Jones incident is just like trying to defeat ends of justice.
2. Showing Jota the first yellow means the ref was not following the proceedings in a match he was officiating, because the Spurs man tripped himself by his trailling leg.
3.the ass ref by indicating that Diaz was in an offside position when he genuinely was on side make fans think there was a pre- determined outcome to this particular that was to be nurtured for this particular match.
4. Failure by the VAR to recommunicate the correct position after the brief check means the system that is trusted so much and is insulated from being challenged cannot be left to self -regenerate because there have been ample incidences since its inception to show how VAR is killing soccer.
5. If a match was replayed before based on similar circumstances, why can’t this one be replayed?
*In future investors may turn their backs on the game*
NB. This way