But it's Sam Barrott who travels the most between his matches and in the shortest time (Thu to Sun): from home to Genk, then #SUNBRI and finally #NFOFUL... 1240mi or 2000km.
He will take on the on-field role at the end of this journey, so very likely exhausted ๐ฅต
PGMOL should take that into account
If we look at the midweek apps as well, Attwell is on a ๐พ๐๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฟ๐๐ฝ๐น๐ฒ shift: from the FA Cup to the Europa League to #ARSEVE and finally #BREWOL (note that in his FA Cup match, he was again paired with Brentford).
A lot of work for the official who is already the most used this season (75 games).
The refs on a double shift will all have less than 24h rest.
They are:
- #CRYLEE Bramall, Betts, Tierney, C. Taylor
- #MUNAVL Gillett, West
- #NFOFUL Barrott, Smith, Perry, Madley
The shortest is for Bramall and Tierney: just ~15h between the end of #CHENEW and when they're due for #CRYLEE
Regarding repeated appointments and frequency, the odd ones this week are
- Bramall is the on-field ref in #CRYLEE as he was in #LEECRY
- Attwell paired with Everton for the 10th time this season (VAR in #ARSEVE), that's a third of the season with the same official, in any role (so far, 6W 1D 2L)
So, if you're to seek conspiracies, here's one for you: City will have a potentially very favourable on-field referee (and assistant), as well as the most tired team.
Anyhow, more analyses soon
and then
- Howard from London, as VAR in #BREWOL
By the way, West Ham and Brentford both played well over 120' last night in the FA Cup, but West Ham will play the next match on Saturday (v City) while Brentford plays on Monday. Perhaps it would have been more fair to give them a similar rest
Starting with the usual conflicts:
- Taylor in #MUNAVL despite PGMOL's policy against same-city appointments
- Oliver in #WHUMCI, which unfortunately has this constant shadow cast on, because he was sent to officiate in the UAE expensed by City owners (same as assistant Burt, also on this match)
Match officials for the weekend have been announced: www.premierleague.com/en/news/4610...
My analyses will follow.
Way over a month to reach this verdict... ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ
www.thefa.com/news/2026/ma...
It's even more embarrassing for the FA when you read the PDF, because it's no different from most of the previous cases.
See previous threads for more details:
bsky.app/profile/pgmo...
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.
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... ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ
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 โ 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
