Patrick.Bateman

Sliming the Referee

I’ve a question. Sometimes I can make a comment on the referee his weird ruling in a past game.

In the past, most of the time I fought his opinion and sooner or later I was fined or sand to the tribunes.
Which is IMHO weird anyway, just for disagreeing politely, I receive the death penalty.

But that’s not the issue.

Lately I just tried something different and used some basic psychology.

Now I always agree with the referee, even if I think he’s a dog, I still agree.

And now it seems that the referees like me and rule in my favour. I receive fewer penalties against my team and I gain more penalties for them. Dubious ruling is lowered and mostly they are choosing my side.

Now, is this just an impression or is it real and do you have the same experience?

glamdring

I've stopped responding to questions about the referee now. It's a bit of a crap shoot whether you are right or not when you disagree with him since in many cases you can't see on the replay whether it was a foul or not.

Like you I would eventually get sent to the stands every once in a while, but if I agree with the referee (and sometimes when I don't) my players often don't like it so the neutral option seems best.

As for your observations I'd say it is just coincidence - there is no control case so it is impossible to make any connection without knowledge of the actual code.

Patrick.Bateman

I can't touch the source code. I could ask SI, but I don't think they'll allow me.

The other solution is asking people here. If a significant share is having the same feeling, then the feeling becomes more and more reality.

Maybe SI is playing games with us and is this just a kind of key like in an adventure game?

Look at this ‘Referee is ruling dubious’ issue:

•Or you disagree and sooner or later you’re fined and punished. So, not good.
•Or you ignore and nothing seems to happen. No good or bad.
•Or you agree and something else should happen. Good maybe?

Why would SI offer you a choice that doesn’t have any effect? It should have and I think it is.

Maybe SI people can answer my 1 million dollar question?

DJW1979

As a rugby man at hear I have a morale aversion to criticising referees so always support the refs decision, either way. I beat Brazil in the semi of the world cup with a pen in the 119th min... I like refs...

glamdring

Mebee...I'm a mathematician though. I like facts and controlled experiments rather than juping to spurious conclusions from biased empirical "data" presented by random people :p

Patrick.Bateman

Yes I agree. As a human being I'm rather polite to everyone. Even against dumb or rude people.
I stay calm and ignore how they behave.

However as a manager I mimic the behavior of the IRL manager and moan about referees.

But it didn’t make any sense.

It started me thinking, if I act rude and disagree all the time with some fellow then he would hate me.
But if I am polite and agree all the time then odds are high he’ll consider me as a friend or at least as a nice person.

If I’m his friend or if he thinks I’m a nice person he’ll do favors for me. No?

Patrick.Bateman

Mebee...I'm a mathematician though. I like facts and controlled experiments rather than juping to spurious conclusions from biased empirical "data" presented by random people :p </BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi glamdring,

Yes I agree that's even better: don't trust people !

Can you arrange such an experiment for me?

glamdring

To be honest I always tend to assume that my player who gets sent off or commits a foul or whatever is just a useless reprobate who would have turned to a life of crime had he not managed to have some level of footballing skill to carve out a career for himself. So I shout and swear at my computer screen as the player in question trudges off for an early bath. Doesn't stop me from also criticising the referee often though too.

Like you I am a study in politeness in real life though, away from the corrupting influence of imaginary football management

glamdring

'fraid not. That's what I meant in my initial response that you can never get a controlled experiement because there are so many random variables involved in everything!

Patrick.Bateman

I agree and that’s why there are 2 solutions:

•SI people clear this one out. Please, I’m nice and I’ll buy FM09.

•Or we experiment all together and share our feelings. If most of us say ‘yes, it is like that’ then I know it’s not 100% safe. By instance tons of people buy music from Britney Spears. That wouldn’t say her songs are good. Or look at politics, in the last US elections a majority voted for some nice man called Bush. That doesn’t mean he was the best candidate around. Etc…