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Beesotted regular contributor, Jim Levack, shares his thoughts on the ‘clear hand-ball outside the box’ incident at Tottenham yesterday and officialdom in general in the Premier League when it comes to Brentford.

I’ll lay my cards on the table here… I’m getting a bit fed up* with Thomas Frank.
He’s the best manager we’ve ever had in the modern era and has presided over football riches we could only have dreamed of.
I’ve shared a few laughs with him and admire his all-encompassing sense of perspective. I love his take that it’s just a game and the negatives are nothing that can’t be cured with hard work, analysis and a glass of red.
But I just wish that sometimes he could ditch his near constant state of hygge – the Danish word for a feeling of coziness and contentment that comes from comfort – for a bit of blood and thunder.
For a man that talks, quite rightly, about fine margins, he’s remarkably reluctant to discuss those same margins being influenced every week by hapless match officials.

For those who complain that I have a downer on referees, you’re probably best to stop reading here and go and get back to the idyllic footballing world where “everything evens out over the course of a season”.
Because it might, but only if you’re a big club.
I have friends who, like me, give up big chunks of their weekend and wages to travel to the Gtech and grounds around the country to watch our team. We wouldn’t have it any other way and always travel in hope.
But when a goalkeeper gets away with his best Harlem Globetrotters impersonation under the nose of a so-called professional referee, I expect him to be held accountable.
Or when a midfielder for a title-winning side ploughs through the back of one of my players leaving him injured for who knows how long, I’d like a reaction.
Is it corruption? Probably not. Is it incompetence mixed with a hint of unconscious bias? Almost certainly.
Yet week after week and appalling game-changing decision after appalling game-changing decision, Thomas refuses to be drawn on the weekly nonsense we see from the arrogant clowns who pass as referees in what is meant to be the best league on the planet.
Even Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou could barely hold back the laughter when he dodged questions about Vicario’s Meadowlark Lemon moment. And because he’s the Spurs boss, the journalists let him get away with it.
Is it Thomas’s job to address these issues head on? Maybe not… he’s got to maintain discipline and focus, but surely we shouldn’t just keep rolling over and letting this happen?
*So relax, I’m not really fed up with Thomas – but surely someone from the club needs to say something or it keeps happening? Maybe they are in internal referee meetings, but that’s no consolation for the fans.
Even after yesterday’s pivotal moment there were supporters on social media advocating Thomas’s school of patience, insisting “never mind, it would only have been a free kick and a yellow”.
I’m sorry. The ball drops to Damsgaard with no keeper in nets and it’s a goal. Vicario denied a goalscoring opportunity and that’s a red. Unless I’m missing something… which I’m not.
Instead, he stays on the pitch and denies Mbeumo and Schade – there’s a huge fine margin right there.
And with VAR now quite rightly not being used for EVERY decision, it wasn’t called on even for the most obvious blunders like this. You couldn’t make it up.
Many fans are now considering whether it’s actually worth travelling to games, if they’re to be decided at the whim of the amateurs in charge.
I use the word ‘amateurs’ advisedly because were Vicario to flap at the ball yards outside his box on a pitch in Gunnersbury Park, he’d never get away with it.
Yet John Brooks, standing feet away, or his linesman, saw nothing wrong. That is quite frankly embarrassing and something that should see him dropped from the Premier League list.
We all know he won’t be – he’ll be back making mistakes or being massively inconsistent at a ground near you very soon.
And with zero scrutiny from the pundits – Gary Lineker completely ignoring the incident to preside over a five-minute ‘love-in’ of James Maddison on what was once a respected football show – it’s only going to get worse.
That is… until fans of the smaller Premier League clubs start to stay away from games and the big guns disappear into the sunset to join a European league.
And before the usual apologists begin to slate me for daring to question this weekly nonsense, here are just a few comments from a few long-standing Bees fans following yesterday’s latest debacle.

“These decisions are taking all the enjoyment out of the game. After 60 years of watching the Bees, I have never been so disillusioned.”
“The officials are instructed to favour the ‘bigger’ team. I am more convinced with every passing week and every appalling decision that this is the case. It’s always been a closed shop ‘old boys’ club. It’s just getting worse.”
“Last week a Man City player takes out Wissa and gets a yellow, and then today’s utter farce with their keeper getting away scot-free. Had any of those incidents been the other way round, our player would have undoubtedly got a red card.”
“We are playing in a blatantly corrupt league. It makes me yearn for the old 3rd division days, when crap refs were crap for both teams. End of rant.”

Meanwhile Thomas admitted Vicario had handled outside the box, but doubled back, insisting “that incident did not define the game”. He was adamant John Brooks “overall had a very good game” – but surely his decision in that moment alone changed the momentum.
I love Thomas and, as I said, he’s arguably the best manager we’ve ever had, but I can’t help feeling he – or maybe one of his team – needs to start calling out this appalling standard of officialdom.
Equally I understand his stance from a club morale perspective and accept that – his words – “we can’t do anything about it. Hey, move on.” But that’s scant comfort for fans who are seeing their team cheated on a regular basis by such poor decisions.
It’s time to call it out… just like the big six managers do for a media only too happy to lap up their every word when it doesn’t go their way.

Jim Levack