Arsenal have released a statement backing Mikel Arteta’s criticism of yesterday’s officiating at St James’ Park.
The Spaniard was left incensed by the decision to allow Newcastle’s winning goal in the 1-0 defeat despite VAR checking for three separate offences in the build-up.
It was decided that there wasn’t comprehensive evidence to rule out Anthony Gordon’s close-range finish even though there were question marks over whether the ball had gone out of play and further decisions to make regarding a possible foul by Joelinton on Gabriel and an offside.
In his post-game press conference, Arteta said VAR’s decision to award the goal was both “a disgrace” and “embarrassing”. He also pointed out the potential long-term damage to Arsenal’s title challenge and called for an improvement in refereeing standards.
In all likelihood, the manager will be hit by a big fine from the authorities. Pre-empting such action, the club pounced to his defence while offering an olive branch to the PGMOL.
“ Arsenal Football Club wholeheartedly supports Mikel Arteta’s post-match comments after yet more unacceptable refereeing and VAR errors on Saturday evening.
“We’d also like to acknowledge the huge effort and performance from our players and travelling supporters at St James’ Park.
“The Premier League is the best league in the world with the best players, coaches and supporters, all of whom deserve better. PGMOL urgently needs to address the standard of officiating and focus on action which moves us all on from retrospective analysis, attempted explanations and apologies.
“We support the ongoing efforts of Chief Refereeing Officer, Howard Webb and would welcome working together to achieve the world-class officiating standards our league demands.”
The Premier League, where hundreds of the best players come from all over the world to display their elite talent in games managed by 12 middle aged men from Manchester
12 bent and incompetent men from Manchester.
This is it right here. It’s not incompetence, it’s actual competence. They know exactly what they’re doing. That’s two absolutely disgraceful decisions against man £ity’s main rivals they have cost definitely 2 and quite possibly 3 points to those rivals. I’m struggling to see how following this league is even worth my time anymore. Fuck these fossil fuel fuck wits, they’re completely fucking out planet, and they can’t even leave us anything to support without their filthy greasy oily fingers leaving stains all over it. The FA and PGMOL are corrupt bent wankers. I mean they’re literally sending their officials… Read more »
Well said, Daveo!!!
Spot on!
And with their fucking abysmal human rights record they should not be allowed within 5000 miles of our football league, managers and owners included!
This has nothing to do with football and I dunno where you’re from mate, but I’d say the human rights records of the UK or US aren’t much better if you look through history or even today.
Kroenke is hardly a saint either.
Who spend their days off taking the Saudi dollar
2nd attempt: We were robbed as usual. They did to me as well when they discovered red card on diaby after joey barton has tackled dear abu two footed from behind and then they discovered penalty on koscielny and erroneous call for corner kick on rosicky. referee was phil dowd an utter c**t of the allerdyce/ferguson axis of ‘in order to beat arsenal you have to kick em’ mantra school of thought. we were 4-0 ahead and it ended 4-4, i remember many people have a go at Arsenal for lack of backbone. Lets face it. had it not been… Read more »
Good point. If we getting the best players why not the best refs in the world?
If the PL brought in the best refs what would a useless cunt like Mike Dean do with himself? He’d be homeless the gormless twat.
I have been a fan of football365 and guardian football but their glee on post the3 game was disappointing
I don’t know why Barry Glendenning dislikes Arsenal, but it’s glaringly obvious on football weekly and his column today was just more of the same, it’s just whataboutism.
Having read only a few sentences into his article it appears to me that Barry is a cunt.
We were robbed as usual. They did to me as well when they discovered red card on diaby after joey barton has tackled dear abu two footed from behind and then they discovered penalty on koscielny and erroneous call for corner kick on rosicky. referee was phil dowd an utter c**t of the allerdyce/ferguson axis of ‘in order to beat arsenal you have to kick em’ mantra school of thought. we were 4-0 ahead and it ended 4-4, i remember many people have a go at Arsenal for lack of backbone. Lets face it. had it not been for the… Read more »
The fact officials from the PL are able to go and work in the Saudi League, while we have a PL club under Saudi ownership, getting huge decisions (two yesterday and one last week) in their favour should spark some discussions, and investigation
Sadly many will laugh and call it sour grapes. The league just put it all down to great drama, and say ‘nothing to see here’
I used to believe there wasn’t any corruption. Maybe I was an idealist. But after yesterday I am a believer. My eyes are open
which active English referees have worked in the Saudi league?
https://theathletic.com/4922732/2023/10/03/referees-var-diaz-liverpool/
Quite right to back him,that was a refereeing shitshow yesterday . Burn going through the back of Saka twice with no punishment , Guimares assaulting people at will with no punishment and the goal…
Now I remembered that world cup game with Japan and Germany so I had a bad feeling about that part,I couldn’t make out where Gordon was so the offside was going to be iffy BUT two hands on Gabriel’s back pushing him not a foul?! FFS.
Agree with all this but we should have scored our own goals. We didn’t get one point we could have gotten in a 0-0 draw not 3 points.
I agree with you but that’s a whole other conversation , I was just commenting on the post. We didn’t create much , partly down to good tactics from Newcastle , partly down to them kicking lumps out of us with impunity .
And partly due to most of our more creative plater being out injured. With Odegaard, Partey and Jesus out, it was unsurprising that Rice and Saliba stood out.
So far, I’ve only seen an image where the whole ball appears outside the line. Unless VAR had some other images to suggest the contrary, I don’t see the reason for not making use of what evidence there is.
Because they WANTED it to be a goal. I mean, there were three situations that should have ruled out the goal in one action, each one of them was at least 75-25 against the goal. The push in the back 💯 – there is no doubt on that. Yet there it is… Oh and of course an assault by bruno that would be worthy of criminal charges if it occurred in public.
Someone mentioned the situation where Martinelly was deemed offside because there were inconclusive evidence he wasn’t offside.
Weird that yesterday there were so many inconclusive factors that they needed three VAR checks and still went ahead with allowing the goal.
The only consistency they should avoid, they don’t – being consistently bad.
It looked that way to me too, but like I said I remembered the goal that way given in the Japan /Germany game and that looked even FURTHER out so I had a bad feeling about it .
The important thing to remember was that it was only 1of the 3 things that could have ruled out the goal.
THIS is why I fucking love this club so much.
My manger, my football club.
COYG
Good to see the club backing the manager on this – hope the injustice fuels a run of good form as we’ve been below par recently.
Well below par in the league. Even our victories have been nowhere near the beautiful football of last season. I said before yesterday game we would need something special from saka and or martinelli. Other than one shot from martinelli that was it. Havertz is so mentally fragile that the odds were stacked against him scoring and nketia is way out of his depth. Saliba and Rice were excellent.
So annoying. When we played beautiful football, people complained we weren’t cynical and practical enough. Now that we absolutely control matches and gradually strangle the opponent out, often scoring a late goal away to win, people continue to moan. The gameplan was simple; give nothing away. Newcastle needed the officials to win this one. So, not below par in the league at all — we out-stated them in the game (which was away, don’t forget) and only lost because the officials governing the match failed to apply the rules of the game evenly and fairly. Focus on the real problem… Read more »
You sound like you have had a few gummie bears 😂. ain’t you the fella who said nketia is a beast and links play, is good in the air, closes down and is a good tackler. Hard to take you serious after comments like that. What colours Monday man 😂
I mean, yeah, gummie bear, Eddie is our leading scorer this season. Scoring a premier league hat trick along the way. He’s only 24 years old, a Hale End graduate, and someone who earns the constant praise of his manager and teammates (including his strike partner, Jesus). He’s missed three big chances alongside Saka, and is sitting in 17th position with those stats in the PL this season — clearly a lot of players ahead of him. I get it that you don’t like Eddie, that you don’t like Havertz, that you don’t like Arteta, and seem to take some… Read more »
Arteta has done amazing, he’s not beyond being critiqued though. After all an arsenal blog would be pretty boring if we didn’t. Put your hands up and admit you got it totally wrong with nketia. Havertz I’m such a long way from being convinced and a close friend of mine who Chelsea fan says this is what you get with him, it won’t get better other than the odd goal. More will be revealed there. But nketia, come on, own it, you’ll feel better. 😜
Leading scorer, mate, leading scorer.
I love fair criticisms, like I love the rules of the game to be applied fairly and evenly from game to game, but I take umbrage with those commentators who relish in piling it on the team or seem to take a joy in attacking the same players or the manager even when we win and perform well. Majorly lacking in Arsenality, that is.
So you criticize the manage just to be a source of differing opinion?
What !! How on earth did you come up with that Sherlock 🤓
I think our upward trajectory should be celebrated, because it looked like we were fading away into nothingness pre Arteta. But nobody is safe from criticism, nor should they be. I have issues with us buying a player who in 3 seasons have not yielded ONE single MVP. In 3 seasons. Thats just dumb. And we got rid of our biggest striking talent since forever, then keep Eddie who cant score to save his life. Mad innit. We love the person, its not about that, he is just not up to the level needed when you line up against the… Read more »
We weren’t very good (although our defense was excellent we really lacked creativity in attack). It’s embarrassing Mikel shouting his mouth off. The refs are shit in most games, this was no different. The Liverpool goal against Spunts was an unusual one as it was a mixup which the refs admitted. In this Newcastle game they should’ve had several more yellows, true, but we didn’t do enough ourselves to win. With Partey, Jesus, Ramsdale and Ode not in the side we really suffer.
Sorry mate but yesterday Havertz showed he’s anything but mentally fragile!…he had the whole of the stadium against him, plus 11 newcastle players, not sure if it was joelinton or wilson that openly threaten him and yet he kept going, within that atmosphere and playing with a yellow card he kept going. Any other player would’ve gone to pieces or collected a second yellow.
I’m not crazy about his signing but he hasnt as bad as people make him out to be.
If you look at him when he gets in front of goal you will see his mental fragility. He worked hard yesterday, could have been a red card, many thought it was and then we play with ten men. He also slid in later as well and got lucky not to get second yellow. I would hold running around and flying into tackles as evidence for mental strength
I even agree with this (and I’ve been critical of Kai). IMO this was havertz best game (still a bit disappointing this is his best), but he was our third best player IMO. and he didn’t shy away from anything. Maybe we werent at our absolute clinical, but we were the better team, clearly IMO. That’s a hostile place to play and they’re a good team (lots of oil money makes sure of that). I thought we played a really strong game and got completely robbed of at least 1pt and maybe three. Bruno should have been sent off in… Read more »
You have to question the impartiality of the officials that they cannot spot the obvious despite the use of technology at their finger tips or is it they are just incompetent
Incompetent. Definitely incompetent.
No definitely corrupt.
An Arsenal should have ran out to Willock, play to the whistle not freeze when you think its out of play
Even so, Gabriel makes that play if not for two hands on his back.
Exactly. Raya was also out of position
This is hilarious from our “fans.” Whether you do everything you should in a game or not, you cannot rely on the rules of the game to be applied evenly and effectively from one game to the next. Every single game in the Premier League is guesswork as to what is a yellow card, what is a red card, what is offside, what is a foul, what is a good goal, what is a disallowed goal. The fact that they do not have the appropriate camera angles at St James’ park to check for whether or not the ball goes… Read more »
It’s not popular to call out Raya, but I’m always worried when he positions himself in the box. He isn’t tall enough to take that stance and he has been just short of cutting a ball out against, City, Spurs and now Newcastle. Two of those three have ended in goals.
Except that he’s absolutely elite statistically at claiming crosses. Miles ahead of Ramsdale in that area of goalkeeping.
Hilarious, I mean Raya is literally in the 97th percentile for claiming crosses in the league this season, similar to other seasons. I guess the data keepers must be making stuff up…
Are u joking? it’s about the most fashionable thing you can do on arseblog, right now, is to call out Raya.
That being said, I have to admit that Ramsdale being replaced by Raya, looks more like the wrong decision week on week.
He’s less than 2 inches shorter than Ramsdale 🤔
Great point 👍 We can’t control the referees but we can our players. I’m sure Arteta gave Ben White a private rollicking for that.
There is a reason why no one has scored against Newcastle at home since August (except for PSG)
Referees have lucrative mid week gig in the Saudi Leagues. They are not going to make bad calls against Newcastle. Those jobs will dry up
Dortmund as well – but I see your point – or conspiracy theory
which active English referees have worked in the Saudi league?
(the UAE and Saudi Arabia are completely different states)
Thanks AusGunner for pointing this out, seems a few on this board are unaware. Also there is only one ‘Saudi league’.
remember bor. dortmund?
Good for Arsenal. To me, the elbow on Jorginho was even more amazing than the goal. There is no nuance to this, no question of interpretation (the foul on Gabriel for the goal was clear to me, but I’m willing to say that although most would see it that way, not *every* neutral observer would agree). But this was–indisputably–not an attempt to play the ball, it was indisputably deliberate contact with the head, it was indisputably not “negligible” force. There is, I suppose a possible dispute about whether it was an elbow or forearm–except that distinction is completely irrelevant according… Read more »
this…it’s not subjective. Corrupt.
Their justification: forearm not elbow 🤣
The PGMOL has taken the joy out of watching football. Week after week after week, they make themselves the talking point. An incompetent and corrupt group. No other organization in the world can consistently deliver such terrible results and still be untouchable. The Premier League needs to get rid of all of them, and clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, and Wolves need to come together on pushing against them.
I have a mate who’s a Wolves fan and they’ve been repeatedly screwed over by VAR – even more than us.
The time the Man U keeper totally missed the ball and smashing their striker in the box. That one was my favorite… A stonecold penalty, totally ignored.
Yes that one against Wolves was an absolute disgrace. A classic Old Trafford advantage for Man U. Remember also the disallowed Martinelli goal at OT when Lee Mason interfered because of a supposed foul by Odegaard on Eriksen. The Brentford equaliser last season that Mason gave despite it being offside. And pardon me for going on but a few seasons ago we had a perfectly good goal ruled out against Palace because a defender had been fouled. WTF?
Refs have no right to complain about abuse. They make way for all of that themselves. Just shut the fuck up and try and do your jobs for a change. Dodgy bent fucking cunts.
Yes, VAR fked us over again, but we only had one shot on target and that was a lame shot from Martinelli really right at pope. We had 11 corners and Newcastle had zero. We really defended well against a solid Newcastle side but we can’t hide the fact that we were awful with creating clear cut chances. Raya is Ospina 2.0, only kicking is better. Let’s bring back Ramsdale for ffs. Nketia, we all love him but he is just not good enough if we want to go against Man City, simple as that. Also without the creativity of… Read more »
If VAR was to work it has to be accurate. In the end it was deliberating over 3 possible infringements to cancel the goal and after long period of time decided they could not make conclusive decision. It was a joke but fair play to Eddie Howe even when he was manager at Bournemouth always set his team to play defensive masterclass. At the end of the day I don’t think we did enough to win this game and although under very controversial decisions we just lost a point and have nice run of fixtures to put things right
Ha ha with the thumbs down I can see some people cannot get things into prospective. We only really dropped 1 point from these bad decisions and Eddie Howe set up his oil backed team playing at home to play defensively. Shame we was unable to break them down. Now let’s forget about this shambles and move on. Crying about it does not help
Yeah let’s move on from this until the next game’s dodgy decisions. And the next and the next after that. Let’s ignore shoddy refereeing until the season is gone so we can move on to the next wasted season of dodgy decisions.
To put things into context here. We did not win 3 points because we simply could not get break down the Newcastle defence. It’s not a surprise we struggled to do that when Partey, Odegaard and Jesus are replaced by Jorghinio, Havertz and Eddie. VAR costs us a point yesterday that’s all. So let’s stop throwing the rattle out the pram and move on to the next game
Ignoring of course that the should have been a player down the whole second half.
VAR and the bent officials keeps costing everyone games and points week in week out. That’s the point.
Agreed. Its now got to the point where things are going to get better without outside intervention. In the end its not down to points dropped, but stopping the bad decisions.
Except if Bruno *the whacker* had been correctly red-carded for his assault on Jorg and they had played the whole second half with 10 (and let’s face it Burn could easily have been off as well for going through the back of Saka twice) so maybe even 9 men I reckon we would have won!
We wouldn’t have won it against 0 Newcastle players. The PGMOL and their VAR mates would have seen to that.
I believe you are completely missing the point my friend. We are completely disillusioned if we close our eyes to the facts that we defended shabbily for their goal and we created nothing. Arteta was too late making changes . I am not arguing that the decisions were not poor but we have a champions League game on Wednesday and must improve. We have been dumped out of one cup and signs of the old shambolic Arsenal are back. I expect more with the money we have invested. People are disillusioned if they think bad results are happening only due… Read more »
I was at the game yesterday. The whole away end was fuming and to cap it off, we then had to endure the tunnel walk out whilst being baited by screaming Geordies calling themselves the “Saudi boys”. It was never a goal, and not much is being made of the handball by Joelinton whilst committing the foul which is also clear rather than potentially subjective. What hasn’t been commented on is the behaviour of Calum Wilson throughout the game, with many off the ball assaults being conducted. I saw at the end when the players were congregating around the centre… Read more »
First of all let me say I have been an Arsenal supporter for over 50 years so I’ve seen it all by now. While I think Arteta is right to call out the performance of the on field officials and VAR personnel in this match and the season as a whole, I do not think he is right to focus everything on the goal. VAR is designed to correct clear and obvious errors. As much as we dislike it none of the three issues could be proven to be a clear and obvious error, the foul being the closest, but… Read more »
Firstly, how can VAR correct clear and obvious errors when they do not have the appropriate camera angles, so we are told, to view the play with any more accuracy than the on-field official? I mean, isn’t that the definition of video assistance? That is patently absurd in an obscenely wealthy league that pretends to measure the highest standards of the game. Laughable. Secondly, the foul on Gabriel is clear as day. They had 2-3 angles of it, and in each case, Joelinton has two handed pushing down on Gabriel, and that is a foul. It is a foul that… Read more »
Agreed about the lack of camera angles, and for what it is worth I do think it is a foul on Gabriel but as I say what constitutes a foul is subjective so clear and obvious error is difficult. Would I have been annoyed if it was the same scenario but Arsenal scoring, and the goal was disallowed for the foul? You bet I would. I also agree we were worth a draw.
I think it is the subjective part of it that VAR is supposed to minimize, and if it is happening on a goal-scoring play, my goodness, get the subjective calls out of it. Two hands on the back? Even Joelinton looked for a moment to acknowledge that the goal wouldn’t stand as he pushed Gabriel to the floor. Remember VAR calling Martinelli’s goal back against United (last season?) because Odegaard won the ball off Eriksen at the halfway line? If that’s a foul, then Joelinton putting two hands on Gabriel’s back and preventing him from contesting the ball in the… Read more »
It’s simple. If Joelinton’s was called a foul. Nothing more would have ever been said about it. Even my Geordie mate acknowledges that was a foul – clear as day.
Havertz missed Longstaff with his challenge, whether that was because he was trying to block the ball or just misplaced, the fact is his leading leg doesn’t make contact.
If you truly believe Jorginho getting a clear whack on the back of his head is not a clear and obvious error or that Joelington pushing Gabriel down WITH TWO HANDS on his back is not clear enough, I suggest you visit your optician.
I accept the subjective nature of the ball in/out decision and the offside but nobody can convince me that those afore mentioned fouls were not clear as day. If the VAR screens couldn’t pick them up, then what the hell were they looking at?
If you read my reply I said I thought it was a foul! The ball in or out and the offsides are not subjective but are matters of fact. Unfortunately the technology was not good enough to prove either so an error couldn’t be proven either.
You’re right, he should be focussing on the goal AND the red card against Bruno. Both are 100% wrong. Ball out of play, looks out, particularly after the Rashford one – 75-25 (give them the benefit), push in the back is 100% a foul. If it was called a foul, not even the Geordies would have complained, handball – clearly hits his arm while he’s pushing Gabriel to the ground, Offside – if you look where the ball hits his arm (80:20) from the shot behind the goal line and then where the ball would be in the cross field… Read more »
Apart from the red he got, I could show you three yellow card ‘tackles’ from Guimares, not including the one he finally got. Two stonewall, one where he blasted the ball into an opponent, and another where he just barged into the back of Jorginho. Also the fact that Burn went through the back of Saka in the first 15 minutes. None of these should have even needed VAR intervention.
AFC and other clubs just need to stand up and publicly reject the apology
Didn’t see the game, but re-watched the incidents. I was flabbergasted, especially by the Bruno arm in back of the head, and how deliberate it was. Often you can find some kind of excuse for the VAR, but in this case there just isn’t any! Even more funny are the pundits trying to cover up saying, “well, he should of been sent of probably, but it’s good for the game, great lad, blabla” – wtf! As for the goal, I find the offside being the least talked of issue. Despite there not being a good camera angle (which I can’t… Read more »
PAYGMOLA
It’s all pointless unless atleast Guimares is retrospectively punished for his multiple off the ball offenses and VAR for the night is stood down for remainder of season. But let’s talk about Saka real quickly – B was most dangerous when he popped all over the pitch few season ago. Last season MA got him more efficient and effective like prime Madrid CR7 – who transformed his game to low involvement, high end product. Saka now is frozen in that right wing with very specific but deadly instructions – unfortunately, this means he’s dependent on people to find him –… Read more »
First thing we should do, hopefully together with other affected clubs, is to take some legal action against PL refs officiating in other leagues. An English ref can gladly ref in Saudi or whereever, but in such case only there and not always switching. It seems some referees might have a conflict of interest with that and we should protect them by having them take a decision. I am not a lawyer, but maybe some strategy could be found to argue that point legally to stop this practice. Bring that before the CAS so PGMOL will have something to think… Read more »
Points deduction incoming…
Hasn’t stopped us winning the title before.
Fuck anyone who has a problem with Arsenal.
FUCK ‘EM.
I don’t understand why the FA don’t get tech firms involved to help sort this shit out. All the players wear GPS vests so use this as a basis for offside. Ball out of play should also be easy to work out. It’s not about replacing referees completely (there are obvs some decisions they’re still required for), but modernising the game in an effective way that protects everyone involved.
goal line tech already exists for literally the same line, just put a buzzer on the assistant ref’s arm in the same way the ref wears one for goal line.
You know why, they like the ambiguity, it gives them power and control of the narrative.
A couple of ideas to look at potential solutions. Watch how Rugby League works with refereeing. A lot of it is really around transparency. Have a separate timekeeper who is controlled by the referee, so everyone knows when the clock is stopped and when the game will end – you see the clock and then a hooter goes off in rugby (I’m not advocating a hooter here by the way). A time clock for throw ins, goalkeepers and free-kicks so if you go over , it gets rescinded or a free-kick is given against you – rugby is 30 seconds,… Read more »
This is bringing unecessary spotlight onto the club
No, it’s showing ‘solidarity.’
Go and look it up in the dictionary.
This is what gets me: The pundits e.g. Carragher say that players make mistakes too. While true, the mistakes we are talking about are from VAR not the real time play which is harder to see. I missed the forearm to the head real time but with replay it is impossible to miss. Based on their explanation they failed the refereeing exam. Two hands pushing Gabriel away from the ball? Also in plain sight and not minor.
The rest were close and frustrating that they went against us. Those two make you think it’s more than incompetence.
The worst thing about the Guimaraes forearms smash on Jorginho was that from what I remember from the commentary, VAR did look at it and did a; ‘nothing to see here; move along.’ Doing that violated one the basic principles of VAR, with the referee making the final decision. They could have said something like: ‘We think there might have been foul play her; take a look. If the ref then think decides a casd is in order, then its his responsibility
I’d rather have no VAR. esp. as we’ve at a point were some fact decisions the VAR room isn’t able to tell. Both the out of play and offside VAR has told ref we don’t know stick with on-field decisions.
I tell you what if the premier league dare to fine Arteta for his comments after yet another pathetically inadequate not fit for purpose VAR performance, we should sue the crap out of them!
It doesn’t matter that we didn’t play that well because, with the exception of Man City, I doubt anyone will win away at Newcastle, it is a very hostile atmosphere. We however deserved a point, and so did they and no more because we did control large parts of the game and stop them from playing. Our defence was excellent, and so was theirs so 0:0 would have been fair. The ball looked out of play, it was certainly as out as Rashford the other week yet the decision is the opposite? For the offside, you can’t really tell as… Read more »
Personally, I would disband PGMOL, sack the whole fucking lot of them and replace them with professionals from countries that have no connections to our teams. Scandinavia, Australia, Japan etc
The club has done well with this statement – PL refereeing has been a dirty political game for a long time, rewarding the most aggressive and well-connected players. This can’t do anything about the last game, but it will have an impact on the coming ones. Any suggestion that we will be ‘targeted’ forgets two things. Firstly, we are already targeted, because our managers don’t simp for the Little Englander “proper football” establishment and because the shareholders – for all their very real faults – don’t embrace outright bribery and self-dealing to the level of others. Secondly, the PGMOL are… Read more »
Use the threat of a SuperLeague to roust these incompetent and/or paid for referees. At least do something useful with that horrible idea.