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glmuskie's picture

Well we don't know what the ref was thinking, because no one knows what he called.  Which is just idiotic, as many have already pointed out.
Good points about the differences between the Joyce call and the Slovenian call.  You're right, they are not the same.
Let me be clear:  I am not saying there wasn't bias, or that there wasn't malicious intent and forethought.  There may very well have been.
What I take issue with is the assertion that it is 'obvious' that the ref acted with malice and forethought.  That it is a 'given' that the ref was trying to exert influence on the game.  That human error could not have been a factor.
The Joyce call, and the selective attention studies, show the inherent fallibility in human perception.  Those are but 2 examples of something for which there is a mountain of evidence.  People blow red lights because they don't see them.  They remember things that didn't happen.  They see something out of the corner of their eye that's nothing more than a neuron firing or a shadow moving.
Even if this ref is proven to have tried to change the outcome of the game...  It doensn't change the fact that a mistake such as this is well, well within the boundaries of human error.
To be frank I'm surprised that egregiously bad calls like this don't happen more often.

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