Re: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season

You are trying to reduce everything to individual episodes (mistakes happen everywhere and against everyone), and I am trying to talk about larger things. If you are not a supporter of conspiracy theories, then you must agree that mistakes are everywhere and that well done who, firstly, was able to take advantage of them, and secondly, created those potential opportunities where they arose - after all, if Real Madrid had not attacked, then 100% there would be no those errors. But Real attacked and looked for their chances. The World Cup and Champions League have more variance (and more error impact) as they are short tournaments with a playoff stage, but things even out in the long run.

You can have your opinion, and that is totally fine, but if we want sports to "may the best win", we need the hawk eye in tennis and the VAR in soccer. The reason is simple because the better the players, the less accurate can referees be. If a player touches the line in tennis dozens of times during a match (and this is what we all want, the maximum limit in quality), a referee will need assistance to make the right decisions. Here we are talking about defending three titles in a row and you can say whatever you want, but this streak of errors being decided in favor of Real Madrid is unprecedented in my opinion and it is not issue if we are talking about a wrong corner or throw in, but we are talking about offside goals, red cards and brutal injuries when Ramos took Salah down like a wrestler. If you call wrestling in soccer "a potential opportunity", so be it. I call an offside goal an offside goal and a red card a red card. It is pretty well known that Casemiro, Pepe and Ramos are among the most brutal players out there. Genius and brutal at the same time.

I don't understand what you are trying to prove. All clubs played under equal conditions (yes, imperfect but the equal) and Real Madrid set a great achievement that no one else could - they won the Champions League three times in a row. All talk about individual episodes or even about a whole "conspiracy" is, as they say, "talking in favor of the poor".

I just don't like it when the "the hand of god" scores a goal in football and people say "same chances for everyone, they could have scored a goal with their hands as well". That is not how I understand competition on the highest level. For me that is competing with each other while being subject to the same rules and abiding to those rules in the same way while being judged by a referee in the same way. That is why a league of 38 games is also different than a competition like a World Cup or the Champions League. Luck (or the lack thereof) usually evens out throughout a season. Privilege (like in the case of Real Madrid) does not. Your argument makes the case that everyone has equal chance in having their breaking the rules behavior go undetected and therefore whoever wins deserves the win, since the other team could also have scored offside goals, circumvent red cards by injuring an opponent's player "the smart way" or scoring a goal with the hand such that the referee doesn't blow the whistle. This still neglects that Real Madrid has more influence on the game and the people behind it than any other club, but still. You say "whoever breaks the rules without getting caught is doing ok because the others could have done the same". I am not that kind of guy and that is why I am a big fan of the VAR and any other measure to reduce shenanigans. Nobody wants to watch an Atletico Madrid game when they have the lead in minute 25 because everyone knows that the game afterwards has nothing to do with soccer as cramps start even in the first half then.