From the red card of Declan Rice for kicking the ball to Dean Henderson's handball in the FA Cup final, every TV expert and armchair viewer has expressed their opinion about a turbulent season for referees.
But nobody has the authority of Steve Baines, the only man who has played and caught both at a professional level.
Baines started in Nottingham Forest next to the winners of the European Cup and spent 14 years as a reliable defender, played nearly 500 games and received two promotions.
His second career as a referee started in the Chesterfield Sunday League for competition costs of £ 10 and finally graduated from the Football League until his retirement in 2003.
His record of showing only four red cards in eight years indicated a level of man management and common sense that many would say that today is missing.
Baines has viewed a series of controversial and sometimes incomprehensible incidents with bewilderment, either from home or his local team visits, Chesterfield.
With the PGMOL who would like to accelerate more former professionals in the middle, Baines is certain that his experience with playing the game was beneficial.
“Red and yellow cards are there to help control that I didn't have to use too often,” he tells Mail Sport. “I could manage people and had empathy. There were not much that I could not turn around, even if they became furious.
“I pulled a few about it. Michael Brown at Sheffield United went into someone. I called him and he said, “What are you doing.” I replied, “Listen Pal, you can't make a child before the corner. I did that myself!”
'Alex Rae in Sunderland spent a competition with whining and enthusiastic, waving with his arms. I told him that I would put them away and put his ass up! He did a double take and went “oh, okay ref!”
'Now they wave cards like Confetti. That is not a control – that is about “Look at me!”
'Good referees are not really noticed, it is about players entertaining the public.
'Yet at the same time some people still cannot recognize a seriously dangerous tackle. James Tarkowski on Alexis Mac Allister in the Merseyside Derby was a leg snapper. '
Baines is 70 but in an amazing form because of a fitness regime that includes a hundred squats per day and three minutes.
It is no surprise to hear that as a referee he would be Kaalcheste when managers and captains drop their team magazines for competitions.
It was part of his personal presentation and showed how serious he was about his conditioning.
Those who did against someone who had survived the hard schools of Chesterfield, Bradford, Scunthorpe and Walsall.
'We are laughing about it now, but when Nobby (Brian) was Horton's manager of Port Vale, he complained all the game. When he wanted to make a replacement, I told De Lijnman that I would deal with it.
“I walked to Nobby and shouted:” You have twat, go back in your box “. He said I couldn't talk to him so much and I answered, “I just did it!”
“Now you would take the trouble, but that's the football industry. I compare it to the workplace.
“I was a novelty because I was a former player. Sky came for my debut and asked to go up. I said
“No thanks, I want to do more than one game!”
Behind The Tales is a serious point about today's referees. Baines accepts that it is more difficult than ever because players are willing to cheat each other and do something to win.
Last year the PGMOL started a “player to match the official” program with the PFA. Those former professionals who have been accepted from the 120 applicants are already taking the lead on Grassroots games, the list including. Chris Birchaall (ex-Coventry), Liam Trotter (Bolton), Carl Baker (MK down) and Anthony Griffiths (Port Vale).
Those who show construction could agree in the EFL from 2027/28.
Baines does not find support from the referee hierarchy in his time with the authorities cautious to let former players.
'In my third season on the list, my reviews were top level, only one civil servant was better than me, but I was never offered a Premier League match.
'And we all had to retire at 50, luckily that rule disappeared.
'When I left, another referee from our area, Howard Webb, began. He is now the CEO. I tried to help him and I think he took the way I physically cared for myself and took care of myself. '
Today's referees at the top can earn £ 150,000 a year, far away from the Baines era when he worked everywhere for a Swinton Insurance franchise in Mansfield.
His gaming career did not bring a fortune, despite the start of pre-Brian Clough with John Robertson, Tony Woodcock, Martin O'Neill and Viv Anderson, all of whom won the European Cup.
By that time, Baines was in Bradford and jokes: 'They went one way, I went the other! I gave Tony a lift to training because he didn't have a car. '
After reading a newspaper article in icons from the 70s Tommy Smith and Ron “Chopper” Harris about referees, Baines gave it an attempt. He was good and made the competition list in six years, half the average time.
Before a competition in Rochdale, he remembered the chairman that he had once applied for the manager's task there, but was taken over for Jimmy Greenhoff.
“I saw a referee as a challenge. It's like driving. You can succeed, but it is only by doing it that you really learn.
“I had the ability to manage people. I had played against many of the managers I met. I enjoyed it. I laughed. '
There is a photo to support that. When Manchester United Chesterfield played in the testimony of John Duncan, Baines was the referee. After Roy Keane cracked to someone else, he couldn't help find it funny while the United Captain continued to cross.
He sees what has disappeared from that pleasure. “It's an enormous industry and the players don't help themselves,” Baines adds.
'I hear experts talking about buying a penalty, it's just another word to cheat. In that sense I have sympathy for the officials.
'Again, when they talk about minimal contact or VAR, it is nonsense if you have the same people who were sitting there in Stubley soil or where it makes the decisions.
“Some do not recognize what is going on. If I saw players go, it got my goat, but I would laugh at them.
'I was about to see where I could see how long I could go without blowing my whistle. My record was 26 minutes on Maine Road and that was only because someone scored a goal.
“It was beautiful, all fans enjoy the game without interruption, singing Blue Moon.”
When Baines goes to Chesterfield, he hears anecdotal that the man in the middle becomes almost £ 500 for the game. He remembers that he left his house at five in the morning to take the lead over Exeter-Torquay on Boxing Day for less than half.
'Geoff Miller, the former cricket player in England, is a friend of mine and cannot understand why more players have not become referees. Many cricketers are referees and understand all sleds and everything else.
'It is very unlikely that every concept will be a reveee. They deserve too much to start over in the local Saturday and Sunday competitions.
'But things can change for EFL players. It definitely helps to have played the game for referee. I look forward to not being the only one. '