Someone has to do the cup finals, it can't be someone who's done it before and they can't give all the cup finals, play off games and "big 6" games to the same refs. And it's also pretty clear that the FA has and continues to have their preferred refs - you can quote all the marks and good/bad games you like, MO and AT are now locked in as the go-to officials when a steady hand is needed and I don't see that changing any time soon. Yes they've earnt their place and deserve some grace for the odd bad game, but it still impedes the pathway to the very top for others.
Agree completely that in a fictional future world, it would be great if repeated poor marks resulting in a referee being "encouraged" to retire and make space. But in reality that hasn't happened - rather, referees like John Moss are hounded out by the media for what they consider poor decisions based on their understanding of poor positioning based on an appearance of poor fitness. That for me is the biggest factor currently pressurising PL referees decision making, and is exactly why I think they will err on the side of caution (
) when having to make an unsighted decision.
Regardless, it's still I think pretty naïve to think that VAR won't factor into a decision, particularly for this which is arguably the nastiest SFP I've seen all year. You're maybe unsighted to the exact point of impact, but will still have a pretty good idea of force and likely impact from the way the player ran in. Your other officials are unsighted and can't help, but there's a big roar from the crowd and you know you need to make a call. I think (hope) that even if you don't see the point of contact, most of our refereeing instinct will be screaming that it's a bad one and will be thinking red - but an experienced PL official has gone for yellow. I wonder why?