One contentious call over the course of 180 minutes of football can be singularly viewed as a maker or breaker.
It can lead to accusations of cheating; 'Robbed' headlines on our back pages; and leave our game's most experienced manager too apoplectic to speak to the press.
So what can be done? What changes can we implement that will in the future see big-match analysis dominated by football and not by referees?
In rugby the gentleman's code is ingrained, whereby the referee is always right, until they're wrong, which it seems is incredibly rare.
Meanwhile, cricket's nuances left itself open to debate every time a borderline decision had to be made until technology came to the aid of umpires.
Now, over the course of a five-day Test match, they're proven correct most of the time, but the avenue of appeal can overturn a controversial decision within minutes to avoid any sense of rough justice.
Football, however, is a different entity altogether.
Jurisdiction
Let's take the Nani case which has been debated verbatim since he was sent off for apparently 'serious foul play' - a decision which Manchester United feel cost them a place in the last eight of the Champions League.
How would video technology of that incident have helped us when here we are almost 24 hours on still debating the rights and wrongs of the decision?
Too much of football comes down to interpretation of the laws, and complications often ensue when officials, under Uefa's jurisdiction, take one view of an incident which might have been seen very differently to a Premier League ref.
But never mind that.
Two blokes in a pub watching the game on TV can come to an entirely opposite conclusion having viewed the same replay evidence over and over again. That's football and we're stuck with it, and that's why it's a national obsession.
On The Footballers' Football Show this week is a man who seems to have spent much of his career fighting injustice from the touch line.
Neil Warnock has much to say on officialdom and we'll put him on the spot about what changes we can introduce to improve our game after the International Football Association Board gave goal-line technology the green light at the weekend.
Former Man United winger Steve Coppell will comment on Wayne Rooney's future at Old Trafford, too, and our very own summariser Alan Smith will discuss the possible impact of Arsenal missing out on next season's Champions League.
Watch The Footballers' Football Show, 10.30pm, Thursday, Sky Sports 2 HD.
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