That Mirallas tackle

Not even those involved in the incident should be allowed to approach the referee unless invited to do so. But the extra respect for referees needs to be paid for with competence. Making the wrong decision because you act on imperfect data is a "mistake", but seeing the actual incident and then incorrectly applying the rules should be a sackable level of incompetence.

 

Lol is it? The amount of times I see players approaching refs and linos is embarrassing, and it irritates me - no respect for the men in black.

But as you say, real time, video refereeing is the only way to improve this.

 

I don't feel sorry for refs, they volunteer they're not conscripted. If they're not up to the job with all it entails, then they should think twice before signing up for the course!

Only captains are supposed to approach the ref, that's already in the laws, it's ignored though.

 

I think it is believed that overruling a decision made by the ref undermines the "respect the referee" campaign.

I'm mixed with it. On one hand I think it would help the referees as it would take some of the pressure off them to get the decision right straight away knowing action can be taken later. However, that is also a negative because they will bottle all the big decisions as a result.

Edit: I do think retrospective action should be taken for a player approaching the referee though. One game ban for each instance. Sure, we'd see a lot of players missing at first but it would soon hit home. Especially as the clubs won't like that their players are suspended too. I've said this for diving for a long time, if you can 100% confirm it was a dive, ban them for ten games, diving would soon stop as clubs won't be happy!

 

They'd all become Webb clones, a man who avoids controversy & criticism by rarely making a decision that goes against a side in the upper reaches of the league.

Waving play on is much easier than having to worry about the media dissecting a wrongly given penalty, just avoid a decision & the job's easy.

 

The thing with the Mirallas foul though is there was clear evidence that it was an illegal challenge - the stud marks - intentional or not, they were clearly visible and the 'hard decision' was therefore already made.

 

Draconian ****er

 

That's very true, if the stud marks were visible prior to the card coming out

 

probably right, but for me it just makes it worst, as we have incompetent refs as well as governing bodies.

at least if the governing bodies are dealing with it afterwards if a player has got away with something. hopefully the refs on the pitch wont have so much crap to put up with as the player one way or another will get punished.

 

You can't say that Dowd saw the marks before reaching his decision though. Suarez was on the deck 'dying' for ages, & in the interim........*cough* message from the bench *cough*

 

I don't personally think either of those arguments holds much water. It doesn't compromise the authority of a judge or influence their decision if they can be overruled by a higher court, so it shouldn't affect a professional ref either.

 

Retrospective action should be taken more often.

I find it incredible that someone like Miralles cannot be punished further just because he was 'already punished' in the game.

Of course this could/would open up a can of worms but there are some extreme examples which deserve to be punished accordingly.

Also, diving needs to be punished retrospectively. At the moment, there is no deterrent - if you're caught, you get a yellow. If you con the ref, you can buy a penalty. The pros outweighs the con massively.

 

They were.

The stars were nearly visible prior to the card coming out

 

The problem is then, where does it end?

Do the FA review every incorrect decision in every game, every week?

In any case, seeing retribution handed out retrospectively doesn't impact on the game that was played, nor benefit the team that might have been wronged.

 

We hear this comment way too often as well "if it happens in the middle of the pitch it's a free kick"

Load of ****, if it's a foul it's a foul - don't matter where you are.

 

I think it should be applied to the extreme examples i.e. straight red card offences which weren't punished.

You're right in that it won't impact the game that's just played - but it will rightfully punish the offender, rather than let him get off scot free.

 

They do review those though, they just won't touch those where the referee has made a call & then stands by it.

 

I've just re-watched the footage, Dowd stands over Suarez for over a minute, Suarez gets treatment while Dowd looks on, Suarez gets up shows him the marks, limps away with the physio with Dowd watching, Lucas points it out - all the while Dowd is touching his ear piece and waving players away. After all this - nearly 3 minutes - he shows the yellow card. Whatever the physio whispers, the evidence of stud marks are there and seen by him - he decided to ignore it.

 

This is what I was alluding to. We should be able to review this decisions retrospectively.

It's crazy that he cannot be punished accordingly purely because he has already been 'punished'.

 

I've said in the past that maybe we should consider restricting the number of cameras in the ground. Obviously not a great options for us fans but if the pundits etc don't have all the different angles to access a situation then it puts less pressure on the officials too.