BREAKING: Lee Mason will no longer be the fourth official for Sheffield United vs Liverpool tonight due to an 'injury' picked up in the West Brom Brighton game. Did Dunk jump him afterwards or something?
I really don't know if our refs are inferior to those of other countries. It seems to be the general opinion, but I have read fans of other leagues making similar complaints about their officials. However, if we assume it is true then it surely isn't that difficult to fix? What others can do, so can we. The refs need to be trained to the highest standard, and subject to regular performance evaluation by a body independent of their own cosy little club. They need to be accountable for their more controversial decisions and perhaps made to explain them in post-match gatherings. Refs are human and make mistakes - if they were more open to admitting that then people may be more understanding and less hostile. Errors of judgement are excusable, but an incomplete understanding of the laws is not. Of course the law-makers are currently responsible for this, as they keep changing them every five minutes to justify their imposition of VAR.
Towards the end of the game he looked ****ed and couldn’t keep up with play. Thought he was just knackered and unfit. If he was injured then fair enough. But convenient that after all the headlines he’s been taking out firing line due to ‘injury’ rather than peformance.
lols. "injury" Unless he's in traction i fail to see who he can't sit in a room and pretend to twiddle nobs to diddle a side out of a pen for his mate.
Oh and about him "being injured" in game. It is his RESPONSIBLITY to use the 4th offical to ref the game if he cannot continue. limping orund unbale to "keep up" is totally unacceptable.
I think you've hit on the fix there. I think personally they should be live miked and have to press the button and call out exactly what they have seen. I would like to see this backgorund VAR done away with. If a ball goes in a net then press the mike and say "any reason not to award this goal" to signal clearly it was a goal. then the lino should keep his flag down and only then should clear and obvious come into play. Same for pen shouts. Let he game continue ala rugby and when it goes out then review, say what you saw and your decision clearly and send the offical off to view. If you have given the pan still state what you saw and your decision. for red card incidents again, state it and review. should only be 10seconds. Let the world hear every word the VAR offical then states. none of this is rocket science. It is a total reluctance to hear a ref speak imo. With 6 months of exmpaling decisions publically the world would start to follow the reasoning along. You'd be amazed how quickly the vast majority now understand head shots in rugby. HOWEVER, it would help if the broadcasters would actually get in line as well and push correct reasoning rather than populist commentary. If a ref stated "ball to arm, decision is no penalty" and a quick replay shows the arm moving to the ball, then klet the VAR offical state back he's got it wrong hand to ball and ask to review. my final comment is refs should be instructed clearly that if they blow up while a ball is in the danger zone like mason did and i think we've seen 3 or 4 other instances that they will lose out of reffing major games. the only way to weed out incompetance is to use the top games as punishment. Only those who dont make mistakes should be allowed ref in the cups and europe etc etc. IMO blowing up too soon is incompetance. yes if you see foul play but you have to be seeing the bigger picture as well.
4th official or var? 4th official is very different gig and should be fit to go in if needed. Var is just a diddle.
