I partly agree. The main issue for me is them not being enforced 'to keep the game flowing' or similar rubbish. The best way of keeping the game flowing in the long run is to enforce the Laws fully so that breaking them hurts the offending team.
Then you have to play the advantage as in Rugby and let the game flow but be prepared to pull it back for the free kick if there is no real advantage. Some ref's do this a bit, but not all. I know many Spurs fans criticised Anthony Taylor on Saturday, but he is probably the best of the current bunch at doing that. What it needs is a directive to tell all referees to do this. If a team is in possession I've got no problem with playing an advantage for two minutes, then pulling the play back if no real advantage is gained.
How do you apply the laws in that typical situation where a forward and defender are running into the same space to challenge for the ball? There is inevitable physical contact as they run shoulder to shoulder. It's often impossible to judge who's illegally doing the holding off/back and who's trying to prevent being held off/back as they tussle. Has a player legitimately gone down because of a foul or deliberately thrown himself to the floor to gain an unfair advantage? If a defender gets in front of an attacker, can he hold his ground or is he obstructing the attacker? When is a player expected to yield to an opponent or when can he legitimately make physical contact? A challenge by a bigger player on a smaller one is more likely to decided in favour of the smaller one. Often there is an assumption that either the attacker or defender should be entitled to some leeway or special protection depending on which bias you choose to apply to the situation. The laws are not clear and could never be drafted to give clarity in every situation. It will often come down to judgement and interpretation by refs. In many instances, it is not clear whether there has been a foul. Even replays under VAR don't clarify the issue satisfactorily. The Sanchez/Aubameyang incident for the penalty was one of a number of examples this weekend where the decision could be argued either way. Scrutinising the footage for an hour wouldn't provide a conclusive answer. There was contact. Was it acceptable within the laws? Did Sanchez trip him or unfairly knock him off balance? Did Aubameyang deliberately go to ground to gain a penalty? These kind of decisions are debated every week - and that will never change. Accept the limitations of the game and move on.
It would help if there was some feedback as to what thought (if any) went into the big decisions. Was Spurs penalty given through error as to whether Kane was ahead of the last defender or due to correct/incorrect application of Law 11? Did Antony Taylor think that Kane dived/Xhaka won the ball when he scythed him down from behind? What contact does Taylor think knocked Aubamayang to the floor? We're none the wiser on any of it, allowing the next bloke to do as he sees fit and also walk away from the result of another shocking performance. If they explained what they saw/thought they saw/interpreted the rules as....we might all have a chance to understand and they'd have nowhere to hide. The current regime is more secretive than the Masons and it's not working. Plus, I pay his wages......and I vowed that I'd never say that to or about anyone.....
So Dermot Gallagher reads the rule, watches the replays and still gets it wrong: https://www.skysports.com/football/...ncorrect-says-former-referee-dermot-gallagher The foul clearly comes way before Kane makes any attempt to play the ball. Mark Twattenburg says the opposite in his article for The Fail, too. He also points out that Arsenal's penalty, that everyone's moaning should've been retaken, wasn't a bloody foul. There's no consistency because the officials aren't playing from the same ruleset. They don't agree on the basics. It feels like we're playing uphill and then getting slagged off for benefiting from shoddy refs, when the opposite is happening.
The referees should be required to face the media after the match to explain/justify their decisions. At the moment they are in their own little bubble and they don’t care if they get things wrong. Their bosses seem to back them every time. Whatever Dean said to Poch should be madre public for example.
Absolutely. The player is offside if he: plays the ball;. or attempts to play the ball. Those are pretty easily ascertainable actions, especially because solely moving towards the ball is specifically excluded from consideration within the Law, even when it is with the specific and obvious intention of playing the ball. Officials are making it up and have been allowed to get away with it for too long. Time for some accountability.
I honestly think that right now a lot of decisions have to be made on gut instinct, after all the game moves so fast and referees have to make a split second decision based on what they see. This will change with VAR - and while I’m not sure I agree with putting referees up in front of the media, I am certain we should play the ref’s microphone feed into the commentary as we do in rugby, so we know the details of the conversations they are having with fellow officials and their thought process. It would also go some way towards eliminating bad language towards and harassment of referees from players as it’ll be immediately obvious if it happens.
The ****ers are the centre of the piece these days. After the game everyone's talking about Antony '****ing' Taylor. Get Keith Hackett in charge of these twats and get it sorted.
I think the most important word in Law 11 is 'ball'. Playing the 'ball'. Attempting to play the 'ball' and challenging an opponent for the 'ball'. i.e. the ball has to be there. If it is not then nobody can be offside until it arrives. If it is cut out by a defender on the way, nobody can possibly be offside. However, they should ditch the word 'interference', it has too many potential connotations.
How many times have we seen a player in an offside position run towards the ball and he is not flagged until he actually touches it. We have seen instances, where the defender miscontrols the ball and then the 'offside' player then becomes onside as the last touch was from the opposition. VAR will not sort it as even now refs can't decide between themselves. VAR will still be controlled by a bias ref. Why do players who go down in the box, claim a penalty which is not given, not get carded for simulation ( unless they play for Spurs)? Example , twice for Southampton against Man UTD. Sure, I believe both should have been penalties, but if the ref decides they are not and the player is claiming them then surely the ref should see it as an attempt to con him and that should be a yellow.
That picture also shows that another of Gallagher's claims is bollocks. He said the Assistant Referee was out of position. He looks exactly level with the last defender to me. He's got a difficult call though because he can't see Kane through Alderweireld. He would be guessing if he flagged anyone but Toby offside.
True.But if we don't start winning games again those second class citizens will finish above us. That will be our own fault!
There is a serious inconsistency within games that is simply unacceptable. Fon booked for diving v Leicester but the Leicester plsyer gets a a penalty for an almost identical incident. The same is true of tackles etc. It happens in almost all games and is farcical. I have no issue with things being let go off but it has to be evenly applied and it simply is not. The Arsenal keeper was wasting time at every goal kick in the first half on Saturday. At around 35-40mins the ref stopped play after giving him 3 or 4 hurry up warnings, ran to him and lectured him. No card though. The amount of added on time at the end? One minute...there had been a stoppage for the Kane injury and for the goal. What happened to all the time wasting? These may seem little things but they are infuriating for fans who pay money to go. Refereeing standards are piss poor across the board in my view and until this is rectified the suspicion of biased decisions will not only remain but grow.
Employ foreign refs who have no connection with any team. Send our refs to officiate matches in Somalia, Yemen or Syria, simples
And now we go over to Woolwich for comment... please log in to view this image The funniest thing is the Nomads were initially whining it was Rose who did this, as they attempted to Narrative their way out of admitting Torreira got a deserved red card
