what's the point?

I mean honestly, how many bloody times is a goal from distance ruled out for offside?

And by that I mean ruled out for offside by a referee who's linesman hasn't even raised the flag?

We could scrutinise a ton of goals scored from distance, and especially those from corners/freekicks that haven't taken deflections or keeper impaired and find an attacking player offside – whether 'marginal' or not.

The truth is what tends to happen is the goal is given for what it was and the benefit of doubt, if even relevant, shown to the attackers.

If every single pundit and ex-referee has said it's a goal all day long, what on earth was was going through Mike Jones' head today?

That's where crazy ideas of conspiracy come from, especially in situations where the referee has actually gone out of his way to make not only a wrong decision but an incredibly, understandably unpopular one...

 

I think taking away the barrier that we hide referees behind would be a big benefit all round. It would help us to see them as human and accept that humans make mistakes, but I believe it would also help them learn from their mistakes. The first step in learning from mistakes is to acknowledge that you have made a mistake. Managers and players have to face up to the wider world, and at times hold their hands up and admit they got it wrong or that their performances were below where they wanted them to be. If refs had to do this too it would focus their minds on not repeating mistakes, but also help us to understand decisions they have made which often are just interpretations of the circumstances. We wouldn't always agree with them but at least sometimes we might understand them.

 

Very well put.