The Ref Stop

Celtic - Hearts

Big Cat

Big Cat

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Level 4 Referee
See the offside decision in the Celtic v Heats game for the winning goal
Now this is what gets me. How on earth can an elite AR think the goal scorer was offside? It makes no sense whatsoever

The cynic in me thinks this can't be a mistake. Has the flag gone up to justify VAR? Of course, that statement doesn't add up either. But what conclusion can be reached when none of it makes sense?
I really can't make sense of it
 
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The Ref Stop
Big Cat said:
See the offside decision in the Celtic v Heats game for the winning goal
Now this is what gets me. How on earth can an elite AR think the goal scorer was offside? It makes no sense whatsoever

The cynic in me thinks this can't be a mistake. Has the flag gone up to justify VAR? Of course, that statement doesn't add up either. But what conclusion can be reached when none of it makes sense?
Click to expand...

I think there is little/no chance the AR would have flagged had there not been VAR. However, my personal opinion is that because of the magnitude of the game, for the purpose of transparency his action has ‘activated’ VAR where no one from Herts can really complain about the goal being given. I think it would have been checked anyway as all goals are, but …!
 
DavidObs said:
I think there is little/no chance the AR would have flagged had there not been VAR. However, my personal opinion is that because of the magnitude of the game, for the purpose of transparency his action has ‘activated’ VAR where no one from Herts can really complain about the goal being given. I think it would have been checked anyway as all goals are, but …!
Click to expand...
So your version of events makes more sense than either of mine... but what you're saying is he's made a deliberate mistake...
Whatever happened, there's something very very fishy about it

Of course, there's another theory... I must be a miles better AR than him... because there's zero chance of me making that flavour of mistake
And come on, that theory is completely implausible too. It's gonna keep me awake tonight trying to figure it out
 
DavidObs said:
I think there is little/no chance the AR would have flagged had there not been VAR. However, my personal opinion is that because of the magnitude of the game, for the purpose of transparency his action has ‘activated’ VAR where no one from Herts can really complain about the goal being given. I think it would have been checked anyway as all goals are, but …!
Click to expand...

IMO that is absolute nonsense. ARs are evaluated on their decisions. The idea that an AR at that level deliberately flagged something he didn’t think was OS is fantastical. Even the very best ARs are human. And that means they sometimes make mistakes—sometimes egregious ones. The simple answer is the AR thought it was off and made what he thought was the right call—even if it was hopelessly wrong. There are many reasons why we can blow easy calls from time to time.

There is a famous example in baseball in the U.S. Being a major league umpire is a full time job. One considered among the best was at first base. It was the last inning of the game and the pitcher still had a perfect game.* A routine play at first and he somehow missed it and called the player safe. This was a play that a little league umpire would expect to get right in a 10-year-old game. He just flat out blew it. There was no video review available. After the game he was crushed when he saw the video. When asked about it, the pitcher said something like “heks human. We all make mistakes.” And if I remember correctly, the next day he took the place of the manager to bring out the lineup and hand it to the ump and shake his hand. It was a huge, inexplicable mistake. But they happen.

————-
*For those who don’t know baseball, a perfect game is when the pitcher gets every player on the other team out without anyone getting to first base. They are extremely rare and a big deal. Didn’t change who won the game, but still a big deal for the pitcher involved.
 
Only the linesman will know why he flagged, maybe he just had a brainfart in such an pressurised environment(it possibly one of his biggest games in his career) but wow, just imagine if there was no VAR in Scotland and that happened.
 
Again I come back to the simple fact that pre-VAR officials made mistakes. People seem to have forgotten that there was a reason it was brought in.

There were far bigger offside mistakes than this and by much more experienced ARs. Only needs a momentary lapse of concentration, or a blink at the wrong time, to badly goof up an offside call.
 
Seeing a lot of suggestions that time was or wasn’t up, or no final whistle etc. Remember the referee is the sole timekeeper, so as far as that is concerned, time was up.

Whether anything is affected by the actions of the idiots who attacked players, is of course another matter.
 
Tealeaf said:
Seeing a lot of suggestions that time was or wasn’t up, or no final whistle etc. Remember the referee is the sole timekeeper, so as far as that is concerned, time was up.

Whether anything is affected by the actions of the idiots who attacked players, is of course another matter.
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That may be true but he didnt signal that time was up.
It was extremely clear on all available clocks that a minute was still to be played based on the board that says minimum amount.
They'll have coms recorded so hopefully we will know the truth soon.

Whatever happens, the SFA have not come out of this well at all.
Hearts denied the chance to be at home against Celtic despite being top at the split. This has been the case for recent seasons (not sure how far back).
The officials making mistakes. Yes they can, and have, make mistakes but Hearts have been hurt big time during this split. The non handball for a penalty they should have got against Motherwell i think it was would, if scored, given them 3 points and enough to win the league. The handball midweek was not c&o, given to Celtic, giving them the win to help them further.
All maybe conspiracy theories but it doesnt look good.
 
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It didn't affect the result but surely this cannot be allowed to happen.
Minimum 8 minutes indicated, Celtic score on 7:30. Pitch invaded, game not restarted.
No blame on the officials, what could they do? They and half the Hearts team we seen legging it to the tunnel for safety.
 
Gtclondon said:
It didn't affect the result but surely this cannot be allowed to happen.
Minimum 8 minutes indicated, Celtic score on 7:30. Pitch invaded, game not restarted.
No blame on the officials, what could they do? They and half the Hearts team we seen legging it to the tunnel for safety.
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I think the officials should have taken the players off and restarted the game once ALL the fans were safely back in the stands and the security had gained control. An announcement could have been made that the game will not end until this happens. That would have allowed the security time to restore order and may have helped the Hearts players that were attacked. You just can't allow fans to invade pitches and control how games finish. It sets an awful precidence
 
Big Cat said:
So your version of events makes more sense than either of mine... but what you're saying is he's made a deliberate mistake...
Whatever happened, there's something very very fishy about it

Of course, there's another theory... I must be a miles better AR than him... because there's zero chance of me making that flavour of mistake
And come on, that theory is completely implausible too. It's gonna keep me awake tonight trying to figure it out
Click to expand...

As others have now said/alluded to - it could have been a brain fart moment by an elite AR.
 
BCMilan said:
I think the officials should have taken the players off and restarted the game once ALL the fans were safely back in the stands and the security had gained control. An announcement could have been made that the game will not end until this happens. That would have allowed the security time to restore order and may have helped the Hearts players that were attacked. You just can't allow fans to invade pitches and control how games finish. It sets an awful precidence
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I agree, it sets an awful precedence.
How could you continue in this situation though?
Making attacked Hearts players return to play on knowing full well that stewards would unlikely have any more control at the final whistle.
If I'm a Hearts player I wouldn't be keen to return to the pitch for the 30 seconds left of play, certainly not at left back and AR.
 
I didn’t see the end of the game but I saw the end of the first half. I do think Celtic’s penalty was correctly awarded, but it did look very much like a guess from the way it was awarded 😆 just my take!
 
RefereeX said:
I didn’t see the end of the game but I saw the end of the first half. I do think Celtic’s penalty was correctly awarded, but it did look very much like a guess from the way it was awarded 😆 just my take!
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Glad you mentioned that as I’d forgotten about that until now. It did look like he pointed for a corner and then changed his mind - presumably after comms with one of the ARs. Correct decision even if it looked slightly messy.
 
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