Recent content by RustyRef

Fees are set by leagues, they are nothing to do with the FA. If you aren't happy with the fee your league are offering you can campaign to them to increase it, or vote with your feet and move to a different league (subject to availability). Out of interest I've gone back through my old Access...

Well PGMO have seemingly said that the goal should have been disallowed, so in this case they are backing VAR and blaming the referee. But I suspect Howard Webb will be playing the "what the game expects" and "what stakeholders" have told us cards, which doesn't necessarily mean that Michael...

That applies to most laws but not substitutions as far as I can tell. Law 3, as below, is clear that the substitution is completed when a substitute enters the field of play and the replaced player becomes a substituted player. Unless repeat substitutions are in use I can't see any provision...

I'm playing email catch up and have just seen the email from the FA on this, it is a global increase, nothing to do with any individual CFA.

So you've never heard the phrase "let's get our stories straight" in a referee changing room? I have, many times, usually before the observer enters.

Exactly that, it is like football fans complaining about season ticket rises when they haven't risen for 10 years. Looking at the leagues I have officiated on referee fees have all gone up by more than 50% over the past 20 years. Once has gone up by very close to 100% in that time, so on that...

It certainly wasn't wrong in law, that means the referee sees something and then applies the law incorrectly. It may well be a wrong judgement call, but that is very, very different to being incorrect in law.

Even if the 4th official had put up 8 minutes and only 7:30 played there would be no recourse, if push came to shove they could just say there was a misunderstanding. There will only be issues if less than 45 minutes in either half is played as that would be factually wrong in law.

Matterface is the best commentator in terms of knowing the laws, he at least makes an effort to know what he is talking about. Similar could be said for Martin Tyler before he retired.

The problem with that is VAR shouldn't be recommending a review if it is a grey area, they should only be doing so it they believe the referee has made a clear and obvious error. And that is why it should be extremely rare for a referee to stick with his decision at the screen as a referee of...

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...

Not SFP for me, he took a risk with that challenge but intensity and contact was minimal.

You don’t get to that level unless you are a very, very good referee. Some will obviously be better than others, but you’d have to assume those getting play off games will be amongst the top performing. We’ve had some deluded members on here over the years, including one who repeatedly claimed...

As others have said the fees haven’t gone up for many years. 50% is a big jump, but the increase in fees and inflation since the fees were last increased would be more than 50%.

100%, no matter how bad a mistake may be no referee should end up having to be under police protection