The Ref Stop

Man U v Arsenal wall controversy

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The Ref Stop
Not really sure there is any controversy, no wall is ever exactly 10 metres from the ball. Unless they give every referee a measuring device, which at senior levels would be easy to do, there will always be variances. I was always taught to get it back slightly more than 10 yards as they will always try to edge forward.

That said, i wouldn't be getting the wall level with the penalty spot when the ball is well outside the D as he did with a later Arsenal free kick, there are visual markers there that prove it is in the wrong place.
 
I recall some advice from a recent training event - ensure the distance of wall to ball is such that the wall is clearly inside or clearly outside the penalty area. The idea being to make it easier to determine the correct restart following a handball by a player in the wall. Perhaps less relevant in the PL with VAR I suppose.
 
I recall some advice from a recent training event - ensure the distance of wall to ball is such that the wall is clearly inside or clearly outside the penalty area. The idea being to make it easier to determine the correct restart following a handball by a player in the wall. Perhaps less relevant in the PL with VAR I suppose.
That's true, and definitely good advice. But this wall is almost level with the penalty spot, so we can reasonably assume that's not the logic being applied here, much more likely he's just over paced.

Honestly, my main takeaway here is surprise that this is on TV. I saw some references to a wall distance on social media and assumed it was someone wearing a tin-foil hat drawing lines on a screenshot. The fact that TV companies are sinking this low to try and stir up anti-referee conspiracy is honestly kind of disgraceful.
 
Thing that disturbs me is the attacking team committed an offence, VAR is supposed to check all goals, should have been disallowed.

Two attackers are within a metre of the wall. Ziksee(?) even grabs a defender dragging hime to the wall. These three players unsight the GK who dives really late. Exactly the stuff that the law was put in to stop.
 
For me i walk 12 steps - many years ago i made that ten yards.

I did it recently at home and my son-in-law measured it as 10.5 yards so it's quite accurate.
 
Honestly, my main takeaway here is surprise that this is on TV. I saw some references to a wall distance on social media and assumed it was someone wearing a tin-foil hat drawing lines on a screenshot. The fact that TV companies are sinking this low to try and stir up anti-referee conspiracy is honestly kind of disgraceful.
Exactly this. It's just another kind of way to bash a referee. If we want referees that are more adept at getting 10 yards right than getting big decisions in games right, then we may as well all go home. As said, if there's a situation where the ball is just outside the D and the wall behind the penalty spot then some obvious aids have been missed, but to kick off about the wall being 11.2 yards on a general free kick that a referee has to estimate distance on using paces... I'm lost for words.
 
For me, 11 of my normal paces come to almost bang on 10 yards. HOWEVER players will and do count, and call you out on it.

I've enough in the tank to explain it - got small legs, start here anyway, it is a minimum of ten yards, was taking into account my belly, etc (whatever, depending on temp of game) - but easier (and safer) option was just to a) practice striding using penalty spot and arc on a local pitch and perfect it, and b) note your surroundings pre-game. Where's 10 yards from the 18? What advertising hoarding is around there (or a bin, floodlight, etc).
 
For me i walk 12 steps - many years ago i made that ten yards.

I did it recently at home and my son-in-law measured it as 10.5 yards so it's quite accurate.
I think at higher levels, 10 large paces as a visual aid for 10 yards is important, as everyone expects it to be 10 steps. Appreciate the distance may end up the same, but it's just as much about how it looks as the actual distance.
 
Thing that disturbs me is the attacking team committed an offence, VAR is supposed to check all goals, should have been disallowed.

Two attackers are within a metre of the wall. Ziksee(?) even grabs a defender dragging hime to the wall. These three players unsight the GK who dives really late. Exactly the stuff that the law was put in to stop.
If you're posting this purely on the photo above, I think it's a bit of an optical illusion. I think there is a gap of approx 1 yard between wall and the arsenal player between the 2 united players is not part of the wall.

If, however, you've seen it on video from a different angle and I'm incorrect, then I apologise and bow to your superior knowledge.
 
That's true, and definitely good advice. But this wall is almost level with the penalty spot, so we can reasonably assume that's not the logic being applied here, much more likely he's just over paced.

Honestly, my main takeaway here is surprise that this is on TV. I saw some references to a wall distance on social media and assumed it was someone wearing a tin-foil hat drawing lines on a screenshot. The fact that TV companies are sinking this low to try and stir up anti-referee conspiracy is honestly kind of disgraceful.

What is even more bizarre is Sky got Dermot Gallagher to measure 10 yards on the studio floor and he got it right much to everyone's delight in the studio yet there was a clear marker on the floor right where Dermot stopped! I mean honestly, embarrassing from everyone involved.
 
Thing that disturbs me is the attacking team committed an offence, VAR is supposed to check all goals, should have been disallowed.

Two attackers are within a metre of the wall. Ziksee(?) even grabs a defender dragging hime to the wall. These three players unsight the GK who dives really late. Exactly the stuff that the law was put in to stop.
To elaborate on the above... I think that looks close enough to 1 yard away to me (baring in mind that the Arsenal defender is, as you say, not part of the wall. Certainly not an obvious error for VAR to deal with

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VAR is not able to intervene on instances of an attacker being closer to the wall than 1m.

About 50%* of the direct free kick goals scored have an attacker within 1 metre of the wall, this doesn't look like it was one of them

*Made-up stat.
 
I mean, if the TV company can do it generate their referee-bashing screenshot to rile up social media, it's not beyond the possibility that if VAR were empowered to disallow goals for this reason they would have access to the same tech. I've certainly seen similar applied before to display the distance and angle of a long goal, so (without knowing if it's remotely accurate of course), it's been a thing that could have gone into the VAR toolkit for years.

Whether they should be expected to do that is a fair question, and I'm of the opinion that under the current VAR system, I don't want goals disallowed by VAR for this. I'd actually be fine with attackers in the wall being a challengeable aspect under a challenge system only, but even then, pacing the wall out has always been accepted as one of those hidden "approximately" things in the lawbook (and a less varied one than the "approximately 6 seconds GKs get to hold the ball), so it's a bit wild to suddenly start pretending it's always been precise apart from this one incident.
 
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