Search results

And amazingly, despite this more relaxed approach, football is still far and away the biggest global sport / business and this shows no sign of changing. It’s almost as if the powers that be have correctly ‘read the room’ when it comes to what the paying public would prefer and are instructing...

I’m a lowly specialist AR so I don’t get to send people off 🤣. But to compare a highly visual decision seen by absolutely everyone, with some choice words that the vast majority of those in the stadium would have no idea about is just unhelpful and irrelevant. PS if they trusted me with a...

I totally understand the strength of feeling from those that would like to see such language more routinely sanctioned at the higher levels. I do get that the example set can be one of the factors impacting behaviour and expectation at lower levels. However, I’d also ask those people to...

Totally agree. And before someone says 'the officials would get more respect if they didn't (sometimes) stand for dissent', that's simply not the case. If cards were shown more frequently for verbal dissent, we'd instead have ref bashing for the officials "showing no empathy", "acting like...

Overall, we haven't. Looked at more generally, over the last couple of years there's been a marked increase in dissent cautions across the English Leagues. Take Barry Bannan's recent high profile dismissal for Sheffield Wednesday, the first of his cautions was for a case of clear, visual (and...

They failed whom? If you believe they ‘failed’ grassroots refs then I can completely see your point … but it is fundamentally not their role to please that group of people. Did they fail the spectators in the ground or those watching on the TV .. not, in my opinion. And if they are deemed by...

As with any law introductions, the devil is in the detail (and remembering that officials are human with plenty else to think about). It’s been clarified that the 8 second count should only start (and continue) when the GK is truly in a position to release the ball unimpeded .. so that might...

Sure I’ve seen that somewhere before ;) For clarity, I’d suggest Provocative rather than Personal as the first P here. When the commentary becomes PERSONAL in nature (eg ref, you’re effin s**t) rather than relating specifically to a decision, you might lean more towards an OFFINABUS red.

Interestingly, there is a somewhat similar scenario in the Level 3 / 4 August quiz ... I got one answer wrong but I'm hoping that it wasn't this one!!

But the video at the link makes clear that the team that gets the DB is the one that would have got possession had the ball not hit the referee. Which makes complete sense given that the sole reason we are having a drop ball in this situation is to avoid an unfair change of possession. I see...

..

I haven’t seen this incident but (based on the explanatory video on the IFAB website) if the only reason it was going to a Wimbledon player was the deflection off the referee) then a drop ball to Luton remains correct. And the location of the DB should (I THINK 🤔) be where the ball hit the...

Offside position should be judged when the ball lands at the attacker's feet, absolutely NOT when the ball is actually played :)

I was asked by my local county league to do a short online session to introduce their referees to the incoming law changes. They chose to record the session so in case anyone's feeling bored or wishes to have a laugh at my delivery, there's 20 minutes worth at the below link. Be gentle with me...

I’d certainly suggest that the (minimum) five women’s lines should all be Adult and at the highest level you can sort. If this was then supplemented by lines on a credible U18 male league (sounds like you might be considering the Southern Counties Floodlit?) then I can’t see this causing an issue

There was clear guidance in England last year that totally unsporting, over the top holding (rugby tackling is a helpful shorthand!) should always be punished regardless of any impact.

You can rest assured, officials on professional games will (attempt to) enforce this regardless of the match situation. Not least because, initially at least, you can expect Observers to be all over this like a rash. The challenge will however be for this to become second nature for the...

Where games have VAR, the AR protocol for penalties has been changed. VAR monitors GK infringements and AR focuses on offside offences in any play that follows after the penalty

In many higher level games, AR2 times each and every (relevant) stoppage and feeds in this info over the comms to the fourth official. They then note this on the official match record (the ‘green card’) and will relay the proposed additional time to the referee a couple of minutes before the...