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Important that we try not to grouse about these things ....

I can totally understand the temptation. And in the context of that one individual game, it’s probably the simplest / safest / easiest thing to do. However, the problems start the following week when a different ref takes a wholly legitimate different approach, in accordance with law and...

Systems based on averages will tend to work (generally) well if: 1) The sample size is big enough. Where officials are watched on every game / the majority of their games, the vagaries of individual matches and observers will tend to come out in the wash. Any one ‘rogue’ match day can’t unduly...

At level 4, the vast majority of officials are in a dual role (ref and AR). At Level 3, all officials again start in this way, but within a few years they have to opt to specialise as a referee or an AR. By the time you get to the National List, almost all officials are specialising in one or...

YC for Blue (not respecting the distance)) and RC for White (Violent Conduct) Restart definitely a Free Kick (as ball was in play) but unsure whether we go for a 'first offence' here or punish the more serious of two simultaneous offences :confused:

Tell that to Liverpool .. they appear to keep losing by a cricket score ;)

One might argue that there is no more normal or natural arm position for a footballer who wishes to appeal for a decision …. 😀

The offside law is choicefully constructed to be not completely ‘fair’. It is instead designed to encourage attacking play. It absolutely favours the attacking team by deciding that a player in an offside position simply ‘being in the mind of a defending player’ is not an offence.

No. But the footage is higher quality and it's pretty clear that the trajectory of the ball changes. The best angle to see it from definitively would be the side of the AR in question!!

I know this is tongue in cheek. But in all seriousness, he’s correctly spotted a highly technical, game changing KMI offside … the kind of thing you need to do to stand out from the crowd in what is a highly talented group of National List assistants.

Respect where you are coming from. And shows the inherent difficulty of Deliberate v Deflection! For me though, in this case, any attacking touch has been so slight as to have not inconvenienced / stopped the defender doing exactly what he intended. If it looks and smells like a controlled...

Having now watched the MOAS footage, I believe the decision is correct. The defender's clearance deflects off the attacker on it's way back to the CK taker, who was in an offside position at the time of the deflection. Only additional thing the AR could have done to 'sell' the decision would...

Based on the timing of the flag and the indication that the offence is ‘near side’ he has 100% given this against the corner kick taker. This player is definitely on his right hand side (and therefore in an offside position) at the time the ball is played in the penalty area. For this to be...

If it doesn’t improve, do I get my money back? 🤨🤔😂

It sounded more like a statement which (with hindsight) proved less than helpful. Sticking solely to the facts that Robertson was in an offside position and ducked to avoid the ball would have been most beneficial.

The audio suggests that a variety of factors went into the overall thinking behind the on field decision of offside. Some of these factors proved to be factually correct and some not. Based on that, I’d only expect a review to be recommended if the VAR team had a strong view that an incorrect...

Might be one of those very rare occasions when, on balance, better for an official to consciously choose to be in the 'wrong' position as it increases the chance of making the right decisions. Bit like the times where a referee chooses to stand on the RHS of the penalty area at a corner, with...

Spot on. The highly subjective nature of many of the most 'controversial' of the decisions makes the discussion almost an "unwinnable" battle. Personally, I'd love the powers that be to "come clean" and repeatedly stress that many, many decisions can be legitimately called either way. But...

If you go back about 5 years, the vast majority of officials on WSL games were men. I was lucky enough to have three years on the AR list, though obviously back then the quality of players, size of crowds etc were not as they are today. With recent efforts to bring through quality female...

It ain't rocket science :D