Search results

You seem to be under the misapprehension that the ‘job’ of the officials at the highest levels is to slavishly enforce the letter of the law in order to best support their grassroots colleagues. In reality, their role is to best meet the needs of their employers in a fair and consistent way...

I don’t see anyone defending the status quo. Seems to me that all posters are in favour of the attempt to speed up the game .. the debate is the rigidity with which it can / must be enforced. Think my main concern is the choice to vilify this particular referee for the exact time to blow the...

With more than 35,000 referees in England alone, application of ALL laws will inevitably be wildly inconsistent. From how much leeway to give on throw in locations, to what exactly constitutes a reckless tackle. From the measurement of 9.15m to whether / how much time to add when a ball gets...

Not starting the count until the GK has that opportunity is eminently sensible. But not (yet) part of the laws. I’m all in favour of the overall change (and a firm believer it will overall work well at all levels of the game), but I believe the knock on implications and ramifications for...

From my PL2 experience last season, it works really well overall. Acts as a deterrent to keepers taking the proverbial and everyone adjusts to the new reality. That said, my prediction is that the biggest issue will be in regard to an increase in attackers attempting to delay quick release …...

Across the totality of the FA Cup matches, the FA select their ‘own’ Level 2-4 referees for the majority of the games. This is then supplemented by County officials for some of the early rounds and PGMOL officials for the later rounds. The fact remains that the absence of any public PGMOL...

At 5-4, the criteria for nomination are Crystal clear. Outside of exceptional circumstances, those who meet all the criteria can expect to be nominated by their County FA and those who don’t meet the criteria should be unsurprised at their lack of nomination. Once nominated, candidates are...

Very fair. I, of course, agree that following correct protocol would at least have avoided the harshest complaints. I think I just reacted to the word “minimise”, as a reduction from a 10/10 level of complaint to 8-9/10 wouldn’t change the overall unhelpful tone of the discussion

In no way convinced by this argument. Reality is that this decision, like so many others in football, was an incredibly marginal call. It would have been controversial either way, doubly so given the importance to Villa of this game. The controversy would simply have switched to ‘why on earth...

Spot on, he should have delayed the whistle in this instance. However, given that his on field decision would still have been no goal, the lack of evidence proving this to be an error would still have ended up with the same outcome in any case

I’ve already agreed with you on this point. And the example being driven from the top on areas like time wasting, delaying the restart and (to some extent) dissent is already markedly more helpful than a few years back. However the fair question to ask is still whether the actions / choices of...

You’re correct. However, quite rightly, the primary responsibility of top level officials is to appropriately deliver a massive budget entertainment spectacle … not necessarily to do what is best for grassroots officials.

In general, I agree that number one is the least worst option. However, I believe differentiation should be made between (potential) KMI incidents actually seen by the on field officials and those completely missed. In the latter cases, I’d set a much lower bar for VAR intervention, in order...

Match officials for this match appointed by the FA not PGMOL …..

I think my question on this type of incident remains, why does it make sense for an unusual situation like this one to need to be that obviously wrong in order to be referred for a second viewing by the on field referee? Stuart Attwell deserves the chance to decide for himself for the first time...

I think we can all agree that the on field officials did not see / have confidence to give the handball offense (either because they believed it was instead played by Haaland or because they believed Henderson was in the area). But that the VAR video evidence factually showed a handball offense...

If we go back to first principles, the VAR protocol is set up as it is in order to ensure that the on field referee remains the final arbiter and that we don’t end up re-refereeing for purely subjective decisions. In situations like these, where the on field team have clearly completely missed...

There are a number of areas where the football laws can / could learn from Futsal. With regard to DOGSO, the number one consideration in Futsal is whether or not the goal is ‘guarded’ by the keeper. This makes total sense, as it’s the biggest driver of whether any goal scoring opportunity is...

I think you're right at higher levels. However at grassroots I've now experienced nailed on examples of the above in three separate countries (England, Denmark & New Zealand) so I've either been extremely unlucky or it's simply a case of slow, aging centre halves being unintentionally clumsy! :)

Certainly one good, viable approach. An alternative, especially at grassroots levels, if you've CLEARLY told the player not to push their luck and they choose to ignore you, is simply reversing the throw in ... certainly sends out a clear message that is likely to have the desired effect for...