Liv Villa - Mings VAR

[socal lurker]

I would be unsurprised if the guidance gets further changed in the future given the lack of understanding / buy in to the current interpretation.

The pendulum has been swinging back and forth for some time. When I returned to reffing almost 20 years ago, USSF still had its Advice to Referees, which used "possess and control" as the guidance between a deflection and a deliberate play. It seems very close to what we are getting now. And I recall way back (late 70's or early 80's) the diagram in the back about touching a defender flipped from one year to the next. There just isn't a perfect answer, and the guidance is going to oscillate based on recent events that are perceived as having unfair outcomes. We see the same think around definitions of active involvement. (And just last weekend I was ARing for an experienced ref who basically told me to ignore current guidance on active involvement and flag right away, as that was going to get fixed in the next few years anyway.)

 

[Peter Grove]

(And just last weekend I was ARing for an experienced ref who basically told me to ignore current guidance on active involvement and flag right away, as that was going to get fixed in the next few years anyway.)

I could be misinterpreting it but that sounds rather like an "old school" ref who is telling you to flag simply because he thinks "offside is offside" and any player in an offside position when the ball is played is committing an offence no matter what they are doing.

And if that's what it was then I don't think that philosophy is coming in any time soon.

 

[socal lurker]

I could be misinterpreting it but that sounds rather like an "old school" ref who is telling you to flag simply because he thinks "offside is offside" and any player in an offside position when the ball is played is committing an offence no matter what they are doing.

And if that's what it was then I don't think that philosophy is coming in any time soon.

I think that is exactly right—and he doesn’t follow the changes closely enough to realize he is totally out of touch with IFAB on his expectations