A&H

SammyT5

Active Member
Level 7 Referee
I’m sure this will have been said before, but the lack of understanding of the Laws of the Game from many top TV pundits and/or commentators astonishes me. A lot of pundits have also previously been footballers at a decent level, and many of them have no idea what they’re talking about when commenting of decisions by a referee. It happens all the time on Soccer Saturday. You’d have thought that pundits would need some sort of understanding of the LotG. At the moment it’s similar to watching builders trying to critique the technique of a high level surgeon. Just something I needed to say.
 
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Completely agree. One of them on the Crystal Palace v Everton game this afternoon claimed that “the height of the ball” meant a handball penalty claim was turned away.
 
Completely agree. One of them on the Crystal Palace v Everton game this afternoon claimed that “the height of the ball” meant a handball penalty claim was turned away.
That is absolutely dreadful. Even if the top level pundits and commentators just took 45 minutes to read and understand laws 11, 12, 13 and 14, it would save everyone who took the time to read the LotG from a lot of frustration.
 
I've just watched match of the day from last week and both pundits said it shouldn't have been a red for Bisouma's challenge on Lewis.

This genuinely worries me as all this does is give viewers who aren't referees (players included) false information about the laws of the game, which isn't new but you'd hope that these "pundits" who as sammy says have played at a high level would at least know and understand the law before spewing rubbish to viewers.
 
That is absolutely dreadful. Even if the top level pundits and commentators just took 45 minutes to read and understand laws 11, 12, 13 and 14, it would save everyone who took the time to read the LotG from a lot of frustration.
If you can understand just the law 12 handball provisions in 45 minutes you'd be doing well.
 
How many times do pundits use the term "reckless" then explain why that means the player should be sent off? 🙄
Because it makes more sense than what the law says. Unless you think "excessive force" sounds worse than "reckless". Excessive compared to average force?

You can't continue to use a redundant phrase like "gaining an advantage" and expect people to have to explain every time that in law 11 it only means one thing and it's not even needed there, or that a player can obviously gain an advantage by being offside but it's not offside.
 
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