Reffing hell!
And the award for the Season's Pottiest Decision goes to.... Rob Styles!!!
(Actually there was Reading's ghost goal at Watford but I'm sure Rob would have given that had he been there. Oh and there's Spurs's decision to replace Berbatov, Keane and Defoe with, well, nowt.)
Now not so long ago I was banging on about respecting the ref. But it must be hard when Styles makes such a blatant mistake. Styles has only just saved himself from permanent linesmanship by his very sensible decision to apologise to Bolton for the 'penalty' he gave Man U on Saturday.
Man City fans might make the case for Steve Bennett's award of a pen for Wigan on Sunday being just as bananas, but at least there was some contact made between the two players.
Lee Dixon claimed Palacios made 'a meal of it'. In fact he made a 12-course banquet with extensive cheeseboard and choice of dessert wines of it, Lee! If they can't use TV replays for such decisions then at least they could analyse exactly how high Palacios jumped. That's got to be a Honduran national record.
But Bennett's decision was eagle-eyed compared to Styles's strange penalty award to Ronaldo and Man United. Note Fergie's initial reaction: "surprised, but then he owed us one."
Wouldn't it be nice if a manager that profits from such an error could just say, out-and-out, that it was a terrible terrible decision and if I was Gary Megson I'd be furious. (Actually if I was Gary Megson I would be furious, but who wouldn't?)
But maybe I'm being harsh on Rob. Perhaps, rather than slagging the bloke off, we should walk a mile in Rob's shoes. Then, at the very least, we'll be a mile away from a dodgy decision - and we'll have his shoes.
Seriously though, what Palacios's woeful salmon-leap proved more than anything (and St. Michael of Owen rather bought his spot-kick on Saturday 'n' all) is that the players couldn't be trying harder to make the refs look stupid. And it's bloody depressing that these blokes get paid huge sums for conning officials rather than winning fair and square.
Having said that, the refs need to do a bit better and soon. When the world sees a ball won fairly by an excellent tackle and Rob see a studs-up assault on one of the shining jewels of the modern game (and I see a Portuguese long-jump record from Cristiano) you have to wonder whether they are watching the game from a parallel universe.
Pretty soon we'll be playing a radical new version of You Are The Ref.
For example, It's the Merseyside derby and a rabbit runs across the pitch (no I don't mean Phil Neville).
1. Do you (a) see a cute furry bunny and order a drop-ball or (b) see a vicious two-fingered gesture and send off Tim Cahill?
2. In a closely-fought match a long-range shot hits the bar and bounces very close to the line before being cleared. The attacking players begin to celebrate. Your assistant is unsure as to whether the ball crossed the line.
Do you (a) explain to the players that it's impossible to award the goal without being certain or, (b) do you find a dandelion head and blow it several times saying 'he scored it, he scored it not, he scored it, he scored it not'?
3. At Tottenham Hotspur, Aaron Lennon races towards the byline and prepares to clip over the sort of delivery that wouldn't pass muster at the Royal Mail. His momentum takes him over the hoarding and he falls into the waiting arms of Spurs fans.
Do you (a) allow the Spurs physio on to check the player at the next available stoppage in play, or do you (b) send the hoarding off for ungentlemanly conduct and then book Lennon for diving and then give him another yellow for jumping into the crowd?
4. John Terry appears on the pitch with a pair of giant foam hands on the end of each arm. He proceeds to block shot after shot with these enormous mitts. Do you (a) award a series of penalties or (b) realise that a man bestowed with the title of England captain could never do such a thing and sensibly ignore it?
5. At the JJB, a defender and an attacker are rushing towards an excellent through-ball from Titus Bramble (this is hypothetical, right?). Their shoulders meet and both players go down in a heap.
Do you (a) wave for play to go on as it was a fair shoulder-charge or (b) look at the relative directional velocity of each of the moving bodies and apply Newton's Second Law of Motion to the situation and work out that the distance travelled by one player clearly implied the application of more force to that object than the other and, to conclude, it's a stonewall pen...
If your answer to all these questions was (b) then you too can apply to the referee's association today. If your answer was (a) then you are bleeding perfect and have probably never had to deal with a bunch of play-acting Premiership princesses before.
And if your answer to all the above was (c) 'I was looking the other way and I haven't seen a replay' then your name is Arsene Wenger and Hull's boys gave you one hell of a beating.
Upcoming fun questionnaires include: 'Are You A Footyball Club Owner In Waiting or Do You Have Enough Toys Already?' and 'Are You The Next Messiah?' (Tynesiders only, please)
I'm Derek Robson. People call me Robbo. Legend has it I was raised in the furnace and smog of Teesside. Some might say I took the hard road. I like to tell folk I had trials for Middlesbrough, for Hartlepool and for burglary (not guilty). I've always loved sport. My job is to say it as I see it - whether it's in the bar of the Blue Bell or on this blog. You won't find me calling a spade a soil-redistribution implement.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~27~RS~)
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"Please, somebody make this stop.
This is the BBC. Is it really the best it can do?
A dog with pens tied to its toenails would write better.
Won't somebody think of the children?"
Oh dear... you made me spit out my coffee with laughter... quality.
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LOL.
Seriously though, why does such exceptional players as CR bear the label of "diver"? Do they have to dive? (I agree that CR didn't dive in the last penalty decision.) And the way Palacios lept (not dived) takes some practice to master :)
Is the EPL the most diving-prone league in the world? Or other leagues also have this problem in the same or even larger magnitude?
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3. At 10:56am on 30 Sep 2008, mtirfan wrote:
"LOL.
Seriously though, why does such exceptional players as CR bear the label of "diver"? Do they have to dive? (I agree that CR didn't dive in the last penalty decision.) And the way Palacios lept (not dived) takes some practice to master :)
Is the EPL the most diving-prone league in the world? Or other leagues also have this problem in the same or even larger magnitude?"
- The English leagues are probably second only to the Germans in terms of a greater lack of diving. Try watching a game in Brazil or a Spanish cup tie between lower-league teams. It's disgusting how much cheating, diving and moaning goes on in other countries. In fact, it's the reason I stopped watching football Italia a few years ago - the Italian league practically invented diving!
The difference is, over there it's accepted as part of the game.
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Great read, one of the more humourous articles you've written.
Keep the good work up.
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Good article Robbo!
funniest one for a while!
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I'm pretty sure this was tongue in cheek Saint. Had me giggling for a bit.
And yes, Arsene, our lads did give you 'one hell of a beating'
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Absolutely quality read, Robbo. I seriously don't know what people are moaning about.
I think this is the first of your articles that actually had me laughing out loud. And that in a study centre at college. I got some odd looks, for which I place the blame firmly in the hands of this gem:
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'And if your answer to all the above was (c) 'I was looking the other way and I haven't seen a replay' then your name is Arsene Wenger and Hull's boys gave you one hell of a beating. '
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Absolutely brilliant!!
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Brilliant! Laughing out loud. Thanks for brightening up my day...
For example, It's the Merseyside derby and a rabbit runs across the pitch (no I don't mean Phil Neville).
1. Do you (a) see a cute furry bunny and order a drop-ball or (b) see a vicious two-fingered gesture and send off Tim Cahill?
Love that one!
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Aye nice one Robbo. See you managed the obligatory toon bashing, along with the rest of the tosh.
Ref's are human mate, we could all cry on about decisions but at the end of the day they are made by the ref's, right or wrong. Lets bring in the video ref eh? Remove whats left of the soul of the game.
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Having just spent nearly an hour on the phone with Sky, you can understand what sort of mood I was in !!
However after reading this hilarious blog I am crying with laughter and ready for the day ahead. Well done, more of the same please.
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Very funny Robbo!!!
Maybe there should be a FIFA award for longest dive in the future!
Oh! sorry there already is one, its the FIFA world player of the year award!!!
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Liked 'If I was Gary Megson I'd be furious' but the issue of crap refs and diving is ancient. Diving has been in the game for ever and refs have been making dodgy decisions since at least '66.
What's even the point of the managers complaining? They should just sat "Bring in technology" whenever there is a dodgy decision and we'd all get so bored they'd have to impement it. Sooner the better.
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The reason players dive is quite simple. If a defender leaves a trailing leg out and the attacker trips and goes to ground, a foul will nearly always be given. If the attacker manages to remain on his feet, however, refs will invariably not give the foul despite the infringement being exactly the same.
This inevitably results in players going to ground, even when they probably could have stayed on their feet. Diving is now almost a way of signifying that you would rather have the free-kick/penalty for the foul than stay on your feet and continue from where you are.
The solution to diving, therefore, would have to be two-fold:
1. Punish exaggerated falls/dives (Palacios)
2. Train refs to give free-kicks even when players do not end up 10ft in the air.
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Actually, having seen the Man U penalty decision, I think it was a penalty.
Samuel may have got a toe to the ball, but he still brought Ronaldo down, so it was a foul and therefore a penalty.
I don't buy the line "he got a touch on the ball, so it wasn't a foul". What matters surely is whether you bring the player down against the rules.
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'Actually, having seen the Man U penalty decision, I think it was a penalty'
Bonkers!!!!!
He not only touched the ball, he could have been arrested for sexually harassing it!!!!
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there's no point in this blog, how does this guy get to write on the bbc. he lacks sense. i read this cos my job is rubbish. at least write something that wil actually create a debate and we can discuss rather than making a pointless statement about something, which i bet, u have no experience in. im not defending the aweful decisions im just sayin it wont benefit anyone.
sometimes ur funny robbo but mainly talk absolute nonsense.
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I am fully behind the "respect the ref" initiative.... but Isn't it about time that the referees themselves were behind it as well and stopped trying their best to make such a laughing stock of the "profession" (rememebr these guys get paid a lot more than most fans).... they/we can't blame managers for coming out and defending players who do bad tackles, or players diving to gain an advantage if the Refs Association just turn an effective "Arsene Wenger" blind eye to every single genuinely awful (not just bad... i can handle those) decision that their "highly paid" employees make. And then the Refs effectively try and excuse themselves with the "from my angle"... etc, type excuse... the equivalent of SirAlex claiming that Ronaldo/etc didn't mean to dive but the wind was simply blowing very strong (i don't think he dived the other day by the way).
Surely the only correct thing to do is to not drop Rob Stiles for 1 week (as will probably happen... but by the way he will be ref'ing another game and being paid for it.. just it will be in the Football League)... someone should come out and say - clearly he should never be allowed near a football pitch again whilst he is capable of making another decision like this... he should be sacked... then the Ref's association can say they are doing everything to protect their profession...so we should respect that...
as for the "ghost goal"... that is the equivalent of Wayne Rooney picking ip the ball in the opponents six yard box, dribbling round the entire United side, rounding Van Der Sar and sticking a shot in the top corner of his own goal and then celebrating... it isn't a mistake... it is just ridiculous... if that happened do you think he would be just dropped for 1 week (or sent on loan to a Championship side for a week?)... no he would be dropped for a bit longer... or told to get a job as a binman or something.
Respect needs to be earned.. so please can the Refs Association get their own house in order first and then they won't need to spend loads of money trying to tell us to respect them... as we already will!
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# 15 comment (or should we called you Mr Styles)
Read the rule book, he took the ball before the player, and it was from the side not behind therefore it's a fair tackle.
Did you see any Man U Players (including the Diving king as well) go up and claim for a penalty...No. Did the Fans go up appealing for a penalty...No.
So you are all alone in your lonely, 'I think it was a penalty' Club. Even the ref has left it.
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#4 paperoo
Well you say that, but at least in Serie A it is common practice to punish players retrospectively for diving using video, ie Adriano, who was given a fine and a two game ban for diving when he didn't even win a foul!
Can't see that happening in the Prem personally,so maybe it's time you had a little reassessment of your predjudices.
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Post 15:
"...Samuel may have got a toe to the ball, but he still brought Ronaldo down, so it was a foul and therefore a penalty.
I don't buy the line "he got a touch on the ball, so it wasn't a foul". What matters surely is whether you bring the player down against the rules."
Good grief!
In that case pretty much every good sliding tackle would result in a foul.
I guess you qualify: http://www.thefa.com/GrassrootsNew/Referee/
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not a penalty?NOT a penalty?at least robbo is trying(and succeeding)in being funny.
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of course that should have read a penalty?trying to eat and type aren't the easiest of skills.mind you,having owned up to my howler,I've got the gig to ref at spurs next week.
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Please, for the love of god, tell me that the BBC don't pay for this inane waffle.
Moreover, please tell me that EYE don't pay for this waffle thanks to the unique way that the BBC is funded. Because if this is the case, I'm gonna go nuts.
Absolute tripe disguised as a 'blog' which would greatly benefit from an author with a sense of humour, a grasp of English, some originality and perhaps at least a clue as to the rules of football.
You, sir, are a mug.
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Aah, tea
You know nothing about football. Back to the Netball blogs with you.
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I think it is fair to say that the EPL, along with the Spanish, and Italian leagues are the worse for diving. Maybe EPL is the worse. Me, being a Rangers fan, all the SPL clubs are honest players. With the exception of Celtic. As they are all just a bunch of diving g.i.t.s. The Master of the diving of the Celtic, being Stillion Petrov, is now obv at Villa. But still, theres Hesselink, Nakamura, Samaras, Maloney. And the rest! They have had 5 pens or so from dives, and the stone wallers which should of been given to the other teams, never were.
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Why are we always moaning about referees. They are human and will make mistakes. Just like the 22 players or the 2 managers, its part of the game. It drives me up the wall when you see hansen and lawrencen watching a slo-mo 3 or 4 times before proudly proclaiming there was or wan't contact or he was or wasn't offside and the ref got it wrong. No-doubt they will claim that it highlights a need for a video ref but why? its only a game . I also think managers should be alowed to openly question the referees decissions and the refs should be put forward to answer questions and alowed to give honest answers. A ref who costs a team a game with an incorrect penalty decission, may end up endearing himself to the fans if he admits his mistake and explains why.
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*STOP PRESS*
Robbo almost makes a valid point. Just a shame he shied away from it at the last minute.
"Seriously though, what Palacios's woeful salmon-leap proved more than anything (and St. Michael of Owen rather bought his spot-kick on Saturday 'n' all) is that the players couldn't be trying harder to make the refs look stupid."
What is often overlooked is that 22 players every match spend the entire 90 minutes trying to con the ref.
Every decision is appealed for nby both sets of players, and as Robbo says te players are quite happy for the ref to look reidiculous (Reading players' response to the goal against Watford, for example).
As soon as the players stop claiming every decision and questioning those that go against them, the easier the refs job is and the better the spectacle becomes.
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Read better and worse. Like the phil Neville pun.
Still it must be nice to get paid for ref bashing eh Phil
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I find it funny that a few people come here to cry about Robbo being paid to write this. I think his writing is funny and clever. If you don't, go somewhere else. There's a lot worse places our money's going (ie council housed chavs etc etc) so get over it.
Ronaldo still made a meal of it - he fell over like he was a cardboard cut-out it was the most un-natural fall ever.
That's what foreigners have brought into our game. Diving. But they've also brought in beautiful football, I guess you can't have both. Foreigners dive, English abuse refs.
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gr8 article robbo!
keep up the good work mucker!
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Half of the reason players go down is because they know if they stay on thier feet, they are unlikely to be given the foul. They have to do it to show the referee that they are being fouled. This is why 4 linesmen should be used. That way, at least 1 official can see everything that is taking place...
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@30. Chezdon:
And I find it funny that people come on here and praise these articles.
Guess there's no accounting for tastes, eh?
And very valid point - nobody likes diving, but everyone like the flair these 'divers' bring when they're on their game.
Just gotta roll with it, eh?
Pun intended.
Poor pun, granted. Robbo; you can use that one on the house.
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Why do people harp on about a lack of quality in journalistic pieces? Ben Dirs gets the same stick and it just makes these individuals look like jealous muppets, either that or their heads are permanently lodged up their arses.
I found this quite a nice light-hearted read with a few laugh out loud moments. If you're too ignorant to accept Robbo for what he is then go back to reading the Guardian.
If you don't like reading romantic novels you don't read them, if you don't like reading a bit of light-hearted banter then why do you a) Read it b) Then comment on it.
Nice stuff Robbo, keep it up mate
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Not too bad a blog, better than some, worse than others. Not worth complainign about the licence fee paying for it, though! All right, so it's no Tim Vickery column, they can't all be - at least there's no McNulty bias!
As for the 'penalty' that never was, I was in the North Stand at Old Trafford, and can honestly say that it was the first time I've ever heard 75,000 laugh at the same time. It was NEVER a penalty. Fergie is absolutely spot-on though, Styles owes us at least four more, but that doesn't make his decision the correct one. The guy's a clown.
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HOW MANY DOGEY PENS DO YOU THINK MANCHESTER UNITED WILL GET AT OLD TRAFFORD THIS SEASON?
I think it will be around the ten mark. For some reason, refs always give dogey pens to Manchester United at Old Trafford. Off the back of this they have won at least two of there recent Premiership titles, because they have managed to get 3 undeserved points in tight games.
And then 'Sir' Alex Ferguson has the AUDACITY to say that Manchester united do not get favourable decisions from refs? ITS A DISGRACE. He can even say to the head of refereeing (keith Hackett) 'your not doing you job properly’ without reprimand. I think all true football fans would agree, Manchester United favouritism within the FA is getting out of hand...
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Robbo, you're usually mildly entertaining - although to be honest I don't think you know any more about football than the average man on the street. Still, can't say I blame you, you've obviously got a good thing going. This effort however, was terrible. Obviously the deadline was approaching, something needed to be cobbled together last second, and it shows. Still, I wouldn't worry about it mate, in your position I can't confidently claim I'd do much better, so fair play to you.
To all the bitters out there blathering on about Ronaldo diving - he didn't even appeal, and there was quite clearly enough contact to bring him down. Now I'm not saying it was a penalty (personally even as a United fan I thought it was a good challenge), but how is any of this Ronaldo's fault? He ran with the ball, got tackled, the referee gave a penalty with no appeal from United, and he scored it.
Sounds like a case of the green-eyed monster to me. I bet you'd claim that Torres, Bendtner, Joe Cole, or whoever your team's resident play-actor is never does it. Every team has at least one, and ours isn't Ronaldo - it's Nani (although hopefully he'll cut it out soon like Ronaldo did). Try a little honest reflection here, don't just hop on the anti-United bandwagon simply because you have no imagination of your own.
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"#29. At 1:08pm on 30 Sep 2008, Last seen with.... wrote:
Read better and worse. Like the phil Neville pun."
Do you even know what a 'pun' is? I see robbo's demographic are as moronic as he is...
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And alienmrT, what exactly is a "dogey" penalty? I think you'll find "true" football fans will recognise that the game is on the whole pretty fair. Good decisions and bad cancel each other out of a number of years. Much like life. It's only the biased idiots like yourself that truly believe that United are favoured by referees.
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A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you.
You are like the old man at the pub. You are a bore.
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Another great article Robbo
What bugs me is Fergie looking for another 4 bad decisions to go his way ,Just say bad decision and move on dont try justify that your team yet again have been bailed out by a questionable ref decision.
After all It was fergies 90s team that brought the whole hassling the ref to its finest(worst) peak. That has lead to the whole respect campaign in the first place.
TV replays for game changing incidents would not slow the game down at all and anybody who has been to A rugby game ,they actually add tension to the game.
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I'm sorry but I must agree with the Robbo bashers here.
Some of the stuff " a mile away from a bad decision........" is just bad, old jokes.
Much of the rest of it is rehashed comments from other BBC boards and very similar to some Football 365 comments.
I begin to wonder if Robbo and Chris Moyles are one and the same.
I am fat, northern, work in the media and am willing to be blinkered and xenophobic for the right salary.
So, if you are reading this BBC, I am available and I would like the BBC to pay me to state the glaringly bleeding obvious, with a dash of populist drivel, interspersed with some stock northern sayings, old jokes and forced similes.
Robbo's strained more metaphors than Darren Anderton has hamstrings. (Is that corny enough?)
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I am a football referee and i referee at grassroots level.
Reading through some of the comments you make about league officials is appauling.
You must all understand that refereeing gets harder and harder to do with all of the growing pressure from critisism.
All of the referees in this county enforce the laws of the game to the best of their ability, this should be taken into consideration when you scrutenise officials.
Yes you may have an oppinion about a decision made by a referee and there is passion from you, but you do not need to raise this and show the world how you feel.
This will not change the referees mind. You need to think what the referee would feel to the critisism that you give him/her.
Just imagine if you was the referee, what would you do, how do you deal with something you may have seen and the rest of the world sees something else.
Just thing about this before you mock referees!
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sorry #15 but you clearly don't understand the rules. if you touch the ball first, and you're not going in dangerously i.e. risking serious injury to the guy you're tackling, or from directly behind, then it's not a foul even if, after touching the ball, you bring the player down as an integral and inevitable part of the tackle (i.e. you don't make a separate movement to bring the player down). That is my interpretation of how the rule works anyway.
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Chaddyroar, I'd hire you, although you need to work on your overwhelming sense of smugness and self-satisfaction with being a "man of the people". Oh, and start calling people "pet" and saying "any road", you know, just to really reinforce the point that you're from the North. Yes, that's right, the North. Like something out of a story book isn't it? That'll help.
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EddyMitch, there is a world of difference between your work at grassroots level, for which you don't get paid i assume, and Rob Styles's work at the top of the game, for which he is paid - it is his job.
Most people accept that mistakes are inevitable and not deliberate. The irritation comes from two angles for me: firstly when refs fail to acknowledge their error (to his credit Styles has in this case) and secondly when the authorities do not do all in their power to help the refs make the right decisions i.e. use technology to as great an extent as allows without ruining the game as has been successfully achieved in cricket and tennis (amongst others) - both sports full of fuddy duddys against change yet still they lead football on this issue.
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You have excelled yourself Robbo....very good, witty comments and you seem to have wound up the natives at the same time....well done mate, very impressed....
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I think I remember reading that over 90% of a Test Match cricket umpire's decisions are "correct". Certainly they involve a larger amount of data, far greater complexity and massively less time to arrive at a decision.
Do we actually measure (not "assess") referees performance in the EPL?
If not, we should and, needless to say, I am firmly of the opinion that anyone who makes as many dumb decisions as Rob Styles should be actively encouraged to find a new career (i.e. fired).
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I liked the 'walk a mile in his shoes' joke.
At a loss as to why people come on here and slag off the journos like they can't do their jobs. Saw it in the McNulty comments on Everton. Do these muppets think they can do better?
Actually they probably do, which is quite tragic.
As to recycling old jokes, what in pity's name is wrong with that? Do you know how many times Frankie Boyle tells the same jokes? They're still funny...
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I think we all enjoy a bit of banter - nobody likes a 'love-in' on these blogs (if you do then the Gavin Strachan blog's the one for you). But there seems to be a lot of bitterness in many of the comments today. Why is that? Is the UK in exact inter-planetary allignment with Uranus, causing inexplicable random outbreaks of miserableness? Some of you need to chill out - if you don't agree with what's written, then fine, but there's no need to be nasty.
And another thing - every time someone uses the words 'Robbo' and 'Licence fee' in the same comment, well that really gets up my Uranus. Please stop this annoying association.
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Re #43
Learning to read and write properly is quite difficult as well isn't it?
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Good article Robbo. At least you know your grammar, unlike some of your contributors...
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As referees have been making the same mistakes since the game began nothing will change, human nature been what it is we all make mistakes. However teh number of camras and so caled pundits have spoilt the game. Bring back MOD in its original format. Getting back to referees mistakes. the laws of the game are so wide open, and they should be that 52.000 can watch a game and more or less each will have a different view on certain incidents, thats why managers bleat when they do not get pens, but smile smuggly when they do. Lets get rid of the cheats first then the game WILL get better. Referees make mistakes, notice the word MISTAKE, they NEVER cheat, fall down in spectacular fashion or try and punch the ball home and claim a goal (Scholes doe's this quite well for Man U). Human nature means we will never be happy no matter what , but hey that makes our game such a great thing, it's the human nature that makes it so and long may it remain so. No tv replays as a certain commentator will make even more laws of the game up each season, after all he has made some howlers.
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in regards to "you´re the ref"
5. At the JJB, a defender and an attacker are rushing towards an excellent through-ball from Titus Bramble (this is hypothetical, right?).
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I was absolutely gob-smacked that no-one gave you credit for this one Robbo!!
Talk about creasing up with laughter!!there are some valid comments to your blog,but hey,hey,keep ´em coming mate.To be fair to the ref´s,their standard is high-on the odd occasion they get it all wrong.If the players took their responsibity towards opponents,fans,linesmen and ref´s there would be less "wrong decisions"-of that I´m sure.There are a hell of a lot of ballet dancers prancing about our pitches week in and week out!!!
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I just wish Boro could score when they're awarded penalties...wonder if Southgate had them practising them after the Sunderland game?
I'm all for using video technology (for picking up handballs, dives and foul play in general) AND some form of goal line monitoring system to determine whether the ball has gone over or not.
As someone already commented, tennis, cricket and rugby have used various forms of technology for years without causing undue delays or loss of entertainment.
Most people (including the refs themselves) would acknowledge they are under enormous pressure to make correct decisions and often only have a split second in which to make them.
If this is the case, how could anyone be against introducing systems that would make referees' jobs a great deal easier and reduce the burden on their shoulders?
It would makes the fans and managers happy, reduce the amount of cheating (since the players would know their actions would be analysed on the replays) and the refs would receive much less abuse.
I call that a win-win-win situation!
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I have sympathy with the players here. Yes, they are cheating! On the other hand, a couple of minutes earlier they were probably attacked, mauled and hit with a large stick only for the referee to wave play on.
With referees this poor, the players have no option but to claim any and every advantage they can. Until referees improve to such an extent where they actually understand what is happening on the pitch then players will continue to nick a decision here and there!
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By the way - another good blog Robbo!
Ignore the small-minded, humourless fools who can't appreciate your articles. ;-)
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I agree with the points made regarding the desperation for players to cheat as opposed wo winning by playing the best football (although ability to cheat seems to be a quality of a good player nowadays).
The problem with this notion that referees are just human and can all make mistakes is that the FA don't seem to believe it. If they did, referees performances would be properly reviewed, retrospective punishments could be given and more reprieves put forward. This would all aid in providing the most efficient, challenging football environment; where cheats are punished.
What I can not understand is why players aren't punished after the game is finished. All incidents should be reviewed by the FA and irrespective of the ref's decision during the game, any seen diving should have an automatic one game suspension. Why not? It would stop a massive amount of diving and those caught doing so would be punished.
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re comment no 36 (AlienMrT) - perhaps you could point some of us towards the "dodgey" penalty decisions that MUFC have received that have won us the last two championships because of the three points they won us?
with regards to the pen decision, it obviously was not a pen but was probably not the worst decision i have ever seen made - re the Reading goal last week, Everton not winning a pen in the derby last year, etc.
all the people moaning (as usual) on the standard of the article, it really is becoming a little tedious now, if you dont like robbo's style then dont read, for god's sake it is not like it changes every week....
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Brilliant Post once again Rob.
Just one request, can you please refer to Manchester United as Man Utd or Man United or MUFC or the Red Devils or whatever funny phrase you can come up with instead of Man *.
Can't wait for next week!
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hmmmm!!! do you think southgate had boro practising penalties? good one but i think southgate is actually showing the boro players himself how to take a good penalty hence the misses (soz robbo)
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By eck I know I divide opinion sometimes but there's some right grumpy bleeders on here this week! I will ignore it. They must be credit-crunched Spurs fans or friends of Gary Megson.
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What is the point in going on about players diving.
Every single player in World football is a cheat! There is not one player who hasn't claimed a corner/goalkick/throw-in knowing that the ball came off themselves or a teammate.
There is no sportmanship in football anymore and probably never will be.
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on the issue fo technollogy. i have 1 idea that would rule out mistakes such as the goast goal , 66 world cup , and the goal man unt scored.
just place microchips in balls with sensors anound the perimiter of the pitch . if the ball crosses this goal , throw in , corner e.t.c. with a red light coming on around the ground .
it wont slow the play down at all and decisions will be FAIR just what everyone wants.
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The ref in 5(b) really is a bit of a plum. Newton's 3rd law states "every action has an equal and opposite reaction", so his conclusion that one player was subject to a greater force than the other is rather unphysical in the world we live in. Maybe you were right with your parallel universe hypothesis, Robbo.
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Good article
What is find strange is that nowadays you have the commentators during the game or punndits after the game saying "yep its a foul there was contact made"
Well of course there was contact made
Since when was there supposed to be no contact
Making contact with someone does not equate to foul play
Many of these pundits played in the much more physical 70's, 80's, 90's but still make such comments.
The influx of diving has got everyone scared of physically challenging for the ball. I think that is negative for the game.
Will become like basketball or some other daft sport in the future.
Next thing you know Ronaldo will come out on the pitch sporting protective armour (american football style).
Refs will give fouls away for entering into his "zone"
Machester Hot Rods Vs Chelsea Armadillos live on Sky Sports Soccer Channel 28 from 17.00 - 23.00
Oh the future is bleak....
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'Ref's are human mate, we could all cry on about decisions but at the end of the day they are made by the ref's, right or wrong. Lets bring in the video ref eh? Remove whats left of the soul of the game.'
Spot on. Refs like players and managers make mistakes, and this is what makes the game. If no mistakes were made, every game would end up 0-0.
And lets stop this apologising for mistakes. Will SAF say sorry if Man U lose tonight due to his team selection! I don't think so.
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scottydog50
"If no mistakes were made, every game would end up 0-0."
Isn't that a paradox? 0-0 implies that the defenders made no mistakes - this would then imply that the attack made lots of mistakes...
hmmm - that hurts my brain - off for a coffee
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i dont know what the big deal is with players diving in England
The reason players cheat is because they are desperate to win
I also gaurentee that many foreign players would swap all the money they have earned to dive at a world cup final, win a penalty, convert it and then lift the world cup
that is why England will never win unless they change the sportsmanship attitude to all sports
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anyone replies i should have said win anything again
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"Then, at the very least, we'll be a mile away from a dodgy decision - and we'll have his shoes."
This 'joke' is stencilled on the shoe section of my local River Island. Is that the sort of standard you're aspiring to?!
Article's fair enough though.
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AlienMrT of course you took into account all the penalties we missed out on when stripping us of a couple of premierships eh? Typical biased garbage from either a scouser or a gooner at a guess. Let me guess, the two premierships in question were when you were second?
But in case you're interested there is a site that looks at all dodgy incidents (apart from sendings off) and realigns the league accordingly. It is http://www.rightresult.net/. It makes interesting reading.
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I think (as a Man Utd fan) that the criticism of Rob Styles is very harsh. It was a totally perfect tackle, def not a penalty but the problem is that watching a perfect sliding tackle from behind which just gets the ball before the player at full speed from a not perfect viewing positon is not very different from watching one which is actually a pen. The only reason everyone can see it was a perfect tackle is because you can watch it from a perfect angle in slowmo afterwards.
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Shouldn't the sentence about the Reading non goal have read "Actually there was Reading's ghost goal at Watford but who cares because they aren't in the Premiership"?
In divisions 2, 3 and 4 we see decisions such as this (and worse) every week with no publicity whatsoever. Good to see the so-called elite getting a taste of the egregious standards of refereeing outside the money league.
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Brilliant article. The previous ones weren't so good but I guess this is a pretty funny subject. If you're a Man Utd/Wigan fan.
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Regarding scenario number '5':
On these occasions it is usual to allow the goal and credit it to Titus Bramble as you you can not be off-side for an own goal...
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A lot of people on here are talking about the "rules" of the game. There are no "rules" in football, only "laws".
Thanks
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Just a quick response to mpowr78 re contact in the game. Can I suggest you read the law regarding fouls etc. it states " When a player challenging for the ball makes CONTACT with the opposing player BEFORE playing the ball A FOUL is committed" so contact has to put it it's right place. Having said this I agree that contact is and should be allowed but within the rules?.
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euro paddy
brilliant comment, now that is funny, made me laugh.
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"...watching a perfect sliding tackle from behind which just gets the ball before the player at full speed from a not perfect viewing positon..."
My impression from the replays was that he was about 5 yards away looking straight at it...
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All this slagging off the refs is getting ridiculous. Rob Styles (pick one):
a) is biased, hates Bolton, loves Man U, and is on Fergie's payroll;
b) is completely incompetent/is blind as a bat/must never ref again;
c) has an incredibly difficult job in which he must cover a large playing area, keep an eye on 22 players and the ball, make split second, often unsighted decisions, and is done no favours by the antics of modern players who bend the rules at best, and are complete cheats at worst.
Why not introduce video review to help fix at least the obviously mistaken decisions? There's enough time spent bleating one way or another about every call these days to have a retired Premiership official in the booth have a quick look, and call down to the ref if he's clearly got a call wrong. It would at least be a start.
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#richzx6r:
"Please, for the love of god, tell me that the BBC don't pay for this inane waffle."
No mate, you do....it's called a TV license...ha ha ha...donut
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and another thing...... how many games have people been to in recent years where the referee would have had a better game if he flipped a coin each time he had a decision to make!!! RESPECT??? Not deserving of it in my opinion!
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What you should do Robbo, is pick one of the whiniest, whingiest complainers and let them write a column, and then post it for us all to have a good look at.
You'd still get paid by the BBC out of the giant sack of Our License Gold they keep in the basement, and we'd get to see what an excellent job the Robbo knockers can do themselves. Or, er, not.
I think it would be worth it if only for the sheer entertainment value of the "dogey" spelling you'd be "gaurenteed" as these boneheads struggle to string two thoughts together, never mind construct and express a series of puns and running gags.
Do it, do it!
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'I was looking the other way and I haven't seen a replay' then your name is Arsene Wenger and Hull's boys gave you one hell of a beating.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Robbo, yes Hull beat Arsenal fair and square and all credit to them.
But it is about time to stop this nonsense about Wenger not seeing any controversial decisions.
It is used by many other managers. Benitez uses it a lot. Wenger has in fact stopped using it. Please show a little more respect to the man who has spent 12 years bringing joy to football lovers in England.
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43. At 1:47pm on 30 Sep 2008, EddyMitch wrote:
I am a football referee and i referee at grassroots level.
Reading through some of the comments you make about league officials is appauling.
You must all understand that refereeing gets harder and harder to do with all of the growing pressure from critisism.
All of the referees in this county enforce the laws of the game to the best of their
ability, this should be taken into consideration when you scrutenise officials.
Yes you may have an oppinion about a decision made by a referee and there is passion from you, but you do not need to raise this and show the world how you feel.
This will not change the referees mind. You need to think what the referee would feel to the critisism that you give him/her.
Just imagine if you was the referee, what would you do, how do you deal with something you may have seen and the rest of the world sees something else.
Just thing about this before you mock referees!
---
Get the vital decisions right and we wouldn't think you were prats, then. Simple really. If I made so many mistakes where I WORK (yes, they get paid for it) i'd be sacked. Should be the same for refs.
Players play poorly, dropped.
Goalkeeper makes howler after howler, dropped.
Ref makes mistake? Go referee Colchester or Darlington next week, inflict your ineptitude on them for a change, it won't matter because they're lower league teams!
Pathetic.
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I completely agree with Will Parish
No way can you respect referee's when they are making such horrible decisions like this - and there should be pressure on them to lose their position as an FA ref if they make constant mistakes, or horrendous mistakes.
You have to remember, referee's are now professional, which means they are paid substantially for their position. Not only that, but they rub shoulders with the biggest celebrities in the country (Rooney, Gerrard, Fabregas) - something that all football fans would dream of, yet they decide games sometimes on absolute howling decisions. Not just games, but business - remembering of course the difference between Premiership and Championship football in terms of cost to the club.
Referee's need to study the game a lot more, understand together the difference between a good decision and a bad decision. Pierluigi Collina was the best referee the world has ever seen. Why? Because players respected him. He didnt make rash decisions, stood up for himself, kept himself quiet in the game (only blew when appropriate) and all in all respected players alike when making decisions. Our ref's need to watch his games and take note of how he directs himself during games
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Nothing wrong with a bit of obligatory toon bashing. It's what you're there for now. And what each every football team will be doing to you until some charity buys your team and re-installs Kevin Keegan.
Personally I'd be a bit wary of the Nigerian 419 email Ashley apparently received. Normally these guys don't deliver millions to your bank account.
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24. At 12:56pm on 30 Sep 2008, richzx6r wrote:
Please, for the love of god, tell me that the BBC don't pay for this inane waffle.
2. At 10:54am on 30 Sep 2008, americanMANUgirl wrote:
"Please, somebody make this stop.
This is the BBC. Is it really the best it can do?
A dog with pens tied to its toenails would write better.
You guys should get together and work out why you are posting on the BBC. One of the few things we can still be proud of..... and this blog addresses what most of us are thinking.
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reply to N°15)
I dont see how you can say that it was a penalty...
Do you play FOOTBALL??
If the defender clearly wins the ball before any contact with the opposition player then it is a fair tackle.
Just because a player goes down doesnt mean its a foul. Iv broke a players ankle a few years ago by winning the ball. I challenged very strongly on the ball and the ball bent his foot sideways thus breaking his ankle. Because i didnt touch the player it was no foul even though he was badly injured. Luckily this was when playing U15 reps so he should be fine by now!
By the way, great article Robbo. Love the option C if your arsene wenger (or benetiz).
I even laughed at the John Terry part and im a Chelsea fan.
Keep up the quality work
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The refs can and should take matters into their own hands regarding the diving. It is against the rules, so call it. If the refs gave a yellow card (as it calls for in the rules) for every dive, including when there was a foul but the player made a meal of it, then this nonsense would be eradicated from the game. It would be criticized initially as you could imagine the number of sending offs which would occur – 2 dives and you’re gone – but eventually the players would adapt and we would be left with, by far, the most entertaining football league in the world.
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People whinge on and on about bringing in video replays the fact that there isnt is what makes football football, Whos to say we really would have a better sport if it came in? The human element is what makes it so much better. Yes diving should be stopped and the way of doing that is to punish with suspensions after the game and the FA saying they have no power is nonsense they RUN THE GAME! who else has the power?!?!
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Dead horse, mate. Dead horse...
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Fergie and the players are doing their jobs. You can't really blame them if "cheating" works.
You can't blame the refs either. 30 camera angles of each decision and no-one remembers the right ones.
There's enough money in the game to have each match analysed 4 times over. Lets get the "cheats" punished properly with video evidence.
Otherwise Sheff United's lawyers are going to have to start bringing claims for damages against the likes of Ronaldo and Palacios for defrauding the referee.
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@ #30 Chezdon.
You've excelled yourself there sir, ticking all the right-wing cliche tick boxes.
You've had a pop at "Council Housed chavs" excellent work. I totally agree anyone dressed in a matching tracksuit should be made homeless as a matter of course. With the possible exception of the British Olympic team.
Then we've got a nice touch of tempered xenophobia. Have a pop at Jonny Foreigner then slip in a sly back-handed compliment to keep the lawyers happy. Classic Daily Mail tactics.
As for your finish - "Foreigners dive, English abuse refs." Are you suggesting that's an ok situation?
Phew, I was so amused by all of the comments that I had to weigh in and I thought Chezdon was possibly the most moronic because of it's pretentions to intellect. As for the actual blog, I agree with a lot of the criticism; there are old jokes, bad puns, overt Northen-isms, but it's just a bit of fun. It is a bit shit. It is a bit sloppy. It is a bit cliched. But for all that its not too bad, Titus Bramble bashing is always welcome. The L-fee moans are just ridiculous I mean have you seen some of the nonesense of BBC television?
Wow, what an debut post.
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I get really tired of cliched pundits and supporters moaning about refs making mistakes. 28. Voice Of Reason made such a good point about the players spending 90 minutes conning the ref then when one succeeds we hammer the ref and the players walk away scot free. It really gets my goat that managers stand on tv berating the refs performance. JUST FOR ONCE CAN A REF STAND UP AND POINT OUT THE MANAGERS/PLAYERS MISTAKES? "He should have played a 4-4-2, or they should have replaced "x" earlier!
I make mistakes at work.... you make mistakes at work and so does everyone else. Stop being a bunch of cry babies and accept it , it's what keeps us talking in the pub and what makes footall great, sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't.
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Is the EPL the most diving-prone league in the world? Or other leagues also have this problem in the same or even larger magnitude?"
I come from australia but watch the epl very week and they dive just about more than anyone else except try watching australia playone of the asian teams vs australia in the aisian cup they stay down till they get stretchered of then come straight back on the field completly fine it slows the game down so much and prevents it getting any momentum it awful to watch!!!!
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I enjoyed the article it was helarios but your forgetting the desition he made in the liverpool stoke game to dis allow gerrard his 100th goal and deny liverpool wining the game saying kuyt was ofside when he didnt come close to interfiering with play and replays showed he was onside anyway thet was the worst descision ive ever seen
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There IS a significant problem with using technology.
Take the following scenario.
Team A think they have scored and the linesman, unsighted by defenders and attackers cannot be sure.
Team B 0, Team A ?1?
The referee waves play on (which he has to do). Play rapidly moves up to the other end where the back of the net ripples as the ball hits it.
Team B 1, Team A 0.
There is no stoppage in play to review the TV pictures and so only now can they be checked by the referee. What happens if the original attempt (by Team A) is seen to have been just, by the merest smidgen, over the line?
I'll tell you - it has to be given as a goal and Team B's goal then has to be chalked off. What follows would be the biggest dust-up you have ever seen on a football pitch in your life, and the game would effectively be over.
(If the game was stopped after Team A's effort then the Team B attempt would be prevented, which is a terrrible way to treat the game and would make it unplayable).
Stick with humans who occasionally make mistakes, live with the mistakes, and learn to enjoy what is only a GAME.
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Mr Styles' decision was undoubtably poor, and i very much doubt it would have been given had Man Utd been playing away from home. He see's a 'big' tackle in the box, hears an eruption of protest from the huge crowd and you know the rest. This leads me to believe that we could just implement an 'old-school' Can't cook, won't cook method of decision making at places like Old Trafford, wherein the crowd are given yes and no cards (green peppers and red peppers, or whatever they used to be) and have to hold them up during dubious penalty decisions. The majority of card-holders then receive the decision in their favour. I really believe that this would add a much needed crowd participation element to the game, and also result in far more accurate decision making than the referees make at the big grounds. (My tongue is tearing through my cheek right now).
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spd1661,
I can't believe you got that wrong! It's Ready, Steady, Cook! READY, STEADY COOK!!
Fair point though, but some of the posters on here suggest that even the fans at OT didn't think it was a penalty (can't really comment because I wasn't there and haven't seen it on tv).
AINSLEY HARRIOT ROCKS!
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Just wanted to point out that 3b is technically incorrect as ungentlemanly conduct is only a cautionable offence (not a sending off). It could, however, be done for serious foul play under the laws of the game.
DodgyRef (lol)
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Good work Robbo - Keep it up! I notice most of the moaners about your blogs or either Manure fans, cockneys or both! No sense of humour these Southern types!
PS at least Styles had the decency to apologise to Bolotn, but it doesnt change anything does it!
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Robbo. Been reading your blogs off and on for a year now.
Still find them a great read pretty much every time. They're almost always funny and from time to time literally make me laugh out loud. I invariably agree with your sentiments too.
These people who chastise you from behind a wall of complete anonymity are either illiterate, insipid, humourless, actively jealous or good old plain dumb.
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Why are you slagging off Wenger, Ronbo? Didn't you see the Professor not see the foul on Clichy the other week?
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Lets get one thing straight. Refs do deserve some respect off of players. John Terry is the worst in my view as all he ever does is bad tackles and swears "f off". I think that's what he says, hes overated. However refs do kinder bring on them self. Graham Poll was the best ref about 2 yrs ago until making that mistake at the world cup. Anyone could have done it. It's an easy mistake to make but everyone hated him.
Rob Styles i thought was nowthe best Ref as he usually refed the big matches. This small mistake yet blatent has cost him the whole's country aswell. Who's Next.
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Post #65
Putting microchips in the ball won't it make all decisions FAIR.
As you rightly pointed out, it will help to determine whether the ball crosses the line for a goal, throw-in etc.
However, if it goes out for a throw-in, and it isn't clear to the ref or linesman who touched it last, then what do they do???
They can't just go, well the player for Newcastle looked like he played off the man utd player, so we'll give the throw to Newcastle can they?
There is no clear way of fixing this problem whatsoever, but putting microchips in the ball is only a temporary solution to a permanent problem unfortunately.
The refs decision has to be final, and if the players don't like it, then the ref has to book them immediately for dissent, as this is the only plausible way to make the 'respect' campaign have any purpose to it really
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Did you see Rob Styles's blunder today? He knew that one of the players at Tottenham Hull (don't know who), had hurt his hip, so he walks over and pats him on the hip and tells him to "get up". Oh dear, get it sorted Rob lad!
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For any one club, refereeing mistakes may or may not even themselves out over the course of a season.
However, when the stakes are as high as they are in the Premier League, it is scant consolation for a club at the receiving end of a bad decision that determines the outcome of a match to say that perhaps other decisions will go their way.
http://footballinsights.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/kinnear-v-atkinson/
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