posted Mar 21, 2008

I just think it's a nonsense that referees are expected to control the game, give punishments, making important split-second decisions, whilst all the time every player is allowed to come barging round shouting the odds and distracting them from their job.

come on FA, FIFA, it's the twenty first century, surely it's time we had a concrete law that gives refs some respect, space and time to do their job properly.

funny, but it seems that nearly every fan is in favour of this, perhaps we're ALL sick and tired of games descending into chase-the-ref, and the football suffers for it.

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posted Mar 21, 2008

Even the TV pundits over react to the referees decisions, when they do not know the FULL rules
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Totally, everyone going up in arms about the pen Ronaldo should have had against Portsmouth. If it was a foul it was obstruction, an in-direct free kick!

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I disagree - I think it would have been Obstruction had ronaldo knocked the ball past him, and the guy had stood in his way motionless... But, he came in from a different direction and knocked into Ronaldo.. if he'd come in in the same manner but used his knee or his foot, it would have been a trip and penalty, so surely doing the same thing, but with his shoulder should be classed as a kind of trip and penalty?

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posted Mar 21, 2008

the defender's movement was AWAY from the ball, not towards it. anybody could see that this was not two players jostling for the ball, but one player going for the ball - ronaldo, and one defender going for the player. penalty.

we've all seen these given, and of course if it had been the other way round all the arguments would suddenly reverse.

but we're used to having every tiny incident in our games argued about. it's part and parcel of being champions, of being the team that everyone likes to see lose, of being the team that all other supporters envy.

but back to the topic ha ha ha ha.

I can't see john terry keeping his england captaincy much longer, it may have pleased the sun a while ago, but capello has on interest in keeping the red-tops happy.

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posted Mar 21, 2008

it's part and parcel of being champions, of being the team that everyone likes to see lose, of being the team that all other supporters envy.

Hate maybe. But not envy.

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posted Mar 21, 2008

All you armchair pundits should remember that the referee doesn't have the benefit of a dozen camera angles and slow motion replays.

If we want them to be subject to the same discipline as the players we'd have in fairness to allow them to review the incident on TV or have a TV referee like they do in Rugby, stopping the game for several minutes at a time. Do you really want that?

And who's going to sit in judgement on their decisions? Alan Hansen? Alex Ferguson? That way madness lies!

Anyway, most of the people responding here seem only to be critical of referees when their own team doesn't get the decision they want.

Grow up the lot of you, and accept that no referee can be perfect all the time. They are trying to control 22 super-fit athletes who are being paid huge sums of money. It's a pretty thankless task and most of you couldn't do anything like as well as them.

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posted Aug 5, 2008

"I reckon that if a ref fails to spot or deal with a bad incident he should be able to be fined his match fee and banned for up to 3 games"
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Probably already been raised (but I don't care for trawling through all 600+ posts to find out) but this comment is absolutely ridiculous. A lot of incidents are based on interpretation, what you see as a foul, I may not, so how you could judge, or indeed compile a panel with whim one opinion could be held in order to judge this "bad incident" and or the severity of it, is beyond the mid of the sane.

And to pile that much more pressure on a referee, who already had to deal with player abuse, manager abuse, fan abuse and the gazing eyes of zillions of television cameras is nigh on torturous.

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posted Aug 6, 2008

Good point well made (even if it did take 4 1/2 months from the last post).

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