[Football] Linesman

[portslade seagull]

I ran the line for my son's team for two seasons. It's a difficult job and not made any easier when you're being barracked by chavvy parents and having your coach suggest "you might go a bit easy". I made several genuine mistakes as well as not knowing to this day if my more borderline decisions were correct or not.

Without me the game would not have gone ahead.

VAR is taking the game we love and reducing it to lines drawn to the command of a school teacher. It is all kinds of wrong. I imagine after Covid is finally done there will be wags on the sidelines of under 12s games referring every throw in that the earnest volunteer gives to a non existent VAR while the best in the land at it are told to never raise their flags again.

Mental.

Always hated the parents running the line as often they were very biased in their decisions. VAR seems a little biased towards certain top6 teams. It needs people who are independent and not part of the referee's mafia

 

[Giraffe]

Sepp Blatter had it right (the only thing!) when he said that once the elite game of football becomes materially different to the game played in the park you will lose the people. We are there in my view. Game ruined for spectators in the stadium and I actually think for viewers watching on telly. I watch a lot less football now as I don't want to get stressed by VAR for a game that I don't really care about.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Always hated the parents running the line as often they were very biased in their decisions. VAR seems a little biased towards certain top6 teams. It needs people who are independent and not part of the referee's mafia

Parents can either be biased or incompetent or both. I tried to be neither but am not formally qualified. I do have my level one coaching badge and used to help out at training, then I ran the line on Sunday so the main coach could actually worry about coaching instead of running the line.

What are you going to do when the Sussex FA sometimes struggles to even find a ref, let alone three officials. If you do get a ref they're normally about 15 themselves and in their first year, though we had one old boy who never left the centre circle

However, people really need to the think about that when they abuse officials. Who really wants to spend their spare time being threatened and called a

 

[portslade seagull]

Parents can either be biased or incompetent or both. I tried to be neither but am not formally qualified. I do have my level one coaching badge and used to help out at training, then I ran the line on Sunday so the main coach could actually worry about coaching instead of running the line.

What are you going to do when the Sussex FA sometimes struggles to even find a ref, let alone three officials. If you do get a ref they're normally about 15 themselves and in their first year, though we had one old boy who never left the centre circle

However, people really need to the think about that when they abuse officials. Who really wants to spend their spare time being threatened and called a

Never had that trouble as a big lad 6ft 6 and used to workout a lot so no one dared, even the players didn't confront me. Would've sent them off for foul and abusive if they did. Sent a manager off for abusing his own players

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

We had a referee on the Albion Roar a few years back, he told us that there are some referees who tell the linesmen pre match that all the decisions will be made by him (the referee) and the linesmen are only to flag when the ball goes out of play. Apparently it was commonplace for referees to do this, thus making the role of the "assistant referee" pretty much pointless.

Yep, l've been told exactly the same thing by a referee too.