"The Referee was awful"

[withdeanwombat]

I've done a bit of reffing at a low level without "referees assistants" and you need eyes in your backside and lungs of iron.And you make mistakes.And having made them,you just have to get on with it.So refs have a hard task,for sure.But refs at League level should be very good at their jobs,and they have assistants and fourth officials etc.They currently still have to make decisions in real time,though,so part of football is refereeing errors.And it happens to all teams.

But there seem to be some refs more prone to errors than others,and they referee EVERY Albion game,..................no,no, but we have had some poor decisions this season,and surely SOME refs should be taken off the league list,or what are the assessors for?

 

[BensGrandad]

Could it be that the standard of refereeing is not actually dropping but the continual analyses on TV etc has made us all budding Collunas and has made us look out for mistakes as opposed to the 'good old days' when you just accepted it and got on with the game or the arguments down the pub about the game.

 

[Acker79]

Could it be that the standard of refereeing is not actually dropping but the continual analyses on TV etc has made us all budding Collunas and has made us look out for mistakes as opposed to the 'good old days' when you just accepted it and got on with the game or the arguments down the pub about the game.

Definitely. I also think there is a tendency to not be as up on the laws of the game as we think we are. A particular problem for TV/Radio pundits

The number of times I see and hear commentators and "expert" analysts try to explain why a ref got a decision wrong is worrying. Fans watch these programmes and assume since they're experts they know the current laws, so will believe them when they spout nonsense.


Common errors:

-Touching the ball means it's not a foul.
-Contact with the player is necessary for a foul.
(a foul is given if a challenge is careless, wreckless, or uses excessive force)
-The keeper should have been sent off for handling the back pass and denying the goal!
The rules specifically mention keepers can't get sent off for handling backpasses
-The ball is in the corner quadrant, it's not even touching the line!
The ball only has to overhang the line, not touch it. i.e. the entire ball has to be out of the quadrant
-"He's the last man"
It doesn't matter, it's about denying a goal scoring opportunity
-Can't be offside if the ball is played sideways
It's not about the direction of the pass, but about the position of the player in relation to the ball, if he's ahead of the ball and has to track back to collect the pass, he's still offside.


Of course, even the fans who don't pay attention to the commentators assume the rules that applied when they got into the game are still relevant, because it's only one or two changes that get emphasised at the start of the season. The smaller ones are an after thought most of us don't pick up unless we read the laws of the game each year.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

-"He's the last man"
It doesn't matter, it's about denying a goal scoring opportunity

Oooh, yes, that grates with me, especially when it comes mainly from so-called expert Sky TV pundits.

The law states NOTHING about being the last man, merely about denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, which is a fairly subjective opinion. A striker who gets brought down by the keeper when there's a defender on the goal line is still denied a clear goalscoring opportunity, even if the keeper isn't the last man.

Other bugbears of mine include those amongst the crowd at Withdean who scream "offside" when the ball is hoofed forward from a goal kick (read the rules), and those who start moaning that there hasn't been a red card for a deliberate handball in the middle of the pitch. It's a yellow unless (again) it denies a clear goalscoring opportunity. There's a pattern emerging here...

 

[The Wizard]

Oooh, yes, that grates with me, especially when it comes mainly from so-called expert Sky TV pundits.

The law states NOTHING about being the last man, merely about denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, which is a fairly subjective opinion. A striker who gets brought down by the keeper when there's a defender on the goal line is still denied a clear goalscoring opportunity, even if the keeper isn't the last man.

Other bugbears of mine include those amongst the crowd at Withdean who scream "offside" when the ball is hoofed forward from a goal kick (read the rules), and those who start moaning that there hasn't been a red card for a deliberate handball in the middle of the pitch. It's a yellow unless (again) it denies a clear goalscoring opportunity. There's a pattern emerging here...

Surely if your the last man you are denying a goalscoring opportunity because there is no-one else between the player and the goal? So really its the same thing...

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Surely if your the last man you are denying a goalscoring opportunity because there is no-one else between the player and the goal? So really its the same thing...

Yes, it may well be, but it could also apply when you're not technically the last man.

If Forster was clean through on goal, rounded the keeper eight yards out, with only a defender on the line to beat, and the keeper hauls him down, that would be a clear goalscoring opportunity by most people's definitions, regardless of the fact there was a defender on the line.

I'm simply reiterating the previous poster's point that there is nothing in the law specifically referring to "the last man" as so many pundits seem to think.

This law, relating to so-called professional fouls, was brought in to deal with repeated instances where a striker ran through the defence only to be cynically tripped by a defender who knew he'd stop an almost certain goal and would only receive a caution for his trouble. Think Paul Allen in the 19?? FA Cup final.

 

[NMH]

Thank the lords !!

Finally, someone stands up and thinks, "what about the referee ?!"

As a referee, no, there is nothing that can be done. Oh, actually, you can just do nothing, but then you are told that you let a lot go, that you went missing in the game. Or you can give everything, stop the flow until the players learn you aren't there to be f***ed about. Either way, and something I learnt very quickly, you aren't there to win.

I watched the game tonight, and imho, I would have brought the free kick back, and made them re-take it. For a start, it was about 5 yards nearer the goal than it should be, and also, it was taken so quickly. Plus, there was no way the referee was in a position to see the play properly. Sure, give advantage for a foul to the team fouled against, but that is ridiculous !! Finally, did Campbell touch it back ?

Yes, Campbell def touched it back, then showed his knowledge instantly by holding up his hands (which pretty much indicated he knew something).
I don't know if the keeper even suspected he'd touched it, so for me it was Campbell's fault - and he wandered around looking like Manuel from Fawlty Towers while they got on with things!

The commentators suggested the ref was in Campbell's way, yet they failed to note that he would have had to be 10 yards from the ball in any condition. 's

The kick is available to be taken quickly, so Wanger can't complain about that. He ought to be blaming his dumbass player for being thick and also for their shite passing that rarely saw their moves end in a shot. Arsenal are also a foreign team, so I laughed at their inept plight - Wenger deserved to end up looking dense.

ManU were also rubbish the night before, but - they won their match.
Arsenal handed away the win - sad twats :

 

[NMH]

Could it be that the standard of refereeing is not actually dropping but the continual analyses on TV etc has made us all budding Collunas and has made us look out for mistakes as opposed to the 'good old days' when you just accepted it and got on with the game or the arguments down the pub about the game.

What days were those?
People have ALWAYS blamed the ref!

 

[BensGrandad]

What days were those?
People have ALWAYS blamed the ref!

But that was only in the pub afterwards and it soon passed on to other topics of conversation.