Rival Watch

[Brogue]

Forest Leicester and wolves in the champ next season? Don’t fancy anyones chances for promotion next season

[Franchise FC]

Forest Leicester and wolves in the champ next season? Don’t fancy anyones chances for promotion next season

I’m sure we’ve heard that this season

[windermereROYAL]

Bilic must be under pressure

[Stranded]

Interesting* development from the Wigan game yesterday. One goal was too tall by 2 inches and the game was played with different sized goals.

Cardiff scored 2 of their goals in that end with one going in off the bar, in a way that would have hit the bar and bounced away in a normal sized goal.

Will be interesting to see how resolved, esp. if Cardiff avoid relegation/make play-offs by a GD 1 better than another club.

[Nameless]

Interesting* development from the Wigan game yesterday. One goal was too tall by 2 inches and the game was played with different sized goals.

Cardiff scored 2 of their goals in that end with one going in off the bar, in a way that would have hit the bar and bounced away in a normal sized goal.

Will be interesting to see how resolved, esp. if Cardiff avoid relegation/make play-offs by a GD 1 better than another club.

Not sure there is anything to resolve.
Did they decide before or after the game what the height was ?
If before then the referee had decided to go ahead, which is his call. Question would be why they didn’t change the goals.
If it was only after then the game is done and dusted.
Neither team had an advantage even if in theory Cardiff might have got lucky with one shot.
Just one of those things.
Possible trouble for Wigan for making such a crazy error, fine perhaps ? But if it was their responsibility then they can’t moan about the goal.

[Stranded]

Interesting* development from the Wigan game yesterday. One goal was too tall by 2 inches and the game was played with different sized goals.

Cardiff scored 2 of their goals in that end with one going in off the bar, in a way that would have hit the bar and bounced away in a normal sized goal.

Will be interesting to see how resolved, esp. if Cardiff avoid relegation/make play-offs by a GD 1 better than another club.

Not sure there is anything to resolve.
Did they decide before or after the game what the height was ?
If before then the referee had decided to go ahead, which is his call. Question would be why they didn’t change the goals.
If it was only after then the game is done and dusted.
Neither team had an advantage even if in theory Cardiff might have got lucky with one shot.
Just one of those things.
Possible trouble for Wigan for making such a crazy error, fine perhaps ? But if it was their responsibility then they can’t moan about the goal.

Articles I've seen suggested the game only went ahead as decided it was a safety risk to not play given fans in the stadium and EFL were apparently informed that it had been sorted.

Question is the goal used was "illegal" it was bigger than the size stipulated in the Rules of the Game & the rules do state a game should be abandoned if 2 goals are not available that are the size stipulated. As this contravenes that there is an argument that the result could be nullified and the match forced to be replayed.

[Snowflake Royal]

Yeah, I don’t see how it's within a matchday ref's remit to decide to ignore a fundamental ruling for the game.

Correct outcome is a replay for me, but given the horrendous schedule I wouldn't be surprised if its quietly ignored and Wigan get a fine or something.

[Sutekh]

Interesting* development from the Wigan game yesterday. One goal was too tall by 2 inches and the game was played with different sized goals.

Cardiff scored 2 of their goals in that end with one going in off the bar, in a way that would have hit the bar and bounced away in a normal sized goal.

Will be interesting to see how resolved, esp. if Cardiff avoid relegation/make play-offs by a GD 1 better than another club.

Really? How on earth did that happen? Wonder if that means a fine or disciplinary action v Wigan? Presume results so far will be allowed to stand as both teams involved in each fixture played would have been defending and attacking the goal that was too large - or perhaps they should keep it as is until the close season so every club gets a fair crack.

Wigan though, with their home record so far and having a bigger goal to aim at every other week

[Nameless]

Yeah, I don’t see how it's within a matchday ref's remit to decide to ignore a fundamental ruling for the game.

Correct outcome is a replay for me, but given the horrendous schedule I wouldn't be surprised if its quietly ignored and Wigan get a fine or something.

It’s got to be within the remit of the person in charge ! Unless it was decided that the league game would be cancelled and a ‘friendly’ played to avoid crowd trouble then I don’t think you’d replay the game.
Big question is how a goal was manufactured that was slightly too big and how it was put in place - the nets would not have fitted properly. Also why did Wigan not have spare sets !

[Hound]

Yeah heard that on ssn at the times. Nuts

I think they found out during the game didn’t they? Anyway guess was the same for both teams

Terrible from Wigan though

[Franchise FC]

I appreciate that we don’t really want Bruce gone before our game, but another couple or so from the ‘Udders and WBA will be in the bottom 2

[Franchise FC]

But Bruce can point to the fact that they have a better goal difference than we do

[Snowflake Royal]

Yeah, I don’t see how it's within a matchday ref's remit to decide to ignore a fundamental ruling for the game.

Correct outcome is a replay for me, but given the horrendous schedule I wouldn't be surprised if its quietly ignored and Wigan get a fine or something.

It’s got to be within the remit of the person in charge ! Unless it was decided that the league game would be cancelled and a ‘friendly’ played to avoid crowd trouble then I don’t think you’d replay the game.

Referees aren't in charge of the laws of the game. They enforce them. They don't get to decide which ones to enforce, that offside doesn't require enforcing for example.

[Nameless]

Yeah, I don’t see how it's within a matchday ref's remit to decide to ignore a fundamental ruling for the game.

Correct outcome is a replay for me, but given the horrendous schedule I wouldn't be surprised if its quietly ignored and Wigan get a fine or something.

It’s got to be within the remit of the person in charge ! Unless it was decided that the league game would be cancelled and a ‘friendly’ played to avoid crowd trouble then I don’t think you’d replay the game.

Referees aren't in charge of the laws of the game. They enforce them. They don't get to decide which ones to enforce, that offside doesn't require enforcing for example.

Actually referees do decide which laws to enforce. No referee penalises every offence, you would have no game if they did. As a referee you are constantly weighing up whether to penalise things or let the game keep flowing.
Also the laws of football are mostly about opinion, not fact and the opinion that is relevant is that if the referee.
Of course a referee is not going to suddenly decide that handball is allowed, but at the same time there will be more ‘offences’ committed in most games that a referee doesn’t penalise than he does.
Having had a quick look at law 1 while it says the crossbar should be 8 feet from the ground it doesn’t specify what to do if it isn’t!
I have officiated at games where things were not 100% as per the law (wonky touch lines, once had a goal that was not central, missing corner flag) but we played anyway because why wouldn’t you ? It’s crazy to have been put in the situation by Wigan but he made the tight call to play and while Wigan should get in trouble I’m not sure there is a case to replay. Recent games where big decisions were got wrong haven’t been replayed…..

[Stranded]

I'm not saying there is a definite case to replay but if the issue is fixed and it was only in play for that 1 game.

What happens if Cardiff and say Bristol City end up on the same points but Cardiff stay up due a better GD of +1.

Bristol hit the bar of the same goal at Wigan meaning a 1-0 win rather than 2-0. Cardiff due to the known issue, score via a deflection off the same bar but it goes in due to the extra 2 inches, so they win 3-1 instead of 2-1. That "illegal" goal sends Bristol down.

Whilst I expect Wigan will just be fined it could open up a whole can of worms.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Yeah heard that on ssn at the times. Nuts

I think they found out during the game didn’t they? Anyway guess was the same for both teams

Terrible from Wigan though

What tickled me most about it was Wigan's manager moaning about the killer 3rd Cardiff goal going in off the crossbar at that end. They are the home side, it's down to them to sort it out. (Richardson's underlying point was that things, such as that, have been going against his side this season).

[Nameless]

I'm not saying there is a definite case to replay but if the issue is fixed and it was only in play for that 1 game.

What happens if Cardiff and say Bristol City end up on the same points but Cardiff stay up due a better GD of +1.

Bristol hit the bar of the same goal at Wigan meaning a 1-0 win rather than 2-0. Cardiff due to the known issue, score via a deflection off the same bar but it goes in due to the extra 2 inches, so they win 3-1 instead of 2-1. That "illegal" goal sends Bristol down.

Whilst I expect Wigan will just be fined it could open up a whole can of worms.

Trouble is you order a replay and suddenly losing managers will be out measuring the width of the touchline, checking the shape of the goalposts and the height of the corner flags. You don’t replay a game because a penalty was given that subsequently was shown not to be. Our ghost goal didn’t result in a replay etc etc etc.
The game was played, someone at Wigan messed up but there was no unfairness, no intent.

[From Despair To Where?]

Wigan fcuked up, they lost the game. I guess that's punishment enough.

[skipper]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but both teams had to defend and attack the odd sized goals?

So yes there was an error, but each team had equal circumstances, seperated by 45 minutes?

[Stranded]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but both teams had to defend and attack the odd sized goals?

So yes there was an error, but each team had equal circumstances, seperated by 45 minutes?

Yes but the next team going to Wigan won't have that chance - so yes whilst both sides in that game were not negatively impacted by the oversize goal, every other team going to Wigan will be, at least every team now going to Wigan will be.

This is different from a ref making an error of judgement - which is always subjective, even our ghost goal was a subjective error as the linesman thought he had seen a goal - it was noted that the goal was the wrong size and that is objectively against the rules amd every other side will not get to play under the same conditions.

I'm very much of the opinion that you shrug and move on as it is unlikely to have any major impact at the end of the season but the EFL will need to make a call based on what happens if it ends up becoming a big deal.