Weekend Football

[NathStPaul]

Complete nonsense.

Paul would like robots to referee the game.

[Winston Biscuit]

stick with me on this one. What if they are issued before the game to everyone, and then if you behalf well you get it taken away after full time?

[paultheroyal]

Just read that Darwin Nunez has taken 12 penalties in his career and scored them all. Mac Allister 10 of 11. Szoboszlai 16 of 17. Which makes it even weirder that Klopp has persisted with Salah, who has now missed 4 of his last 9, as Liverpool's penalty taker. If they do get a penalty whilst Salah is on AFCON, wonder if he might lose them for good.

Decent from Nunez, some record that. Surprised Trent dont take them. Cant see Salah giving them up on his return though unless asked to.

[Dirk Gently]

the chat around the game seems to focus so much on 'but is there contact?' which afair was never what fouls were about.

as an aside, I would like to see yellow cards introduced for players who dive/exaggerate things but have still been fouled. Feigning injury is feigning injury.

That's so massively subjective it's a real can of worms - even before VAR gets involved. What if a player legitimately injures themselves in a tackle but not from the contact (e.g. pulls a muscle etc)? The inevitable result of asking referees to make an instant judgement on whether a player is injured or not is a referee booking a player for feigning injury and then they're carried off of a stretcher and miss the next x matches from the injury that the referee decided didn't exist.

Would just make things so much harder for referees.

What about when they lightly get brushed on the face and throw themselves to the floor?

Not every instance is quite so clear cut. Where do you draw the line between what's clear and what isn't?

The reality is it's almost impossible to draw up laws that work for such subjective things.

[BRO_BOT]

That's so massively subjective it's a real can of worms - even before VAR gets involved. What if a player legitimately injures themselves in a tackle but not from the contact (e.g. pulls a muscle etc)? The inevitable result of asking referees to make an instant judgement on whether a player is injured or not is a referee booking a player for feigning injury and then they're carried off of a stretcher and miss the next x matches from the injury that the referee decided didn't exist.

Would just make things so much harder for referees.

What about when they lightly get brushed on the face and throw themselves to the floor?

Not every instance is quite so clear cut. Where do you draw the line between what's clear and what isn't?

The reality is it's almost impossible to draw up laws that work for such subjective things.

Yeah, I was thinking that even as I was typing

[Pepe the Horseman]

stick with me on this one. What if they are issued before the game to everyone, and then if you behalf well you get it taken away after full time?

I don't like it.


I LOVE IT.

[Stranded]

with all the technology available now - yellow cards should be issued after the game once reviewed for clear diving incidents.

Not sure on that one but some form of citing system similar to rugby could work i.e. a player is sanctioned for something missed at the time after the event. Could include retrospective red/yellow cards.

[Sanguine]

As a ref, paul, how would you feel about your performance being scrutinised to that extent, and indeed, changed?

I'd be all for a procedure like in rugby - and football desperately needs a review system that applies to yellow cards resulting in reds. Diogo Jota's for example, where his first booking at Spurs was given when Udogie kicked his own feet.

But referees and PGMOL are so wedded to a relative lack of accountability.

[paultheroyal]

with all the technology available now - yellow cards should be issued after the game once reviewed for clear diving incidents.

Not sure on that one but some form of citing system similar to rugby could work i.e. a player is sanctioned for something missed at the time after the event. Could include retrospective red/yellow cards.

Thats kind of where i am going with this...

[paultheroyal]

As a ref, paul, how would you feel about your performance being scrutinised to that extent, and indeed, changed?

I'd be all for a procedure like in rugby - and football desperately needs a review system that applies to yellow cards resulting in reds. Diogo Jota's for example, where his first booking at Spurs was given when Udogie kicked his own feet.

But referees and PGMOL are so wedded to a relative lack of accountability.

You are assessed all the time, even through the pyramid system there would be an assessor at most games. Every EFL and Premier League game is assessed. If their performance score average at certain points of the season are low they will be demoted or put on warning and if high performing put forward for promotion. High performing officials would always get the top games.

As even commented on here, refs get decisions wrong but people can see how that can happen. Nothing has changed much in football other than the advanced technology leading to greater scrutiny.

[Sutekh]

As a ref, paul, how would you feel about your performance being scrutinised to that extent, and indeed, changed?

I'd be all for a procedure like in rugby - and football desperately needs a review system that applies to yellow cards resulting in reds. Diogo Jota's for example, where his first booking at Spurs was given when Udogie kicked his own feet.

But referees and PGMOL are so wedded to a relative lack of accountability.

You are assessed all the time, even through the pyramid system there would be an assessor at most games. Every EFL and Premier League game is assessed. If their performance score average at certain points of the season are low they will be demoted or put on warning and if high performing put forward for promotion. High performing officials would always get the top games.

As even commented on here, refs get decisions wrong but people can see how that can happen. Nothing has changed much in football other than the advanced technology leading to greater scrutiny.

And leading to greater visibility of how utterly incompetent referees can be sometimes.

[Royal Rother]

In the PL the standard of refereeing the game on pitch is better than it's ever been.

The standard of the assistant referees is mind-bogglingly good.

[Snowflake Royal]

the chat around the game seems to focus so much on 'but is there contact?' which afair was never what fouls were about.

as an aside, I would like to see yellow cards introduced for players who dive/exaggerate things but have still been fouled. Feigning injury is feigning injury.

That's so massively subjective it's a real can of worms - even before VAR gets involved. What if a player legitimately injures themselves in a tackle but not from the contact (e.g. pulls a muscle etc)? The inevitable result of asking referees to make an instant judgement on whether a player is injured or not is a referee booking a player for feigning injury and then they're carried off of a stretcher and miss the next x matches from the injury that the referee decided didn't exist.

Would just make things so much harder for referees.

What about when they lightly get brushed on the face and throw themselves to the floor?

Or get a tap on the hip and throw themselves to the floor clutching their face.

[Snowflake Royal]

with all the technology available now - yellow cards should be issued after the game once reviewed for clear diving incidents.

Not sure on that one but some form of citing system similar to rugby could work i.e. a player is sanctioned for something missed at the time after the event. Could include retrospective red/yellow cards.

I would agree with Paul's suggestion if refs weren't seemingly incapable of interpreting slow motion footage with the understanding that being in slow motion changes how things appear.

[Winston Biscuit]

Pascal Chimbonda has been given a 5 match touchline ban as manager of Skelmersdale Utd...so has registered himself as a player instead

[Sutekh]

Pascal Chimbonda has been given a 5 match touchline ban as manager of Skelmersdale Utd...so has registered himself as a player instead

He's 44 now

Let's hope Selles doesn't hear about this dodge.

[Winston Biscuit]

Never heard of their being much concern around a tyne-tees derby before, but for some reason they are really planning this like a military operation to avoid trouble

All Newcastle fans had to be on coaches arranged by the club departing at 9:30am and the turnstiles opened at 10am for them

It's on ITV at lunchtime. Quite looking forward to watching it tbh

[BRO_BOT]

Never heard of their being much concern around a tyne-tees derby before, but for some reason they are really planning this like a military operation to avoid trouble

All Newcastle fans had to be on coaches arranged by the club departing at 9:30am and the turnstiles opened at 10am for them

It's on ITV at lunchtime. Quite looking forward to watching it tbh

Kit clash, who OK'd this

[Orion1871]

I know Newcastle is a better team with better players, but there's a real lack of the intensity you'd expect in a derby in this Sunderland performance.

[bcubed]

Going back to diving/simulation, I really think commentators have a large part to play in getting rid of this malaise.

Just watching the Arsenal Liverpool game and have seen plenty of diving and falling over after a slight touch. But no commentator has criticised any of it.

The more that happens the more it becones the norm. And obviously this has been going on for ages so perhaps it's already too late.

And does the PFA or similar still exist? I've always thought they should have a role, as their members are fraudulently trying to get fellow members booked/Sent off and missing games