1.) 07 Feb 2018
07 Feb 2018 04:31:16
yeah it can be abused. See your teammate offside then pass just in range of the defender and hope he touches it. The fact is, it was the wrong decision and it will get called offside next time and then you will get the pundits asking why its offside if the defender diliberately touched it. The Referee's have just openend themselves a can of worms for pundits to latch on to.


2.) 07 Feb 2018
07 Feb 2018 06:05:54
The referees association will defend their employees at all costs which is why standards are so low. Instead of trying to improve the standard, to train better referees, to clarify the rules to make their lives easier they defend the incompetent, lie about the rules in order to back up that defence and basically refuse to make any fundamental changes. Officiating standards, when you think about the sums of money involved in football, are absolutely woeful. There needs to be an overhaul so that the quality of the officiating matches the quality of the football - right now its international class football with sunday league officiating. VAR is the latest gimmick to help improve decisions - I'd say firing incompetent refs and hiring/ training new ones to a high standard would be far more beneficial.


3.) 07 Feb 2018
07 Feb 2018 07:18:49
Worst thing about it is the lesson taught to the kids from the England striker is
" I felt a touch so I went down "
Absolute disgrace.


4.) 07 Feb 2018
07 Feb 2018 07:23:41
Seano_ Your point is backed up by the fact that you rarely see new refs just the same ones, the ones that make mistakes week in week out. I don't blames the refs fully, they have no performance level set to them by the FA, therefore they are unaffected by what the fans class as poor performance.


5.) 07 Feb 2018
07 Feb 2018 09:31:11
as much as i agree with what you said 100% im past that what is sticking in my craw is that you here the so called expert referees say that if your not 1005 sure you can't give a penalty and you clearly hear moss and the prick on the sideline say they don't know if lovren played the ball but yet they gave the penalty anyway, but we knew moss is inept he even broke their own law asking the fourth official what he seen on tv.


6.) 07 Feb 2018
07 Feb 2018 12:40:57
I agree - part of the problem here is always trying to fudge an answer to make the referee correct rather than clarifying the situation and sorting it out so there clarity next time.

If you have a look at FIFA’s own website (page 15 in the link below) it’s clear that the pass to Kane and his run from an offside position renders him offside the minute the ball is played as he’s clearly the only player in that space that can receive it and he gains an advantage from his offside position, he doesn’t need to touch it before the call is made

goo.gl/c4zI9

Likewise on a referee website it explains this exact scenario at the bottom of the page:

goo.gl/a413j

This is a controversial rule, it should be picked up on and clarified if the ref was wrong rather than making excuses for a poor call and leaving an even bigger grey area for next time.


7.) 07 Feb 2018
07 Feb 2018 13:47:21
The issue is really not Kane saying that he felt a touch and so he went down.
The seeming legitimacy of that is the issue.

Personally, if the touch is insufficient to make you fall but your u deliberately fall, that has to be defined as a “dive”.

The same apply for the Lamela situation.
It is a dive.

As for the offfside decision, I saw Alan Shearer and Sherwood as pundits.
Both find it incredible that it was not an offside decision, and more so when The ex referee Gallagher or whatever his name is said that is the stated rule. That Louvren touched it and therefore it is not offsite.

This entire thing sucks.
Even if it is indeed according to the rule, the linesman should have raised his flag. Then it is up to the referee to overwrite him.

And for the 2nd penalty, referee who was nearer had already signaled play on, and then changed his mind.
I have nothing to say if he hasn’t done that.

In any case, go see Clattenburg’s comment.
He clearly think the first penalty is an off-site.
Whatever Louvren does is irrelevant.
His intention is to clear the ball because someone is behind him, and that someone is offside. Period.

Not to say Tottenham doesn’t deserve it for apart for Salah’s goal, they were superior all round.
Still, we were robbed.