Football is not a gameshow, and referees should not stage-manage the action to ensure a more ‘entertaining’ productIt was a bright, clammy afternoon in August, and the clocks were striking one hundred and thirteen. Midway through the second half at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, with the score 1-1, Chelsea engaged in a spell of concerted forward thrust, and with Liverpool adjusting to a double substitution, Trent Alexander-Arnold pressed the damper pedal for a moment.The whole thing took about 10 seconds. Alexander-Arnold walked backwards, looked around, feigned a couple of throws, using the moment as a peg to reset his team’s shape, to let the lactic acid fade a little, to alter the balance of energies. The only really notable part...
Jack Grealish was penalised for inadvertently touching the ball with his fingers, giving United the chance to equaliseAs it turned out, it didn’t affect the destination of the FA Cup or deny Manchester City a chance at the treble, but it might have done. Manchester United had created very little when suddenly VAR gave them a penalty for something almost nobody appealed. Assuredly, under the laws, as they are now interpreted, the decision was correct. Jack Grealish’s hand was raised almost to shoulder height as Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s header struck it, and that these days is an offence. But really, why should it be?Why should games be decided not by skill or heart, by organisation or improvisation, but by 75% chances...
In obsessing over the minutiae of refereeing, the game has sacrificed its spontaneity, narrative coherence and sense of funConfusion reigned on Wednesday night. In the white-hot heat of the moment, players, pundits and fans at Tottenham filming reaction videos on phones failed to grasp the intricacies of the offside law. Even the person helming the Guardian’s Champions League clockwatch – me – was very far from sure.Could Harry Kane be adjudged offside if Emerson Royal nodded Ivan Perisic’s excellent deep cross backwards? Could Kane be offside if the ball flicked off a Sporting defender before being tucked into the net, seemingly earning Tottenham a stirring comeback victory and a place in the last 16? Continue reading...
Perhaps the inability to admit ignorance is a direct consequence of the binary nature of social mediaThere’s every chance that Ice-T wasn’t talking about football when he wrote “Don’t hate the player, hate the game” in 1999. Twenty-three years later there’s still no sign of his eagerly awaited follow-up, “Don’t hate the referee, hate the Law”, but it would be useful if someone wrote it.To hate the laws of football, you have to know what they are and it appears an increasing number of people paid to talk about the game don’t and can’t admit it when that’s the case. Fikayo Tomori’s foul on Mason Mount and red card at San Siro on Tuesday was the perfect illustration. Continue reading...
It is a generation since keepers were told they could not pick up backpasses. Football’s rules can adapt to improve the gameI was watching old football matches on YouTube the other day, and a striker was standing in front of the opposing goalkeeper and waving his arms. The goalkeeper had calmly taken a pass from a teammate on the halfway line and then carried it around for 20 seconds. I know, of course, that this was allowed in the past, but at first I was irritated. The sight was so unfamiliar.Then the goalkeeper kicked the ball back to the front, having used up about a minute. I don’t need to tell you which team were in the lead. The striker...