Official has attracted the ire of supporters but shows his human side on former striker’s podcast, as he nears final whistleA man who seems so laid back he could probably serve as a draught excluder at the gates of Winterfell Castle, it spoke volumes that after a senior career spanning 19 years, it wasn’t until seven months into Peter Crouch’s retirement from professional football that the scales blinding him from the truth about referees finally fell from his eyes. A recent conversation over drinks with Mike Dean convinced the veteran of more than 600 games to realise that referees are human just like the rest of us, rather than unthinking, emotionless, card-brandishing cybernetic androids who simply materialise, fully formed like...
Goals should not be ruled out because an armpit was ahead of the last defender but issues with remote refereeing run deeperThank goodness for Arsène Wenger. It is about time someone with a genuine appreciation of the game stepped in to prevent VAR’s remote officials tying themselves in unnecessary knots over something as straightforward as the offside rule.What Wenger is suggesting, in his capacity as Fifa’s head of global development, is a slight variation on the concept of daylight between an attacking player and the last defender. The former Arsenal manager believes that if any part of a player’s body that can score a goal is level or onside – ie anything except hand or arm – he should not...
The former Premier League referee’s career was finished by one moment and this absence of forgiveness is likely to be repeatedIn an emotional blog post on New Year’s Eve, the former Premier League referee Bobby Madley detailed how his career was finished in one moment 18 months ago. “Please don’t think bad of me. I’m a human being who made one mistake, one that many many people have done themselves and not lost everything for.”It is a story that only fits in the 2010s – one of smartphones, social media pile-ons and a complete absence of forgiveness – one that highlights the disproportionality between someone’s mistake and the impact on their lives. It couldn’t really have happened before the last...
The system is too often introducing travesties into games instead of clearing them up and changes are neededDissatisfaction with VAR seems to be back with a vengeance after the incidents of last weekend, with a meeting of Premier League clubs scheduled for next month to discuss the implementation of remote technology and look into the reasons referees have been avoiding their pitchside monitors.Most of us imagined the ability to check a quick replay on the sidelines would be all officials needed to sort out contentious incidents not readily picked up in real-time. When VAR was being dreamed up the general idea seemed to be that travesties on the pitch that led to the referee being besieged by aggrieved defenders –...
The officiating scandals of the 2002 World Cup must remind us why the advent of the video referee is a good thingWith that collective wit for which football fans are justly renowned, the Spurs contingent at the Etihad Stadium broke into song last weekend when Manchester City’s winning goal was ruled out in the last minute. “VAR, my lord, VAR,” they chanted, to the tune of Kumbaya, as the video assistant referee scrubbed out Gabriel Jesus’s dramatic clincher, adjudging Aymeric Laporte to have handled the ball with the most glancing of touches. It was a case of Jesus being thwarted by a higher authority.But if Spurs fans saw VAR as a kind of divine intervention, a deus ex machina worthy...