Consider the following three situations: 1- On the 15th of August Crystal Palace scored a goal against Bristol City, it went in, bounced back OFF THE BACK OF THE NET and was disallowed because none of the officials thought it had gone in. 2- On the 26th of August the BBC reported that Gary Roberts of Huddersfield Town had been given a retrospective red card for his part in a scuffle in the match at Bristol Rovers on the 22nd, "The 25-year-old will now face a three-match ban after the referee viewed footage of the incident after the game." 3- On the 28th of August Eduardo of Arsenal recieved a two match Champions League ban after UEFA reviewed footage of an incident in which he dived to successfully earn a penalty against Celtic on the 26th. It would seem that video technology is finding its way into the game only when it suits Messers Platini and Watmore. If video technology can be used to hand a player a red card after the game, why can't it be used to award a goal that would have earned Crystal Palace a point? Because Bristol would have then moaned about the inconsitency in the use of video technology, that's why. And who is the judge of whether an offence during a match warrants a card? And what colour that card is? The referee, and to quote from Laws of the Game for the 2009/2010 season, Law 5 - The Referee, page 22: "The referee may only change a decision on realising that it is incorrect or, at his discretion, on the advice of an assisstant referee or the fourth official, provided that he has not restarted play or terminated the match." The incident either wasn't seen by any officials or was deemed there and then by the referee to not warrant a red card, the match was then subsequently terminated. That should be it. But who should come along other than our little friend video technology, now it is stated that this little fellow can only be used when appealing against red cards. This now leads me onto point 3, don't get me wrong on this, I am firmly against players diving, but basically the same thing has happened here, except this time it was UEFA reviewing the situation and not the referee in question. However, they have basically handed down a two match ban for, to use the technical term, simulation, which comes under unsporting behaviour. Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct, page 34: "A player is cautioned and shown the yellow card if he commits any of the following seven offences:
- unsporting behaviour [number one, would you look at that!]
- dissent by word or action
- persistent infringment of the Laws of the Game
- delaying the restart of play
- failure to respect the required distance when play is restarted with a corner kick, free kick or throw-in
- entering or re-entering the field of play without the referee's permission
- deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee's permission"
Therefore the worst Eduardo should have recieved is a retrospective yellow card, which, in the Champions League, does NOT carry a two match ban. (Okay, here, I AM ignoring the point raised earlier about the referee's decision being final) The sooner someone comes in and actually defines when video technology should and shouldn't be used, and someone upstairs at UEFA actually learns the Laws of the Game, the better, because until then our good friends Michel Platini and Ian Watmore are doomed to endure the farce that is the current system.
Such a shame that this was the last Yorkshire Cup, the woman who runs it is retiring this time and no-one's willing to take over :(
Friday:
This was a case of recognising a couple of people, having names come back to me, and apologising to Tony for waking him up on his holiday in California at 8 in the morning. Running on the line is pretty much always the same no matter what age group you do, there was under-12s up to under-16s there, and to say the tournament is known for foreign teams it was a bit poor, there was Bielsko Biała U-13s from Poland (losing finalists) and Sanskriti School U-15s from India (didn't score a single goal and conceded 39 in 5 games). But basically running the line is simply staying in line with the back defender, offside here, offside there, corner, corner, goal kick, the odd foul, and repeat. Being in the middle however, one single moment or decision can make or break your game, the main objective of a referee is to maintain control of the game and make sure the kids enjoy it, which was made difficult on the under-12s match I was put in the middle of. I can't remember the name of one of the teams but the other was Spen Valley, whose player recieved the ball just outside the centre circle in his own half, played it, then was brought down by a boot. To the knee. Studs up. He goes down naturally in agony, but I can tell by the look on the 'culprit''s face that it was an accident. Thank you so much to the crowd for not yelling for a booking, all that was said was as the poor kid's manager came on "that were a bit high, wasn't it?" Though I'd already had a word, telling him to be more careful and that if he was older and had a different ref, that could easily have been a yellow or even red card. It was resolved with less fuss than I've faced in other situations thankfully.
Saturday:
The one I got put in the middle for this time was an under-13s match, I can't remember either teams' name this time! It was quite a nondescript match until the score was 5-0 to the blacks and I gave the blues a penalty, once again, any other ref, any other day, no penalty. Final score: Blacks 5, blues 3.
Sunday:
This is it, the semis and the finals, the last day of the last Yorkshire Cup, and I was in the middle of the under-13s cup final: Deighton Juniors vs. Bielsko Biała, the most useless advice I've ever been given: "they live near the German border so try talking to them in German" I don't speak German. Well, not much. The Deighton lot told me that Bielsko were known for going down easily, I never take any notice, however they were true to their reputation, every time one went down all their lot were shouting "dive! Dive!" etc. however on one of them the Bielsko midfielder was on the attack and was quite easily fouled. "Dive! Dive! That's never a free-kick!" "That's never seen a dive!" And I don't think I heard anything else from them. While the kid was down I called the manager over and they know more English than they let on: "Arbit! Is a yellow card!" "I'll decide what's necessary" "Okay, you are arbit." Arbit being Polish for referee and quite similar to the Spanish (which I do speak): árbitro. After that though I may have mistakenly let Bieslko back into the game, Deighton were 2-0 up in the middle of the second half and one of their players was making a break, got fouled but kept the ball, "advantage!" what happens literally half a second later? They lose it, pass, pass, pass, shot, 2-1. Crap. Thankfully the manner in which they scored their second would deflect some blame away from me in the event of a Bielsko victory, a shot led to the keeper dropping the ball and it was pounced on by the striker for 2-2, it would remain like this until full time. Naturally, extra time must now be played, I let them have their team talks and then blew my whistle, "captains please!" Deighton's captain over no problema, Bielsko must have forgotten English again, and Deighton's captain didn't know how to repeat my request in Polish, nor did I in German, 5 minutes later they finally made it back. Deighton scored a fairly routine through ball-shot-goal and all was settled.
Deighton Juniors U-13s 3-2 Bielsko Biała U-13s
We want him. Please Rafa? Why must Premiership teams insist on keeping youngsters on the bench where they'll never compete against the likes of Arbeloa and Carragher instead of letting them out to lower league clubs on loan? No harm done to Liverpool, Kelly gets match experience, our squad is bolstered some more, seriously, what is one bad thing?! Well at least Skarzy should be able to do the job.
Word to the wise, never post a blog about football after having left one of those old-timey kettles on...no es bueno.
