Thank you, Willo. I refer you to my last sentence. On Sunday we had two debateable offside situations where apparently VAR didn't even get involved.

Edited by Pigglelet (27 Jan 2022 1.05pm)

"Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."
Mark Twain.

A subjective decision which was totally wrong according to the laws of the game

With subjective decisions there is always risk of inconsistencies and occasions when on reflection those making them might conclude that they had erred.Human beings make errors of judgement and I should know!

I think you mean 'change'.

A thought from me, I remember quite well being in secondary school (sadly a while ago now) and we had a group of kids (10-30 or so) who were overly, or rather strangely, enthusiastic about football. The kind who would wear Italian 2nd division shirts to P.E. and could quote a variety of statistics/facts to you on any given subject, whether it be players, managers, their career paths, teams, their mascots, stadiums and so on. They all had one thing in common however, they were all 5h!t at football, to the extent that I think the vast, vast majority (if not all) never even played for a Sunday league side and actually, come to think of it, most supported Manure.. actually supported them despite being from South London - which I've never accepted,

All useless at the game, never even played for a team, rarely if ever went to matches and in most cases (sadly) bullied at school. I hold nothing against these kids, they were happy in their own world so fair do's but I didn't want them ruining my fun whilst playing football or daring to lecture or in any way assume a better understanding of the game for which I had been a long standing season ticket holder (thanks Pops) and had regularly played, most of my young life, at a decent level.

I get the impression that most referees have followed a similar path and it is infuriating. I find myself even getting angry watching neutral PL games these days, like Wolves vs Leicester or something, due to bewildering and worrying decision making from officials which screams at me their knowledge of football has come via a classroom as oppose to experience of the game. VAR has further exposed these mugs to the extent we now have an empty shell of a person officiating our games coming to the same wrong conclusions despite being able to review video based evidence and I expect a deterioration if not further increase of farcical decisions going forward.

I will end and balance these thoughts by once again stating I believe Michael Oliver to be a very good referee. I am content to accept any human error on his behalf as he has my overriding trust as an official. The rest of them however are appaling, there's nothing wrong with VAR just the ignorant halfwits operating it. Having faith in a single referee is not enough and for me they're as much a plague and detriment to the game as anything else we have numerous campaigns against.

I should sleep well tonight after that!

As always - COYP

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

Offside offence
A player in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched* by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by:

interfering with play by playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate or
interfering with an opponent by:
preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or
challenging an opponent for the ball or
clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or
making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball

or

gaining an advantage by playing the ball or interfering with an opponent when it has:
rebounded or been deflected off the goalpost, crossbar or an opponent
been deliberately saved by any opponent

A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent who deliberately plays the ball, including by deliberate handball, is not considered to have gained an advantage, unless it was a deliberate save by any opponent.

A ‘save’ is when a player stops, or attempts to stop, a ball which is going into or very close to the goal with any part of the body except the hands/arms (unless the goalkeeper within the penalty area).

In situations where:

a player moving from, or standing in, an offside position is in the way of an opponent and interferes with the movement of the opponent towards the ball this is an offside offence if it impacts on the ability of the opponent to play or challenge for the ball; if the player moves into the way of an opponent and impedes the opponent's progress (e.g blocks the opponent) the offence should be penalised under Law 12
a player in an offside position is moving towards the ball with the intention of playing the ball and is fouled before playing or attempting to play the ball, or challenging an opponent for the ball, the foul is penalised as it has occurred before the offside offence.

Edited by Willo (27 Jan 2022 2.17pm)

So Friend was only following orders? Pawson was the one who flagged it, and Friend knew he had an obligation to give the Penalty (in which case, why have a monitor at all!?)

Sounds like we need a VAR collective of officials at Stockley park, rather than a singular person.
(thats if they don't want to give the power back to the on field ref.)

Edited by CrazyBadger (27 Jan 2022 2.21pm)

"It was a Team effort, I guess it took all players working together to lose this one"