RE: [LU] Back on the list & You are the ref!

[Robert HEATH]

Title: RE: [LU] Back on the list & You are the ref!

----- Original Message -----
> ..... he did not actually prevent a clear goalscoring
> opportunity as someone else popped it in the net. Maybe that isn't how the
> rules of the game read, but that to me is the sensible and pragmatic
> approach refs take in practice.

Exactly. We are in great danger of missing the point of the game which is to
score goals. This rule was put in place in order to assist in the scoring of
goals or at least in order to counter the prevention of scoring goals. A
goal was not prevented by the actions of any player. That should be the end
of it. It was a goal. It was not prevented by anyone except the referee. How
insane is an interpretation of a rule put there to assist in scoring goals
when the referee of all people uses it to prevent a goal ? The is no denying
that the person who prevented this goal is the referee and that is not the
referees job. No sending off is appropriate. If the authorities or referees
lose sight of this then they are putting themselves in a position of
inflated importance and have become part of the problem instead of being
part of the solution. Keeping the players ON the pitch should be part of a
referees objectives because that is how the paying customers get to see a
game of football as it was intended to be. Sometimes they may be FORCED to
send a player off, but only if there is no alternative. FIFA needs a reality
check.


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I disagree.  Your analysis is very good, but you are missing one major factor out...DETERRENCE.  The ref is responsible not only for dealing with any incident suitably with ref to that particular game, but also giving a message to players as to what will happen in the future if they do x y or z.  This is something that astonishes me about professional footballers, because the newer tougher rules on red cards have been in place for what? probably over 10 years now and yet players are just too stupid to change the way they play.  They still keep launching in to dreadful two-footed challenges, or in Lehmann's case, throwing themselves at the ball with no hope of success (if he'd have got the ball he would still have been sent off because he was outside his box) and then whine about the refs along with the fackwit Andy Grays of this world.

I would have played advantage, allowed the goal, then sent Lehmann off for an early sausage.

What if [insert name of Watford keeper here] brings down Hulsey like that on Sunday...............will any lister be sayiing "Ooh I hope he doesn't get a red card because it will ruin the game as a spectacle"? No, I thought not.

Rob Heath
Bangkok Khow