4 Comments

Football’s a mess guys – get to grips with the rules

Caz Combes – our FB moderator – occasionally feels the need to get an issue off her chest – here she make s it clear how unhappy she is with the way the game we love has gone and continues to head.
So, apart from the Olympic diving practice we saw, it seems that too much talk is about VAR. AGAIN!
Let’s be honest the game HAS changed beyond recognition-it is faster, margins are tighter, but there is SO much riding on these results now in terms of points.
Money has become, remains, and will continue to be the driving force of modern game.
With those pressures something was going to change-and we have V.A.R.
Now, I will say straight off, that I thought it might have been good for the sport-as it has been  in Tennis. Once the teething issues were sorted, decisions are quick, correct, and now accepted by both sides.
This was too simple for the clever people in charge of football!
Instead of helping the game, they added more, and more, rules which made everything more complicated – and as clear as looking through mud on a foggy day!
The result is a dreadful mess, which feels more of a gamble than when we had to rely solely on the sharpness of the linesman and an unbiased referee!
Although it might happen, seldom does the world ‘turn back the clock’, so VAR. is here to stay?
What alternatives are there?
Personally, I think we need to look very carefully at a lot of the rules  and simplify them forthwith!
Still not convinced we need a committee, having a debate, over every decision-one other official should be able to review available footage very quickly.
Another option might be having two referees, as in some American sports? Each available for half the pitch. Would that make life easier for them to see what is going on? You tell me-I’m sure you will!
Few seem happy with the lottery that is VAR added to the over-complicated rules, (or interpretation of those rules!), so what can we do next?
Just don’t ask me about a certain Aston Villa player, or I might get banned from C & H!
 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

4 comments on “Football’s a mess guys – get to grips with the rules

  1. EPL could take a few lessons from American Football. VAR is centralized and decisions reviewed quickly and simultaneously by a number of referees.
    Perhaps more in keeping with the nature of our football, VAR reviews should be on real time video. If not an obvious error, in real time, then the decision stands. Leave the computer generated lines and analyses to the morons on the tele. Provides fodder for their pointless, never ending verbal diarrhea.

  2. Should be nothing wrong with VAR – if like goal-line technology, they just adjudicate. But as you point out, for some reason known to nobody they decided to change rules on handball, offside and cynical fouls, and now it seems simulation, so as to introduce inconsistency and confusion. Its a dogs dinner, pure and simple.

  3. Couldn’t agree more GaryD and Hammerpete.
    Trouble with rules is that they will all seem to be interpreted unfairly at times. Make the rules more simple. Why do we have offside? A hundred years ago, the game needed to stop teams leaving players on the goal line, physically holding the goalie and obstructing whilst being available to get the ball in the back of the net.
    This worked at first and it became possible to ‘play’ a passing game. Since then the rule has been ‘tweaked’ as the game developed. No longer are players allowed to assault each other, cut them in half, barge the goalie. But, in the 80’s, too many games were 0:0 or very close. Back passes to goalkeepers and offsides without a ‘not interfering’ interpretation killed the game. So, the rules have been continuously changed since day one as the game progresses. The one page of rules has become volumes and the game has lost sight of simplicity and the reasons why these rules exist in the first place.
    Handball is handball. Deliberate handball – a caution. Accidental handball – still a free kick (penalty if in the box). Offside is offside – no matter about phases. Linesmen, put your flags up. Only assisting the referee. Still the referee’s decision. Referees blow your whistles. Players play to the whistle.
    Keep it simple, soccer. KISS. We’ll all be better for it.
    COYI

  4. In regards to adding on-field officials, I have often wondered if using something similar to the basketball three officials model wouldn’t be better. The officials move up and down the court in a rotational fashion. Granted the field is bigger but the model still applies. The linesmen would have to remain to continue with their normal duties but the additional two on field officials and their movement will increase angles on play and allow an official to be closer to the action while the others can see a wider view or monitor off the ball activities.

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