Linesman Simon Beck has been axed from this weekend’s matches after his blunder robbed West Ham of two points and handed Liverpool a point to keep them level with Manchester City.
Beck allowed James Milner to cross for Sadio Mane to score against West Ham last Monday night even though Milner was clearly offside a metre when he received the ball.
Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) is understood to be concerned by his performance in this game.
Referees and their assistants are assessed every game and their performance is closely evaluated. A referee or assistant who has significant failures will find himself not getting additional matches or in the case of the Premier League play may find himself demoted to the Championship for consistent mistakes.
Beck has been spoken to by his bosses and “given the weekend to go shopping”, according to a source quoted by the Daily Mirror.
Pellegrini said on Thursday: “I don’t include the referee because it was the linesman’s mistake. For the first goal [Milner] was one and a half metres offside but if you see the linesman he was watching the ball, not the line.”
As a radical thought, why not have 4 assistant referees ? each running half a line. This would also have the benefit of making sure that the officials are up with play, ensure more accurate offside positions and negate the blind side fouls, dodgy corner ball placing and much more.If one doesn’t ‘see’ it then surely the other would and if both raise a flag that must help the ref in his positive deliberations.
I have thought about this for a long time and seems more logical and useful than sticking an extra official on the end as in Europa matches.
One of my in-laws was born in Mauritius and lives in east London but is a ‘Pool fan through and through. With all the media coverage today it’s not just your local club you get to see every week.
He also looked overweight couldn’t run a bath let alone a white line we do seem to get the poor refs & linos grr
He used to ref at my local 7 a side league so I got to know him quite well. He’s a decent bloke and a good ref but he does support Liverpool😂
Is that true? He was born in Bedfordshire
The other linesman wasn’t any better when he missed Origi offside at the end. Just because Origi failed to score doesn’t change the nature or relevance of the linesman’s mistake.
I suspect I’ll get vilified for saying this, but I feel quite sorry for him. He’s made an important, split-second mistake to look one way rather than another. Mane still had to finish, which he did, smartly, yet nobody is looking at our defenders…
Enough has been made about this now, and we should let the guy lick his wounds, learn from his mistake and get on with his life. It’s ridiculous that one man can receive quite so much vitriol for being human.
How do u learn from a mistake when the offside player was on your side right under your nose? That’s just straightforward incompetence. VAR please!
You learn by reviewing what you did and not doing it again. He was looking at the ball rather than the line and not using his peripheral vision. I daresay he won’t be doing that again…
The circumstances surrounding what actually happened (i.e. that it was on his side and right under his nose) has nothing to do with learning from an action and endeavouring not to repeat it, Hugh.
We may think that it’s incredible that he missed it, but is dwelling on it and continuing to hound him for a mistake he probably already feels bad about going to help? Surely we’re not that bitter and angry, and can be graceful about it?
I agree though, VAR will help. Peace.
His job is to watch the line. If he can’t keep his attention on the line them he’s failing at the most important part of his job. And it is his actual job
He has made one mistake. In one football game, after likely hundreds or thousands in which he didn’t make the same mistake.
Are you, or anyone else reading this infallible to making a mistake within your chosen profession? Got to say, all this anger and stone-throwing is unbecoming, and makes us sound as bitter as Klippety Klopp…