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Showing posts from January, 2011

Keys and Gray

Right, very simply, one or both of those shitbags should be sacked, not just suspended. Gray might just get away with it, as everyone knows he's a piece of work and his job is just to comment rather than hold sway, and also, frankly, because what he said wasn't as bad; but Keys, really, this should be the end of the road for. How can he be accepted as a host and a figure of authority now? It's all very well making a crack about women not knowing the offside rule, which is just a dumb joke alongside "women drivers", but there's a seriousness and nastiness to what he was saying, a genuine bigotry. He seems to sincerely believe a woman is not up to the job of running the line - whereas there is literally nothing about being an assistant referee which a woman cannot do as well as a man. There are arguments to be had in other areas. Will attitudes prevent a woman from controlling a game fully as a referee? Likewise, will attitudes and whatever the subtle changing

Why Football is so Difficult to Referee

Just a brief thought which is pretty obvious, really, but doesn't get said enough. What makes football, and also, to a lesser extent, rugby, so difficult to officiate as opposed to many other sports is how often the referee is expected, in making a judgement, to read intention. A player can be sent off or unpunished depending on what a referee believes, from what he sees his body do, is in his mind. At the speed at which football is played, bearing in mind we're talking quite often about actions carried out with the feet rather than the hands, this is an unreasonably difficult task.