Euro 2020

[Trader Pat]

We were all thinking it!!

That would jump right off his head if you waved a carrot at it

[Trader Pat]

Interesting subplot to the final on Sunday

https://twitter.com/LaurensJulien/statu ... 1940382721

Quite obviously different sports have different rules regarding umpire or referee contact. This is what gets you suspended in Australian sport https://mobile.twitter.com/9newsmelb/st ... 5138192384

In top level leagues and international football I just can’t believe that players can chase after the referee and push them in the chest and otherwise hassle them. Start suspending players or red carding them.

I’m guessing numerous things have been tried or proposed from time to time to stamp out hassling the ref and for whatever reason it just hasn’t been done. As an occasional observer of international football it is the one thing that really stands out (I guess together with staging for free kicks by faking injury but that is a whole other rabbit hole).

It seems the tougher the sport the more respect players have for the refs and the harsher the punishments for crossing a line. Aussie rules, rugby, gaelic games could all teach soccer a thing or two about player conduct.

[firlandsfarm]

Intentional contact on the ref. should be instant red card. And if the ref feels harassed by a group of players there should be an immediate verbal warning that anyone who does not shut up and back off immediately will be yellow carded. If they do not back off after being yellow carded then they are given a red card for two yellow cards. The message will soon get through to the players. The captains can approach the ref for clarification and the ref does not directly chastise any player, all communication is through the captain who then has the responsibility of managing it.

At the moment they harass the ref because they know they can and in many cases have probably been told to do so thinking it will influence future decisions and I think the authorities want players to harass the ref as a show of emotion and spectacle.

[Tuco]

Lots of hate on social media for England today, mainly centred on that soft pen. But England were by far the better team on the night. Not just saying that, they were. Denmark were really on the ropes in the latter stages of full and extra time.

I never realised that a football result was determined by 'who was the better team on the night' - I always thought the result was determined by the number of goals scored/conceded - everyday there is something new to learn!

"Lots of hate on social media for England today"

...and rightly so - Kane, Sterling and Grealish amongst others are a bunch of diving cheats. Cheating makes the ultimate achievement worthless.

I wonder how many people also believe this was a penalty?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAXzfLS5P7w

[greenmark]

Intentional contact on the ref. should be instant red card. And if the ref feels harassed by a group of players there should be an immediate verbal warning that anyone who does not shut up and back off immediately will be yellow carded. If they do not back off after being yellow carded then they are given a red card for two yellow cards. The message will soon get through to the players. The captains can approach the ref for clarification and the ref does not directly chastise any player, all communication is through the captain who then has the responsibility of managing it.

At the moment they harass the ref because they know they can and in many cases have probably been told to do so thinking it will influence future decisions and I think the authorities want players to harass the ref as a show of emotion and spectacle.

I reckon with advent of VAR, harrassing the ref has one main purpose. It delays the penalty/freekick. This is intended to frustrate the opposition and give the taker time to think about the importance in the hope of disturbing their concentration.
Certainly agree refs should get the support of governing bodies if the dish out yellows.
I'm sure the EPL guidance that only the Captain is allowed to approach the ref is still in place.
Clerarly hasn't been at Euro 2020.

[Trader Pat]

I reckon with advent of VAR, harrassing the ref has one main purpose. It delays the penalty/freekick. This is intended to frustrate the opposition and give the taker time to think about the importance in the hope of disturbing their concentration.
Certainly agree refs should get the support of governing bodies if the dish out yellows.
I'm sure the EPL guidance that only the Captain is allowed to approach the ref is still in place.
Clerarly hasn't been at Euro 2020.

I just think refs need to be tougher, like Kuipers was/is and just tell players to f*ck off. If you watch any football from other leagues you'll see there are refs who players tend not to cross a line with and he's one of them. There's a couple of German and Italian refs (I'm sure there's others too) who take no nonsense and while players will still surround them they don't take a step back which is great to see. Premier League refs come across as weak in comparison and always look terrified when surrounded which is probably why they compound their errors by making another one.

The use of VAR and standard of refereeing has been very good in the Euro's (apart from the other night of course ) and EPL guidance has got nothing to do with that thankfully.

[greenmark]

I reckon with advent of VAR, harrassing the ref has one main purpose. It delays the penalty/freekick. This is intended to frustrate the opposition and give the taker time to think about the importance in the hope of disturbing their concentration.
Certainly agree refs should get the support of governing bodies if the dish out yellows.
I'm sure the EPL guidance that only the Captain is allowed to approach the ref is still in place.
Clerarly hasn't been at Euro 2020.

I just think refs need to be tougher, like Kuipers was/is and just tell players to f*ck off. If you watch any football from other leagues you'll see there are refs who players tend not to cross a line with and he's one of them. There's a couple of German and Italian refs (I'm sure there's others too) who take no nonsense and while players will still surround them they don't take a step back which is great to see. Premier League refs come across as weak in comparison and always look terrified when surrounded which is probably why they compound their errors by making another one.

The use of VAR and standard of refereeing has been very good in the Euro's (apart from the other night of course ) and EPL guidance has got nothing to do with that thankfully.

Agree with all that. Would you mess with Collina or Howard Webb?
But I think the main issue is the delay in dispersing the mob.
Yellow cards are the only deterrent that will work for that. Then there is no delay. And, therefore, the transgressing team is more likely to be punished.

[trkizzle]

Lots of hate on social media for England today, mainly centred on that soft pen. But England were by far the better team on the night. Not just saying that, they were. Denmark were really on the ropes in the latter stages of full and extra time.

I never realised that a football result was determined by 'who was the better team on the night' - I always thought the result was determined by the number of goals scored/conceded - everyday there is something new to learn!

"Lots of hate on social media for England today"

...and rightly so - Kane, Sterling and Grealish amongst others are a bunch of diving cheats. Cheating makes the ultimate achievement worthless.

I wonder how many people also believe this was a penalty?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAXzfLS5P7w

First time watching football mate? Diving has been around ever since football was invented. It's funny seeing people point the finger at England calling them cheaters and such. England have been losing to cheaters ever since I can remember, karma's a bitch I suppose. it's so funny listening to all the cry babies about our apparant actions on Saturday, bore off.

[Trader Pat]

I wouldn't go as far as calling diving cheating, every team has benefited from it and every team has been the victim of it.

Imo cheating on a football pitch is when a player goes down holding their face just trying to get another player sent off even though there was no contact anywhere near his face, that to me is blatant cheating and should be subject to a retrospective ban.

Everything else that happens on the pitch is just different shades of grey.

[Kai]

England's penalty takers for the final already leaked

[Tuco]

First time watching football mate? Diving has been around ever since football was invented. It's funny seeing people point the finger at England calling them cheaters and such. England have been losing to cheaters ever since I can remember, karma's a bitch I suppose. it's so funny listening to all the cry babies about our apparant actions on Saturday, bore off.

I'm not your mate, so you can do one.

[Tuco]

I wouldn't go as far as calling diving cheating, every team has benefited from it and every team has been the victim of it.

Imo cheating on a football pitch is when a player goes down holding their face just trying to get another player sent off even though there was no contact anywhere near his face, that to me is blatant cheating and should be subject to a retrospective ban.

Everything else that happens on the pitch is just different shades of grey.

...what is so hypocritical is that the players 'take the knee' to preach to everyone as to how to behave towards others and wear the word 'respect' on their sleeves, but then spend the next 90+ minutes claiming every decision, abusing and haranguing all of the match officials, cheating their opponents at every given opportunity and disrespecting the game they play.

The rules of Football need to be updated and brought into the 21st century as they are well outdated - Cricket, Rugby and Tennis have easily managed to do it and so could Football if there was someone with a tiny bit of common sense involved.

[jamesg46]

I wouldn't go as far as calling diving cheating, every team has benefited from it and every team has been the victim of it.

Imo cheating on a football pitch is when a player goes down holding their face just trying to get another player sent off even though there was no contact anywhere near his face, that to me is blatant cheating and should be subject to a retrospective ban.

Everything else that happens on the pitch is just different shades of grey.

...what is so hypocritical is that the players 'take the knee' to preach to everyone as to how to behave towards others and wear the word 'respect' on their sleeves, but then spend the next 90+ minutes claiming every decision, abusing and haranguing all of the match officials, cheating their opponents at every given opportunity and disrespecting the game they play.

The rules of Football need to be updated and brought into the 21st century as they are well outdated - Cricket, Rugby and Tennis have easily managed to do it and so could Football if there was someone with a tiny bit of common sense involved.

Well said, well thought out! +1

[Trader Pat]

Modern world unfortunately, hypocrisy is everywhere and its pretty much inescapable

[Tuco]

For absolute starters, this is what I would do:

1. All class 1 matches would be of a fixed length of 'ball-in-play' to stop all of the time-wasting which is not in the game's interest. Whether each half was 30/35/40 minutes is open to debate and discussion. The remaining time to play in each half would be on a couple of large screens for all to see. (In the recent Italy game, the ball was in play for just 9 of the last 21 minutes due to time-wasting by the Italians - that is unacceptable and not in the interests of the game).

2. 1st yellow card = 10 mins in the sin bin
2nd yellow card = 20 minutes in the sin bin
3rd yellow/straight red = off for the match

With the above, in international tournaments there would be no need to ban a player after he receives two yellow cards as that beneifits a future opposing team and does not benefit the team against whom the player got the yellow card - but with the above sin bin format it does.

3. Delay the game in any way and you'll immediately get a yellow card (and a visit to the sin bin) - stand in front of the ball at a free kick, kick or throw the ball away = yellow card.

4. Penalty shoot-outs should have adopted the ABBA system as used in tennis tie-breaks years ago - and they should change ends after every 5 kicks.

5. Handball needs to be 'hand-to-ball' and deliberate rather than what we have where a player smashes a ball from two yards away and it hits the players arm resulting in a penalty.

6. As in Rugby Union, when invited only the team Captain can approach and speak to the match referee - if anyone else does it's a yellow card and a visit to the sin bin. Anyone speaks or harangues the referee's assistants, it's a visit to the sin bin for at least 10 minutes of ball-in-play.

7. Any player who has been subbed at any stage of the match, could return to the field of play in place of any one of his team-mates - no need to stop play, the 4th official could deal with this. This works well when the opponents foul and injure a player who cannot continue, but all of the substitutes have already been used - that's unfair as the opposition benefits from fouling and injuring the player who cannot continue.

8. If a player goes down with an injury, as in Rugby Union two physios can enter the field of play to treat the player, but the game does not stop (unless the referee determines the situation to be an emergency as in Christian Eriksen's case) - players currently feign injury to waste time and halt the momentum their opponents have.