I said I can see both sides of it. So no, I’d not have screamed for a red, but if you consider the effect of the foul and the intent. He could have caused serious injury and he did intend to foul him imo. Not like he did, but if he’d backed off then the incident wouldn’t have occurred.
Me and my mates chuckled about that. He just has no end product. Does 4/5 good things a season and people rave about him. I’d have Shane long in the team ahead of him.....
I don't think there was intent, but as they said in the studio intent isn't in the law now anyway. I actually thought when I saw the replay it had a reasonable chance of being overturned. As you touched upon though, him having the nibble with the first trip a second before has made it look much worse and that's what's done for him I think.
Every week I see ex-players paid good money to tell me they don’t know what handball is anymore and they don’t know what offside is anymore. Not sure they’re solution to punditry let alone VAR.
Ah but the point is, they are at a loss with the current rules, which are obviously written by people who didn't play the game, that's why. I actually think it's a good shout that ex-players should be involved in the football laws as well as enforcing them.
So given that if you get any incident that isn’t black and white put any 3 players in a studio and they won’t agree as they have a bias based on the position they played, etc... , as there opinion is subjective. I’m not saying that players organisation shouldn’t have any input into the law. But I can’t think of less suitable set of people to enforce it.
I didn't mean just any ex-pro who fancies the gig. Obviously there would be interviews and suchlike just like any other appointment.
That's all very well but refs aren't reffing the games anymore, they're just spokesman for Stockley Park. I say scrap Stockley altogether and let the officials just review on the screen by the pitch if they need to. That would be an improvement.
