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While you could be forgiven for thinking there are few aspects of football more mind-numbingly tedious than longwinded discussions about the excruciating minutiae of refereeing decisions, they are a thriving industry. The first port of call for lazy TV presenters and pundits, they also provide endless hours of cheap content for sports radio stations … and tea-time football emails. In the UK, Sky Sports and TNT both employ their own in-house former referees to pass their verdicts on the verdicts of their former colleagues. Occasionally interesting but largely pointless, these conversations do little more than further fuel the flames of fan paranoia that prompted some bright TV exec to air them for those sweet, sweet engagement metrics in the first place.
On the surface this is a cute and humorous story about a particularly creative and clever lower-division coach. But we all know how we felt about the classmate who reminded our teacher about the homework” – Harriet Osborn.
Reading Jordan Henderson’s non-apology and hearing about his disastrous media interview (yesterday’s Quote of the Day) put me in mind of a famous quote from Groucho Marx who, to paraphrase, said: ‘I have my principles but for a million quid I could have others’” – Geoff Spinner.
Re: ‘flawless’ goal-line technology (yesterday’s Football Daily). Until 4 September 2022 I would have agreed that it is the 14th best thing since sliced bread. However, on that date, the system involving seven cameras failed to spot that the ball had crossed the line and Huddersfield were denied a clear goal. Slightly more disturbing was that the officials on the day did not trust their own eyesight to overrule the hitherto flawless technology. And I gave up on VAR at the Championship playoff final earlier that year. I’m off to watch a North West Counties League match now where, fortunately, none of these modern aids have been introduced. And when the referee makes an unpopular decision the ultras chant: ‘The referee’s a Tory.’ Much more fun” – Jon Pidgeon.
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