Wrong decisions in football
This is clearly a cricket blog - don't worry! But I thought it was interesting, having posted yesterday about wrong umpiring decisions that may or may not change the course of a game, that Brazil apparently had a perfectly good goal ruled out against England last night in the 19th minute for offside. I didn't watch the game - I've just read the reports.
So the "real" score was 2-1 to Brazil and that decision changed the result. Given the huge amount of money floating around in football you'd think the pressure to get decisions right would be enormous, and yet wrong decisions that change the result get a one line mention in match reports, although I suppose this was only a friendly. One day perhaps we'll find a way to ensure decisions in both sports are made more accurately.
3 comments:
Yes, the player who headed the ball into the net was not offside, two players who were in offside positions were (on the modern interpretation) not active. The linesman who flagged was not from one of the world's leading football-playing countries: it was presumably his turn to get a big game under some human rights or equal opportunities rules. I suppose it's better that such a mistake is made in an unimportant friendly match rather than a crucial qualifier.
I don't think the various tinkerings with the offside law over the last few years have been improvements. How about a return to the old law, when the only thing that mattered was where a player was when the ball was played by a team mate?
Hmmm, controversial. I'd like to think that anyone from any country can put their flag up at the appropriate time! Unfortunately humans are prone to error which is why I favour the use of replays and whatever technology is available...whatever the sport.
Who needs an offside law anyway?
If there was no offside in football (and Hockey manages perfectly well without it) there'd initially be a spell with Peter Crouch-alikes lurking on the goal line with a similar girafe-type marking him and the two would be effectively irrelevant to the game. So the game would evolve in a different way and all the tiresome arguements would disappear. Mind you the press would have to look elsewhere for much of its column inches.
And while we're talking about rule changes - what happened to the experiment with kick ins instead of throw ins? I saw many games in The Isthmian League where the experiment took place and it really added to the goalmouth excitement (and helped my team get promoted)
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