Whitey Grandad

Of course it's imprecise. If the attacker is on one side of the pitch and the defender is on the other and the camera's position is not dead square then you haven't a hope in hell of getting a correct decision on a tight call. No amount of computer-generated lines is going to help you. The offside law was not written to be interpreted by a computer game. It needs a rapid, on the pitch decision in order to keep the game flowing. VAR is a sledgehammer to crack a puff of smoke.

Im out of the country so I claim a Wenger and say that I haven’t seen that particular incident, but fouls are almost impossible to determine on a TV screen.

You’d be amazed at what you can see if your position is correct. The amount that a player moves within the fraction of a second that it takes is minimal. As I have said before, it’s not a precise law and with the best instrumentation in the world it never will be.

I don't think that four linos would be a problem but you end up having different arrangements for different levels of football. Almost all referees 'run rights', that is the linesmen run alongside the left back and the referee runs along a diagonal so as to cover the unattended corners and keep most of the action between the referee and his assistant. Regarding Gabbi's disallowed goal it would have been obvious to the referee that he was onside but at this level the referees tend to take the assistant's decision without question. At the level of football that I used to supervise there usually weren't any assistants and those that there were could not always be relied upon. You could end up keeping an eye on them as much as the players.

That's not the way it works. The assistant on the line (let's call him lino) has to keep him/herself stationed level with the second -last defender at all times. This is not easy for the untrained and means shuffling up and down the line like a crab. Then when the ball is kicked it is a quick check to see whether the attacker is in an offside position. The difficulties arise in a fast-moving game when players are moving in opposite directions but quite frankly if you need a freeze-frame then it's takings pedantry a bit far.

"there was contact" That has nothing do do with whether or not it was a penalty.

I can live with that cup final. We have to remember that everything else that went on in that match would also have been subject to review and somehow I don’t think that Saints would have benefited. What I would like to see is a more sensible link-up between the referee and his assistants. As a referee you have a pretty good idea whether somebody is offside or not. A quick confer there and the goal would have stood. Certainly if I had been reffing it

Very true. Just imagine that load of crâp with endless stops for VAR reviews.

None of them improve the game. Football depends on continuous free movement for its unique appeal. The fact that the ball can be cleared off the line at one end and then a few seconds later it's in the other net is what makes it special. Every other sport is a turgid dirge.

When the offside law was written it wasn't intended or expected that it would be implemented by someone sitting miles away whose viewpoint wasn't actually at normal eye height and level with the second-class defender and who was watching some coloured pixels on a distorted freeze-frame screen. It was only ever an approximate law.

I'm very pleased that I had the chance to go. Let's hope for many more such trips.

That in itself should worry you. Effectively it would mean that different leagues are operating under different laws Hi Pete!

Restaurant tables that don't sit flat on the floor and have to be wedged with beer mats.

That's not what I typed! (and I did check at the time) Add auto-correct to the list of small things that annoy me.

Any idea when that would be?

Most of it ours.

A pedantic never sleeps. Do we?

People who say "should of", "could of", "must of" etc People who say "etc" because they're too lazy to think of another example.

What a carve up. What kind of democracy is this supposed to be?

No we're not. Even here it's not entirely clear whether the defender scrapes the ball. A stupid lunge to make, mind you.

The WA is much deeper and wider than a simple FTA.

The WA is an indefinite extension except that legally we are out of the EU. Brexiteers say "that's tantamount to remaining' Remainers say 'in that case we might as well remain'

You voted for the fudge. All you did was put a tick in a box, you didn't specify what you wanted.

He doesn't have to do anything to get a no-deal. It is the default event and the only things that can stop it is ratifying the WA, revocation or him asking for an extension and the latter two are down to him. A General Election might be forced on him but otherwise he could sit on his hands. At least that might keep them out of mischief.

No it wasn't. The referee didn't think so. The forward was hardly touched,if at all, and was lunging forward trying to reach the ball. What VAR now means is that every game will have several penalties and every penalty is going to be scored even if it has to be retaken several times. It distorts the whole purpose and balance and tempo of the game.