Whitey Grandad

They should do want used to be done in the old days. Make them wait offshore for 40 days with a yellow flag flying over them.

I use Tapatalk HD on my iPad

This is the crux of the matter. The Laws of the Game were first formulated in 1863 and relied on the human element of the referee and what he sees at the time the game is played. These same laws have to operate across all levels of football in all corners of the world. If we're going to introduce trial by television then we should operate under a different set of laws. If we're going to insist on a penalty, which is a probable goal, for every slight contact that may occur then we're going to end up with a situation in which teams spend all their time trying to win penalties or free kicks instead of trying to score a goal. Chelsea, for example.

What's he doing with his right hand?

I took it as an allegory.

Yes, quite correct. If undershorts or tights (!) are worn they must be the same colour as the shorts. The same applies to vests and jerseys. The checking of studs came about in the days when nylon studs were common. If the player had walked across hard concrete floors then these studs could get worn down leaving a jagged edge which could cause nasty flesh wounds. It's all in here, page 21: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/footballdevelopment/refereeing/02/36/01/11/27%5f06%5f2014%5fnew--lawsofthegameweben%5fneutral.pdf

All-seaters now innit.

I think the real reason for these is to take photos up ladies' skirts on crowded public transport. I shall definitely not be buying one of them. Absolutely not.

You could argue that if he stays on his feet then he hasn't been 'tripped'.

Nobody knows until they see the referee's report. At the time I thought it was for dissent because there was a delay between the incident and the card. Fàbregas was certainly mouthing it off to the assistant and everybody within earshot. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/12/29/244C790300000578-2889905-Chelsea_players_in_particular_Cesc_Fabregas_were_rightly_upset_w-a-1_1419866493367.jpg

Yes, I'm sure it will be considered but this is Liverpool we're talking about so a ban might be asking too much.

If Mourinho is going to criticise one decision then he ought to also mention all the others that were made during the same game. Or is it too much to ask that he be fair and open-minded?

I was just quoting the FIFA instruction to referees. Sorry, I should have made myself more clear, I was actually referring to the West Ham incident. I agree that Schürrle was completely inactive. He was just hanging around at the far post out of the way.

In the 60s if you went to a football match that was the end of the matter. No replays, no video evidence, nothing. If you missed a goal then you'd never see it again. There was supposedly a newspaper reporter who covered the Arsenal home games by spending the afternoon in the pub and writing his match reports by chatting to the locals after the game.

It is classed as 'Interfering with an opponent' "Preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or movements or making a gesture or movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent".

Turkish! You've scored.

This incident was nowhere near as clear-cut as many others this season and certainly not a nailed-on certainty that some in the media are claiming. To me it just looked like a coming together of the two players and Fàbregas just tried to make the most of it. His reaction proves to me that the referee was correct. As Shakespeare would say: The lady doth protest too much, methinks. It just demonstrates to me that the Chelsea players are concentrating their efforts too much on trying to win free kicks, penalties and yellow cards rather than using their considerable skills to score goals by conventional methods. If Fàbregas had skipped round Targett they might have scored the goal they wanted.

Well that is a surprise.

Any good referee would be doing that already.

After the game they were a fiver.

Well, our manager is Ronald Coupman. I'll get me coat.

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His first wasn't even a foul.

They would have to extend it. There's a minimum capacity of 15,000 in the Premier League.