European Football Thread

[Adam]

When Darren Ferguson said we should shoot the referees, I didn't think someone would take it literally...

[Malenko]

43 minutes ago, Lineker said:

It was obviously a No DQ match.

Not really. The whole league was cancelled apparently. Basically everyone was DQ'd including those not involved in the match.

[Lineker]

Whoooooosh.

[9 to 5]

The dude hasn't been on here for over a decade, he won't get all our jokes yet! #linekerthebullymod

[Baddar]

PAOK president storms the pitch whilst armed with a gun following a goal that got ruled out for offside

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43583648

[MDK]

12 minutes ago, Baddar said:

PAOK president storms the pitch whilst armed with a gun following a goal that got ruled out for offside

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43583648

Ahem.

[Malenko]

This came back to the news because the Greek League had been suspended because of that, but now is back on.

[Lineker]

Sporting Lisbon president suspends 19 players after social media spat

[Rich]

I am off to see Dukla Prague next weekend vs Slovan Liberec

[Lineker]

Quote

Mainz’s Bundesliga match against Freiburg could be set for a place in the record books after the home side scored just under seven minutes into half-time – and after the players had been allowed to leave the pitch.

In the dying seconds of the first half, Mainz had an appeal for handball turned down by the referee Guido Winkmann, with the scores still at 0-0. Winkmann then blew for the break, allowing the players to go in for half-time – only for the VAR official to give the handball and award a penalty.

Following a delay of almost five minutes, Freiburg’s players had to be summoned from the dressing room after it was ruled that Daniel Brosinski’s cross had been handled by Marc-Oliver Kempf. Six minutes and 44 seconds after the first 45 minutes were up, Pablo de Blasis stroked home the spot kick to put his side a goal up and to allow both teams to head back off the pitch for half-time again.

The chaotic scenes did little to appease fans who had protested against Monday night football by bombarding the pitch with toilet rolls at the start of each half, forcing the second half to be delayed by 10 minutes.

De Blasis was on target again in the second half, just about, and sealed a 2-0 win for Mainz when his shot at an open goal bounced in off the post in the 78th minute. It allowed Mainz to move above free-falling Freiburg in the table and up to 15th, ending their own six-game winless run in the process.

The VAR system has been used in the Bundesliga this season but not without controversy as it has been at the centre of several disputed decisions.

[Adam]

Bring back Sepp Blatter, seriously.

At least his corruption was off the field. This shit is ruining the game.

[Rich]

On 07/04/2018 at 19:35, Rich said:

I am off to see Dukla Prague next weekend vs Slovan Liberec

Dukla recorded their first win of the calendar year with me and my friends attending.

[Gazz]

7 hours ago, Adam es Tranquilo said:

Bring back Sepp Blatter, seriously.

At least his corruption was off the field. This shit is ruining the game.

How is it corruption? It was the correct call to award a penalty in this instance. It has improved the game, a player cheated and has been punished for something he would have otherwise gotten away with.

https://www.clippituser.tv/c/zbzwag

[Baddar]

It's no secret that I like VAR. But I'm glad the Premier League are holding off on implementing it for another season. There's still plenty of kinks to iron out, and the fact players were sat in the changing rooms at Half Time and brought back out is absurd.

[The Lusophone]

I feel like with that sort of thing they should change the rules and have it be a penalty at the start of the second half, but I'm well aware there's a lot to work out around that - do you start the half that way and if saved carry on from there/missed carry on from a goal kick? Is it just a one time thing with no rebounds etc and it goes back to kickoff no matter what? VAR's potential is exciting but there's a lot of kinks still to work out.

[Gazz]

It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the keeper saved it and the ball stayed in play. What's the ruling if the other team counter-attack and score?

I think in this case, you have to start the second half from the penalty spot and the half is 'live' once the ball is kicked.

[Baddar]

The most ridiculous one was also in Germany (might have involved Dortmund actually) where a side scored a goal, but after celebrating it found out it'd been chalked off and they'd actually conceded a penalty up the other end. Shit like that just cannot happen.

[Adam]

2 hours ago, Gazz said:

How is it corruption? It was the correct call to award a penalty in this instance. It has improved the game, a player cheated and has been punished for something he would have otherwise gotten away with.

https://www.clippituser.tv/c/zbzwag

It's corrupting the nature of the game if you will. I'm exaggerating but my point really is that in its current form this VAR isn't right. You can't be awarding penalties during half time, it's farcical.

I think the process needs to change by eliminating the pitch referee from the decision. Once he's referred it or we've had a manager/captain challenge (an element that works well in other sports yet hasn't even been mentioned as a possibility for this) I think the video ref should make the call on an alteration. He should say "that is a penalty, award one ref" not "hey ref have a look at the screen for a minute to see if you think you missed something".

It's not clear enough, I know this is still a trial period but it's affecting the quality of experience in the very top competitions in the world. Imagine this half time nonsense happening in the World Cup final, there could be carnage.

[Baddar]

The challenge system would work much better.

If a player goes down and nothing is given, the captain can challenge if he thinks it's a foul/penalty. If they're wrong, they lose the challenge and on we go. As it is now, play continues and a goal can even be scored at the other end before it is properly looked at. Give the referee on the pitch full control by deciding what's a foul and what isn't, but the players one chance to overturn a decision.

[Colly]

9 minutes ago, Baddar said:

The challenge system would work much better.

If a player goes down and nothing is given, the captain can challenge if he thinks it's a foul/penalty. If they're wrong, they lose the challenge and on we go. As it is now, play continues and a goal can even be scored at the other end before it is properly looked at. Give the referee on the pitch full control by deciding what's a foul and what isn't, but the players one chance to overturn a decision.

When does he challenge though, the next time it goes out of play? That could be 5 minutes away. The whole thing is just murky as hell, the fact that it can only be used to change a decision, not make one that hasn't been given just means there's a perverse incentive for refs to guess that an infringement has happened just to get a stoppage because then the VAR can make the decision for him (in theory). If anyone can come up with a vaguely workable solution to that I'd be on the VAR train, but that's a pretty fucking huge drawback.