by Croydon Royal »
19 Feb 2014 13:27
bcubed Croydon Royal bcubed Agree (with WR) that refs are poor and that reviews are long overdue
Football is so slow to change anything compared with other games
I would go further and use sin bins and only very very rarely a red card.
I don't want to go to a game and see 10 v 11 -whichever side is penalised it spoils the game.
In US football for example, even if a player is expelled from the game it's still 11 v 11.
Not sure on the US-style 'player expelled' front (and this is coming from someone who is a big fan of American sports), but agree on everything else. I think it was Alan Partridge (the HobNob one, not Coogan) who summed it up best at the weekend on Twitter:
For a referee, a red card should be a last resort, not a badge of honour. Too often it's the other way round. Referee's egos, cheating diving players and a general acceptance that anything with force is a red card is spoiling too many games.
so conversely do you think American sport suffers without a Red Card?
Personally i dont think so and yet there is way more respect for officials
Partly because the officials are more competent and have earned that respect
I still think kicking someone out of the game is a deterrent. It still penalises the team as they lose a key player, but it doesn't spoil the game as it is still 11 v11
I don't necessarily think some American sports suffer who use that format, but that's more because they have so many players naturally changing around during games. Ice Hockey, for instance, you have rolling subs and a large squad off the field where they can have like-for-like swaps in every position. So if you lose a star player and have to swap him for a lesser player in that position then yes, I believe it works.
My problem with implementing it in UK sports like football and rugby would be that clubs could abuse it. Almost using it as a 'free substitution' (although it would obviously depend on whether that expelled player gets additional punishments)...With limited subs, and some positions on the field that aren't covered on the bench, I just worry that you'd get yourself into a whole new world of conspiracies. Take the Tom Williams bloodgate example in rugby from a few years ago - have a winger come off because you need a fly-half to come on to take a kick. How long before a striker is ordered to deliberately get himself expelled from the game because a team is 1-0 up with 10 minutes to go, have used all their subs but want to get an extra defender on?
I'm sure there are plenty of holes in that theory, but that's a thought...