Our Football Has Been Ruined

[Altobelli]

And continues to be.

After watching MOTD2 and MOTD last night I have to agree with some on here who claim that Football is fast becoming a non contact sport.

Last night Huddersfield's Steve Mounie went in for the ball and trapped it, full foot on the ball, his opponent was never touched, yet he was sent off, tonight Tottenham's Vertonghen stretched for a ball and won it fairly, but his "natural" follow through caught his opponent who was running in for the same ball but well late to claim it, again the Ref read it as a foul, its totally out of order, what is Vertonghen supposed to do ? leave the ball because of being worried about being penalised for a foul ?

There was a similar tackle the other week, and very similar to Barnes' one which took out a Chelsea player a few years ago, the player was sent off, Ian Wright on MOTD that evening said it was not a foul, Alan "No Charisma" Shearer said it was a foul as he could have altered his natural follow through, FFS ! You'd think Shearer had never played the game, when you are in a full running stride mode for a ball its very difficult to alter the momentum of your leg/foot, once having played the ball.

With all that's already wrong with Football the powers that be are knit picking with seemingly trying to make it a non contact sport, while the main things are left to fester and get worse, how I long for the unadulterated proper Football of the 60's and 70's where playing was king instead of money, prima donnas and cheats .

[sinkov]

I keep saying it Alto, the biggest problem in the game today is referees. They ruin game after game, from ludicrous decisions on hand ball, to giving free kicks every time a player falls down at the slightest contact. There was a fine example yesterday late in the Arsenal/Spurs game, Winks just touched the arm of Xhaka who then threw himself onto the floor, it was blatant cheating but it made no difference, Dean gave him a free-kick, while two Spurs players gave Xhaka a mouthful while he was on the deck. The players know what's going on but the refs either can't, or don't want to see it. It's the most depressing thing about watching a game these days, you see two players 'coming together', and you wait for the inevitable whistle, as you just know the first one to throw himself onto the floor will get a free kick, and they do, every time.

[Scott Kirkland]

Players rolling around like they had been shot out of a cannon

[alfinyalcabo]

Spurs penalty yesterday was never a penalty..he never touched Son ..

[Supersub6]

Referees are doing their job with directives from above and this is why the game is going to the dogs.
You have to take into consideration who pays the officials and think that, if this was your job and the people paying you say that you must do this, that or the other, your reactions would be exactly the same as it is with the referees.
It is a very sad state of affairs, however, the more I see of the modern game, the more convinced I become that FIFA are trying to make it a non-contact sport.

I forgot to add --it will all be solved with the introduction of VAR!

[alfinyalcabo]

Referees are doing their job with directives from above and this is why the game is going to the dogs.
You have to take into consideration who pays the officials and think that, if this was your job and the people paying you say that you must do this, that or the other, your reactions would be exactly the same as it is with the referees.
It is a very sad state of affairs, however, the more I see of the modern game, the more convinced I become that FIFA are trying to make it a non-contact sport.

I forgot to add --it will all be solved with the introduction of VAR!

Ashy... The Spurs penalty would have been solved with VAR .

[Supersub6]

Ashy... The Spurs penalty would have been solved with VAR .

You are more than welcome to it alf. If they are introducing VAR it should be used for every decision because none is more important that any other. Get rid of the onfield officials and do it all by watching a screen. We can then be sure that every time the ball goes over the line for a throw in, goal kick or corner kick that the whole of the ball crosses the whole of the line --how many times does that happen? Every handball can be re-scrutinised to ensure that it was deliberate --how many times does that happen? A player plays the ball in a 50/50 tackle and gets pulled up for a tackle which is out of control ---how many times does that happen? Icould go on and on about this, however, my point is that every decision is important, but by using VAR in the manner they envisage, they are saying that only SOME decisions are important, therefore just fo it all from a screen --mo point in paying three match officials.

[sinkov]

Ashy... The Spurs penalty would have been solved with VAR .

I'm not so sure, even after the replay the comms on Sky were still saying there was contact and it was a pen.

[Supersub6]

I'm not so sure, even after the replay the comms on Sky were still saying there was contact and it was a pen.

That will soon become the norm ---every bit of contact will be penalised one way or another. Sad state of affairs, however, it will probably please fans of modern day football who never had the pleasure of watching John Angus, Colin Blant, Terry Butcher, Jimmy Scoular, John McGrath, Stuart Pierce and lots of others who would not last five minutes these days because they used to tackle!
The interesting thing to note about these times is the fact that players like George Best, Tony Currie, Jimmy McIlroy, John White etc. used to flourish, even though they were fair game for players such as Chopper Harris, Norman Hunter, Tommy Smith etc.