Do you prefer BT or Sky coverage

[AguyIknow]

Must confess I thought that BT was very amateurish when it started and this carry on of standing around a table at pitch-side looked naff. But I like the way the commentators seem to call what they see without apparently worrying about what some producer or the SFA are going to think.

I particularly like their reference to what a qualified referee thinks of an incident, rather than some bitter and partisan pundit giving his partial interpretation of some rule.

I think BT aren't the finished article yet (their camera work doesn't seem to be as good just yet) but they're certainly getting there and have come on leaps and bounds from what they used to be.

I think Scottish Fitba will benefit from this constructive criticism of the whistlers.

[Taintedice]

Doubt the hun loving cheat Craig Thompson will agree with you there.

[AguyIknow]

Rather than a shroud of mystery being drawn over the bizarre decisions - including the decision to book one guy for diving but not that guy Dembely for as bad if not worse - it's better to talk things through.

Refs are only human and will make mistakes. I think it's a good idea that they be shown what their mistakes are so they can hopefully learn from them. Rather than the previous procedure of "move along - nothing to see here" as practiced by the SFA.

[Mook1]

They're both shyte.

I've got to the stage now where I don't listen to anything the pundits say before or after games, a load of fuds being paid a fortune to talk a load of pysh & wind about Fitba. The standing at the side of the pitch stuff is beyond cringeworthy too.

[AguyIknow]

They're both shyte.

I've got to the stage now where I don't listen to anything the pundits say before or after games, a load of fuds being paid a fortune to talk a load of pysh & wind about Fitba. The standing at the side of the pitch stuff is beyond cringeworthy too.


I think they both could be better - quite liked that fans commentary thing Sky did a few years back. Funny as f**k some of the games and who knows how they kept from using swearies.

At the moment the Referee's comments thing in BT is new and I think it takes much of the biased interpretation of the rules out of it - certainly in the Scottish games. Most blokes discuss the controversial incidents in the pub afterwards and I think it's good to get a real ref's perspective. Someone that doesn't "have skin in the game" so to speak.

I'd love to hear refs miked up or with a ref's camera the way they have it in Rugby. Frequently we're told the ref had a great view of the incident/had his view obstructed. Ref's camera might go a long way to explain the decision some refs make...

[Mook1]

Referees will always make mistakes because they're human & they get so little time to make their decision. Personally I don't see the point in analysing it to death although it would be boring if we were all the same.

[Taintedice]

The SFA had something called the ref's corner on their website a few years back, something like that. It didn't last long as the refs refused to cooperate as it was all just criticism of certain decisions, as you'd expect. They should have a section where the ref explains his reasoning without anyone allowed comments, but that would expose them as being useless, or prone to the odd human error depending on which team they support :D

[AguyIknow]

I don't think anyone expects them to get every decision right, but I think most expect that their attitude should be the same. For instance - a guy throws himself on the ground in the opponents penalty area. Now most but not all refs would say that's a yellow card - so why on earth did the ref give two different outcomes yesterday. There needs to be consistency in attitude.

If it's a yellow card to run to the support to celebrate after a goal is scored - then everybody running into the crowd should be a yellow carded. There were two Celtic players yesterday who went into the crowd after that goal went in - yet only one went in the refs book for it.

There's plenty of refs who get things wrong out there - but surely to ask for their handling of a given game to be consistent even within the game itself isn't too much to ask.