New interpretation of contact.
So if you’ve got clear contact that has a consequence then that’s what you have got to penalise - easy enough or is it ?
While the change of emphasis should mean that attackers who initiate or exaggerate contact will not be rewarded, referees will be on the lookout to award penalties where there is clear & meaningful contact but players stay on their feet.
The on field officials and VARs will be told to establish 'clear' contact & whether it has a 'consequence' and whether an attacking player has tried to use that contact to win a penalty.
Well - good luck on that but in honesty it really is turning into a non-contact scenario in the box.As my younger goalkeeping brother said to me 'it'll just add another keeping dimension to his game to work on' and will leave keepers more exposed with the lack of defensive tackling/blocking.
Thoughts anyone.
Two things I want to see-
1- Soft signals from referee, if the ref thinks its a penalty, red, goal etc or a linesman thinks its onside/offside they indicate this to VAR then unless there is OBVIOUS evidence to change that decision that can be spotted within 30 seconds it is not overturned.
2- Straight reds for blatant/repeat cheating to stop these diving pricks
Would be very happy for cheating to be stamped down on and for the pundits who praise professional fouls to be called out for endorsing cheating. Lee Dixon seems to love a professional foul.
I also don’t like the constant appealing which is now starting to become endemic in rugby too.
Sadly that would require clarity of purpose from the governing bodies …….
Can someone send a copy of this to Grealish, he needs to absorb and have time to adjust his techniques
The tweaked rules now also include:
1.In the case of handball:
What is the hand or arm position in relation to body movement?
Is the body being made unnaturally bigger?
2.For accidental handball:
It is an offence if an attacker scores directly or immediately after the ball touches a hand or arm.So the penalty Leeds conceded at Liverpool in September 2020 would now NOT be given as Mo Salah flicked the ball off Robin Koch's knee and his arm !
3. Offsides:
Benefit of doubt for attacking sides now restored.
The toenails and noses that might have been offside last year won't be next season !
Its the people who operate it that need tweaked.
Sad for the game.
Might as well go full bore and just get rid of the ref and linesman entirely. If you have technology to drive a car or fly a plane you can develop an overall officiating system using AI. the only tricky part would be to build in the "fudge factor" of how much you allow before a foul is triggered.
Of course, the system would have to build in extra time for scumchester and eliminate diving for Chelski and Grealish