Pet Football Hates

Football Administrators

The need for FIFA and the International Board to make Football a complicated game. For example:

Changing the "throw in" from "the player must not be on the field of play" to "the player may be on the field of play, but neither foot may be on the field of play and not in contact with the line".
Changing the "offside" from "at least two defenders between the player and the goal line" to "not closer to the goal line than the second last defender". No linesman (sorry "assistant referee") can honestly say that he/she made a decision based on players being level.
Introducing the law preventing a the goalkeeper picking the ball up if a defender plays the ball WITH HIS FOOT with the intention that goalkeeper pick it up or from a throw in - limiting the goalkeeper to holding the ball for 6 seconds (which has been added since) would have been enough. (It's a lottery on manicured professional grounds, while 90% of football is played in the local park with 4 or 5 games on a pitch over the two days of the weekend).

3 points for a win (I blame Jimmy Hill). Why? - It distorts the tables by rewarding a win but not penalising a loss, whilst teams that draw are penalised for not winning, but not rewarded for not losing!

Football Commentator Claptrap

Commentary	Meaning
The referee is letting the game flow	The referee is not doing his job by not penalising players who commit fouls
The referee is (spoiling the game for the crowd by) not letting the game flow	The players are committing a lot of fouls and the referee is penalising them
He used his strength	He pushed the other player and got away with it
The referee got that wrong	Had the referee seen the 27 different camera views we have seen in slow motion, none of which showed what he could actually see, he may have come to a different decision
The linesman got that wrong	The wide angle stop motion replays suggest that the player may/may not have been in an offside position when the ball was played

Commentator Bias - Though I know it is (usually) not intentional, it is very irritating to hear bias in a commentary. Even the most ardent neutral will subconciously use different language when describing incidents, so it will always be there, unfortunately.

Last update on 2012-02-27