"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
No different to players being certain they're right when they're absolutely wrong, I think. The principle that the game must go on ought to be paramount, regardless of right or wrong. All we've done is encourage toddler-like tantruming, if that's a word, and a refusal to accept adjudication #NotMyUmpire
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
It has helped with lbw and nicks in cricket, also run outs. For some reason it has led to umpires not bothering to check for no balls anymore, which is a bit weird. It may also have made the standard of umpiring slightly worse.
THe one where Malan was given out after a huge inside edge. Leaving aside the fact that he should have challenged it I was watching it live and was stunned the umpire gave out. My initial reaction was it wasn't out in a million years- hit him outside the line, he's moving and there was something wrong with it- which turned out to be a massive inside edge. I still cant quite believe he gave it out.
I agree entirely Burney.
Football is way too open to poor decisions being made because of human error. Every goal should be reviewed to help eliminate things like incorrect offside decisions (for and against) and unspotted fouls that definitely interfere with play. However, I don't think that it should be left solely to the referee on the pitch to make a final decision though.
Last edited by Bergkamp Was Best; 01-11-2018 at 11:15 AM.
I'd agree that the standard of on-field umpiring has fallen dramatically, but would argue that that is because umpires are not being held to account for making poor on-field decisions. I'd argue that if your decisions are getting regularly overturned, you need to be kicked off the international umpire's panel and replaced with someone better. You'd soon see on-field decisions improving again.
The Malan thing is bizarre. Sure, it was a terrible decision, but I can remember worse from the days before DRS. However, I've played cricket for 35 years and never in all that time have I even feathered one and not known it (I mean I've stood there swearing blind I didn't hit it when I knew I did, obviously, but that's different ). That someone can smash the ball into his pad like that and not know he's done it enough to challenge the decision is simply astonishing to me.
In short, Malan was out there because he was a thick cünt.
Last edited by Burney; 01-11-2018 at 11:19 AM.