When referees keep getting more post-match discussion than goalscorers and goalkeepers, you know something’s wrong. Officials seem to be hijacking the post-match agenda with increasing regularity. As Ding observed on this site:
I’m a bit tired of having to debate the veracity of penalty decisions or other officiating calls every few games. It really shouldn’t be the lot of any football fan. In that regard, I think I’m probably not alone.
You’re certainly not, Ding.
‘Oh there were always shite refs, we’ve always complained about them’ you might say, and with some justification. But are standards falling, like a diving forward in the box?
Sunday’s match at Anfield was a fantastic, dramatic, utterly compelling game between two very good sides both committed to good attacking football. Yet after it there was only one topic of conversation – referee Jon Moss. It overshadowed the euphoria, the pandemonium, the mixture of despair and relief. It took away everything good about football.
It wasn’t just the award of two penalties to the visitors either, though they were central to the controversy. There were sub-plots of inconsistency and illogical process, and more than a suspicion of lack of basic knowledge of laws, a fist-pumping linesman – I’m sticking with linesman – at Spurs’ second penalty.
The rest of this article is for Subscribers only.
[ttt-subscribe-article]
