It’s not an altogether bad idea, but I worry about the extra ref crowding the pitch, as it is the ball sometimes hits the ref or the ref blocks a player in some way, with 2 refs it would happen twice as much.
But I would at least try it and see what happens.
One thing I’ve noticed to my great irritation is that the lineside refs seem to be reluctant to make any offside call until a play has gone all the way through, presumably because they want VAR to make the decision for them.
I’ve only been to one in person match where VAR played a decisive role, overturning a goal at an incredibly contentious derby match between two bitter rival club teams. The crowd was very invested in it (many in the crowd noted the foul before VAR was called for), it only took a couple minutes, and it was the correct call. I just don’t agree that it hurts the experience.
This is what they’ve been instructed to do, in case their offside call nullified a legal play. Occasionally they’ll call it anyway if it’s miles offside.
If anything, they would be more out of the way, since they wouldn’t have to be in the middle, trying to see what’s going on, rather behind and in front of the play.
The NHL has two linesmen (similar to sideline refs) and two regular refs, all on the ice, and that is a much smaller playing area.
Relying on VAR might be part of it, but I think it’s also the fact that if you miss an offside call VAR can undo your mistake, but if you call offside when it was not, you’ve ruined the play.
This is one of the dilemmas for the refs and linesmen with VAR. If a linesman waves off a probable offside too early and the main ref blows the whistle, and in review it becomes obvious that it was the wrong call, there’s no way to correct the bad call. Calls like that have happened since the installation of VAR, and out of fear that something like this happens to them, linesmen and refs tend to not indicate clear offsides until the attack has ended, in which way ever.
ETA: already ninja’d a few times.
I’m an MLS season ticket holder. What I’ve learned is:
- When a VAR call justifies a home team call or overturns a visitor call, the fans love it.
- When a VAR call does the opposite, they yell about it.
- Any time the fans see action on the field they dislike, they yell for VAR to jump in and adjudicate it.
But if they are not close to the play they wouldn’t see very well.
In any case, only one of them needs to be close, so no big deal.
As I said, I would like to see it tested.
Well this comment didn’t age well.
I was in the same boat, I thought France was looking unbeatable while Spain was bumbling their way through - but anything can happen in football.
Me too, until yesterday’s game, France were my clear favorite, Spain hadn’t convinced me so far. But their game was one of the most mature tactical masterpieces I’ve ever seen in football, and I watched thousands of games.
The argument that IFAB (the international governing body for the Laws of the Game) has always used against more than one referee is that the referee is the FINAL ARBITER (emphasis mine) of deciding what happens within the Laws and what breaches those Laws. Having another referee on the field could put them into disagreement with each other, and this IFAB cannot stand. The people with the flags? Not referees. They are ASSISTANT referees, to assist the referee. Their main duty is to watch for offside infractions, but they also signal ball in/out of play, as well as call fouls in their quadrant of the field. This system is known around the world as the “three man system”. There are other systems, but none are sanctioned for play at any level of professional football.
As for flagging for offside, ARs are now taught to ‘wait and see’. This is what FIFA and IFAB actually call the practice. The AR is to note potential offside WRT players and ball positions, but wait to see what develops. If the player in offside position gains an advantage from being in an offside position and materially affects play, the AR is to raise the flag to indicate offside. If, however, nothing comes of it, the AR is to do nothing. With headsets, the AR is probably communicated orally with the referee, but in lower level games, it’s all communicated with the flags and eye contact. The practice of ‘wait and see’ makes it look like the AR is being indecisive, but the vast majority of times they’re doing exactly as they’re supposed to.
Soccer (and really all the established sports) are essentially extremely cautious about changes to the sport. So when I hear things like “it hurts the experience”, I think “it makes changes they’re not comfortable with”. See also the length of halftime and the existence of quarter breaks.
I’m very much in favor of automation and reviews of adjudication in sports. It lets the players play with less concern about how to deal with the officiating. But there’s always room for more accuracy, more precision, and more timeliness in the automation and reviews.
Easily surmounted by naming one of the 2 refs in the field the actual Ref and the other just another assistant.
I still would think it’s not the solution (if there’s something to solve) but something that could be tried and see if it improves things without causing undue confusion.
I mean, the obvious answer is an infinite number of discorporeal robot refs.
I don’t think that would work. If there’s a dispute involving the on-field AR, who may have been closer to the action than the referee, it becomes a clusterfuck pretty quickly. You could have a mass confrontation of players around the referee who did not see the incident as clearly as the AR, yet is charged with making a decision.
If I were in charge, I’d put two referees on the field, each with full responsibility for calling their end of the field. I would also continue with ARs running the lines to call offside. The ARs would be positioned diagonally opposite one another as they are now, with the referees running on the other side of the field from the AR that is on their end.
Pointyball has this basic system of officiating. The Head Linesman watches the line of scrimmage and additionally calls fouls near him. Same for the Back Judge, Field Judge, etc. They all have their own areas of primary responsibility.
That would be better, yeah.
IFAB says no. Perhaps that’s why I’m not in charge!
Apologies if this was posted already, but it seems like England’s goal has been cleared of this suspicion after review:
A devestating attacking player is more of a queen than a king but I suppose he didn’t want to call Haaland or Kane or Bellingham “Queens” 