Is it time for citing on football?

[loz]

I confess to not being the biggest fan of Rugby so I may need someone to fill in the gaps for me on this thread.

However I have just read that a Samoan player has been banned for three weeks for a high tackle on Jonny Wilkinson and that this ban has not come about as a direct consequence of the match referee but as a result of a report by a 'citing commissioner'

Now I knew that citing happened in rugby but I thought the situation was that an offending player had to be cited by the team that had been fouled and then the rugby bodies looked into it to see if the complaint had any merit. However from what I read it appears that there is an independent official whis is empowered to report offences he sees as being unacceptable which the ref may have missed in the game. (Is this the case egg chasers?)

If this is the case it, in essence, is a degree of honesty that refs can't see everything in every game and also acknowledges that they shouldn't be expected to as it would appear there is no criticism of a ref if an incident from a game he has been in charge of is cited.

So is it time for this to be properly introduced in football? I know that a few players are tried by video evidence however this tends to be the exception rather than the rule - is it time for games to have another official whose job is to pick up on incidents that the ref misses and ensures the guilty party is sufficiently punished?

[Backbiter]

I'm in favour. You could start with citing crap refs.

Rugby has moved on from the ridiculous tit-for-tat citings that went on until recently when clubs would wait and see if their opponents had cited any of their players before citing someone, or retaliating to a citing by citing someone. It obviously took them a few years to hit on the original idea of an 'independent citing officer' (but trust me, there's plenty of evidence of corruption even with these - as there is with the Dublin-based disciplinary tribunals. It's been well-known for players' bans to end the day before a vital match - Martin Johnson was the beneficiary of a few blatantly'crooked' suspensions after some on-field violence in a club match).

There's so much video evidence around it's sickening when players don't get punished for obvious offences. I don't have any problem with the idea - unless it means Graham Poll gets a new job.

[quizgod]

Yes that is correct, sometimes the match officals in rugby miss this, though i dont know how. There is an offical who looks for such offences and records thems, so a player can be cited retrospectively and a panel look at the video evidence and decide whether to take action or not.

In this case with Lima(samoa player), he twice tried to decapitate Wilkinson, the 1st time he pulled out of the challenge, cos the ref was right there, but the 2nd time the ref was not looking, and lima followed through very late.

This reminds me of the sending of Zidane in the world cup final, cos the ref or the linesmen didn't see the offence, but it was reported by the fourth offical or someone, and once the ref had the facts, he took action.

Should we go this way in Football, will make games go on longer. did the ball cross the line?.......stop the game, get the fourth offical to check on video, if it is a goal then ok, if not a goal, restart with a goal kick.

But then where do you stop.

[loz]

I wasn't really thinking of a fourth official who would be empowered to make decisions during the game, more of an official who could report incidents retrospectively.

[mad_mac]

I know you are not a fan of video replays Loz, but I think that it has to happen. Only when the ball is dead though (to see if it was a goal or not, off side rulings after a goal is scored, etc. And I also think that a chip or something in the ball so we can tell if all the ball has crossed the line. It is time Football caught up with the times, and I also think citing is a good idea, but there needs to be set rules on what can be cited.

For eample, can you give Stevie Me a card for his blatant dive against Bolton, that then led to a penalty and Liverpool ebating Bolton? Or, can we say taht goal should never have been, and change the result?

I am not really one for changing a result after the final swhistle has been blown, but I certainly think that video replays could be worthwhile. Mikel's red card, I just read, has failed to go through an appeal to the FA, so it could just lead to more corruption, because honestly, everyone who seen it said it was NO WAY a red card, and yet the FA are doing nowt about it???