Do I not like that, and other ramblings...

[Willie Henderson]

No need to reply to this, it’s just me getting things off my chest. I want to relieve my chest of the things that drive me to despair and, in my opinion at least, really detract from my beautiful game. I’m sure all of these have been discussed at length on here so it’s just a personal thing really, just thankful that Owlstalk is available for my therapeutic ramblings. These things may not trouble you lot at all, but they drive me nuts…

 

SIMULATION

Whichever way you dress it up, simulation , or diving, or whatever you choose to call it, it’s simply cheating, no other word is needed.

 

If a striker has a chance of scoring, why on earth does he go down? Because the referee won’t give a free kick or penalty unless he’s on the floor - ridiculous. If someone punches you in the face but you don’t fall over you’ve still been punched in the face.

 

If a player ‘anticipates the touch’ (thank you for that one Charlie Austin) and goes down, he’s cheating.

 

If a player puts a leg in front of a defender, or gets in front of a defender and then stops, gets a touch and then goes down, he’s cheating.

 

It’s about time this was properly addressed, retrospectively with bans and fines, we have the technology.

 

‘WINNING’ FREE KICKS AND PENALTIES

Please, media pundits, penalties and free kicks are awarded against a team, they are not ‘won’ by anyone – the Police don’t win speeding tickets from you.

You keeping on spouting this clap-trap is virtually condoning cheating.

 

SHIELDING A BALL OUT OF PLAY

I know it’s allowed within the laws of the game, as long as the ball is within playing distance of the shielding player, but I find it so bloody annoying, and the rule is so often abused and ignored by referees.

I’d much prefer it if the player shielding had to play the ball to avoid it being given as obstruction.

 

ONLY WHEN THE BALL IS IN PLAY

Direct and indirect free kicks and penalty kicks can only be awarded for offences committed when the ball is in play. Why? I’m so fed up with the pre-corner Turkish wrestling that goes on. Because the ball hasn’t been struck this is allowed, really don’t see why.

 

TIME WASTING

I know it doesn’t really matter in most matches, but in knock-out games and we all know the frustration. Why don’t we at least pilot a clock-based game? It works perfectly well in rugby and American football.

It would eliminate pointless time wasting, it will speed up the game, "you can stop writhing around and get up now mate, the clocks stopped" and it takes some pressure off the officials.

It will also increase crowd involvement, it would be potentially quite exciting, but above all fair.

I know there’s the problem of overly long games, but that can be solved by the 30 minutes each half, or some other amount of time worked out by boffins.

 

SPITTING

This is probably my biggest bonnet-bee, I just don’t get it. It’s become part of the sport, but why? It’s not down to the physical activity, a player can’t seem to jog on to the pitch, or take a free kick without gobbing, and ffs Wayne Rooney can’t even watch a match without constant phlegm expulsion, it’s like he’s drowning in his own mucus.

I was hoping that the only good thing about Covid was this would stop, that no player would want to be sliding around on sputum covered grass, but alas this wasn’t the case.

 

GARY LINEKER

No further comment.

 

Right, that’s it, all done, I’m feeling much better already. I’ll shall now lie down and carry on with my deep breathing exercises until the nurse arrives…

Edited August 6, 2021 by Willie Henderson

[Dan™]

I'd love to see shorter halves with the clock stopped while the ball's out of play. Time-wasting is by far the most annoying thing in the game I can think of and referees/leagues don't seem willing to do anything about it.

 

Teams "seeing out" the last 20 minutes (or 70 minutes if you're Charlton) isn't fun for either set of fans, besides the inherent humour in getting away with blatant gamesmanship sometimes.

[flo]

So many times players dive, the ref waves play on, but then doesn't go back and book the player.