re: Card-Happy Referees in Big Games

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There's a middle ground to stopping play and carding, and the extremes of both end up at the same place: either players foul excessively because they can do so with impunity or play is stopped excessively because you can't do anything.

From a preventing a shitshow perspective, I'd rather referees pull cards out early. People (not necessarily you) regularly bitch on here when a Premier League game goes south because the referee doesn't have the balls to show a card. It's a difficult balance for referees everywhere.

I wouldn't want diving to be punished harder without replay. Referees can't even enforce the offside rule correctly, because it's difficult. I would hate for someone to get sent off in a big game for "diving."

Of course, replay presents its own problems. Everything looks ridiculous in 5x's slow motion, and sometimes shite just isn't anything, not a foul or a dive.

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I completely agree with all of this.

A recent pet peeve is hearing so many commentators say "if it's not a foul, then you have to card for a dive". For me, the larger percentage of borderline plays are a bit of contact that probably doesn't merit a foul--especially penalty-- but there is some contact and you can't really call the player going down, or looking for a foul, a "dive". Just play on.


I'd also add that letting so much "physical" play go ranks pretty far down the list of reasons the EPL is so popular outside of England, if it ranks as a positive at all. Excellent television production, marketing, buying household names whether they fit the team or not and simply being in English (along with English commentators being pretty entertaining) are, by far, the biggest reasons.

The "style" that leads to more action in the box is much more due to willy nilly, open attacking play where defenses seldom stay compact and organized than officials simply not calling fouls tightly. Most EPL matches play out for 90 minutes like continental ones where a team is desperately chasing a goal in the waning moments (or Roma trying to protect a one goal lead in extra time ).



If anything, consistency is always the issue with officiating in big matches and EPL officiating has never struck me as particularly consistent (certain fouls always being yellow/red cards or even that clearly cynical fouls are carded 100& of the time like in some other leagues.)

I tend to think officials in the biggest CL matches (like in the biggest league matches occasionally) often suffer the pressure a bit regardless of where they are from and make inconsistent calls they would likely call differently in a regular league match.

As a Roma fan, I'm fine seeing De Rossi carded for an obligatory rush of blood and bad tackle or horseback riding Higuain through the area on a corner. I just need a little vacation from football when it happens after I've seen Chiellini do the same thing four times in the match without a card.