Exiled in Texas

But we are, are we not?

There is no such law. The closest is requiring a keeper to release the ball within 6 seconds. There is nothing similar for a throw in. Only a general misconduct for delaying a restart - but that's not specifically defined.

Funny thing now is that as a referee you have to wear "predominantly black shoes" and it's a devil of a time finding black cleats and sneakers to wear on the pitch.

They also hate it when they collapse in agony from a tackle and grab below the shinguard and I tell them they should have worn bigger shinguards.

LOL - Keeper Crisis - not Kebab Crisis

No idea really - I think they want the smallest and least bulkiest shin guards available. US Highschool even had to add rules that stated that shinguards had to be size appropriate and worn in the correct location (no higher than 3 inches from ankle bone) to stop the kids playing in U7 shinguards that were taped half way up the shin.

And pulled up before play is restarted

Yes, LOTG state that the shinguards must be covered at all times. The 3rd point from LOTG is laughable as most players want the smallest possible shinguards and look like they borrowed their 7yr olds shinguards. No wonder they roll around on the ground after each tackle.

Pet hate - teams expecting that the ball is kicked out of play for an injury during an attack, and then also expecting to give the ball back to the defender/goal keeper. Saw this a few times with team in posession in the other teams half and due to a player down, them wanting the ball kicked out. Then instead of restarting from where it went out....they also wanted to get it all back to the keeper and start over. Even saw an attacking player give the ball to the defender to put it out of play and he refused to touch it. Well, screw them....either put it out of play yourself or we're playing. [uS High School has the right idea - IFK to team in possession if play stopped for injury]

As a referee - the policy is Shirts Tucked-in (so we can see the shirt pull), but I'm not that bothered really about in/out. Socks must be up though as Shin Guards must be covered. I do watch that one.

Time to invest in our own future and let Krul play. If we're not willing to play him now then sell him because he'll never be ready if he doesn't get some game time experience.

FYP

Was at the NY red Bulls @ FC Dallas game this week. Never really thought of Henry being a big guy but he seemed quite tall compared to rest of the players. Game got quite tasty with a few thundering tackles and a early Red Card to Dallas' Shea.

What an awesome attitude!!!

Wolves Dave Edwards http://www.clevescene.com/images/blogimages/2009/08/20/1250794025-jane-lynch1.jpg Glee's Sue (Jane Lynch) http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/49110000/jpg/_49110788_wolves_226.jpg

Or play a rugby match and let me know how it went for you. That's the point - thinking that football is different from other sports. Rugby is much more physical than football, although the physical contact is different. So how do Rugby players maintain their discipline in the heat of their battle, when footballers can't.

I'm gonna get shot down here, but here goes..... When I started refereeing, I was told that referee were expected to start out perfect, and then get better. So if a referee is expected to be perfect and answer to the media for every mistake, then shouldn't players also. Everytime a player makes a mistake doesn't clear the first defender with a cross, mis controlls a pass, skys a shot - what happens "hand up- soz lads" and then move on. Referees make a fraction of the number of mistakes in a game that players make - I don't see how there should be such a different level of expectations. ok - tin hat on - I know I'm gonna get it.

WTF is that Mackem doing to Tevez??

Does no one else see him looking like Charlie Chaplin or Grandad in that photo?

Depends how far offside and how obvious it was. If it was marginal then no-one could have disputed it. But you can't rig something that is/isn;t there. In blow outs like that (when I am refereeing) then I might have a different tollerance for fouls etc for one side or the other. If one team is much better, then I expect them to play better too. SO one team may need to play through some challenges (as long as not dangerous) and the other might not be allowed to even breathe on the other team and in a 13-0 game one side was clearly much different to the other.

Rooney or perhaps it should be

I'm not surprised. I'm sure that the EPL want to see VDV playing in their league this season so of course they will sanction the transfer.

Hahah I thought they were Joe King when I heard the news.

NUFC were trending downhill - and I suspect that relegation might well have come in a season to two anyway with the way that we were playing and being run. So perhaps we are now ahead of the cycle and on the way back up a year or two ahead of the other reality. For me - relegation was necessary to re-set the mindset of the fans that we are not going to spend wads of cash here/there/everywhere on has-been players or trophy signings. The idea that we have 50K crowds and can afford to compete with big-4 clubs for players etc was a big problem. Think about the reaction to Saylor's contract....now we are telling him to accept it or leave and fans are happy with that, whereas two years ago it would have been "just pay him the £60K....we had 50K in the ground and can afford him". Personally, I think we are ahead of where we might have been.