Everton, Liverpool and Phil Neville: The ludicrous laws that put football on the spot

You took all three points. If Hyppia had handled at the other end would you bother to write in? Kuyt scored a penalty, even though most students of the game agree he should not have been on the pitch after his 'tackle.' Carragher, arguing with the ref none stop, claiming he cant here him because of the crowd. Same player, hauling down an oppiosition player deep in injury time. It's easy to try and take the high ground when you have no reason to be upset with the result. You are more than likely the type of 'fan' that agrees's with Rafa's comments after the game (or every game for that matter) too? Liverpool fans.....maybe the most blinkered in the world. PS......long may Rafa continue. He's ace! :)

Mike, I think I should make it clear that I am not a Liverpool or an Everton supporter. I was using the Neville incident purely to show how ludicrous the law is that allows a player to illegally prevent a certain goal - and then profit from it if the other team misses the resultant penalty. It could have been York City v Macclesfield for all I care - the law is loopy. For the record, I also thought Kuyt should have been sent off and Everton awarded a late penalty. If football used video technology the ref might well have got those decisions right. Blame the idiots who run the game!

I agree with your sentiments regarding the penalty goal - instead you might just have emphasised a little more strongly the failure to award the penalty at the other end for the last-minute rugby tackle on Lescott - not that WAS an injustice - unseen, unpunished - no goal. As Mike said Kuty (!!) shouldn't have been on the pitch. 1. Gerrard's clever nudge on Hibbert outside the box - the 2 come together and Gerrard does what he does best. Penalty 2. Gerrard and Referee combine to change colour of card - result Everton down to 10 men 3. Kuty scythes into Neville - no Red Card 4. Kuty handles the ball in the build up to the 2nd penalty 5. Carragher manhandles Lescott - the 3rd such incident in the game. 6. General reluctance to book Liverpool players for persistent arguing I think the referee should be removed from the list with indecent haste - this was a performance of such incompetence as to beggar belief.

I agree with what you've written in your Blog. Video Evidence would have seen Everton getting 2 penalties and Kuyt being sent off. 3-2 or 3-1 to Everton should have been the result. Indeed the game could have finished with 10 men on each team because Everton were Dominant from the 15th minute to Hibert's sending off and would have continued to be with 10 vs 10. Interesting Gerrard point => Gerrard (IMHO) was told to play on the right of midfield but decided that he was a centre mid and that is where he decided to play. A HUGE space developed in front of Lescott and he spent most of the game exploiting that space whilst Gerard stayed in the centre with Sissoko and Macherano. How Unprofessional was that of Gerrard ? Can't wait till it kicks off between Benitez and Gerrard again :) We are TOP of Group A ! You are rock bottom and going OUT !

I thought for a second you were another myopic Red! It certainly read like you are one of the great unwashed! Regarding the penalty law with handball, where do you draw the line? If a goalie is on the line, and a defender handles just ahead of the keeper, you cant award a 'goal' for that as the keeper may well save it. The rules have been around for a long time and while video would help, its hard to say what rules would be subject to a 4th official in the stands. The one thing that ruins the game these days in my opinion is gamesmanship. I dont mean diving, acting injured. Its players surrounding the referee, arguing, swearing in his face, acting all innocent etc.... I WILL LEAVE THE LAST WORDS TO MR. S GERRARD: (Taken from his biography) “As Captain, I view refs in a different light. It’s handy to build a decent relationship with a ref, to get him on Liverpool's side. I’m quite cynical about that. Its gamesmanship. A tight decision in the 90th minute may go my way if I’ve been friendly to the ref. He

Article from a Liverpool Fan trying to justify their win - what was the point in this. AND what was the "Everton would have cheated their way to a 1-1 draw" i mean, liverpool won fair and square didnt they, no help from gerrard or the linesman whatsoever.

“As Captain, I view refs in a different light. It’s handy to build a decent relationship with a ref, to get him on Liverpool's side. I’m quite cynical about that. Its gamesmanship. A tight decision in the 90th minute may go my way if I’ve been friendly to the ref. He's only human. An official like Poll or Clattenburg is likely to be more sympathetic if I work with them than if I’m in their face like a cheeky scouser, as I was a few years ago.”

This is just nonesense.

yes lets give referees the authority to award goals at their disposal? i don't know why you're singling out neville, any player would do that, robbie keane did the exact same thing last season. the entire premise of soccer is that one has to get the ball inside the goal to score, it's absurd to give away a goal for any other reason. just another bitter koppite acting like they weren't given the game by cheating officials. neville's red card meant he could play the following league game, so he was willing to sacrifice his next league appearance for the good of the team. any defender is willing to take a red card over conceding a goal, he's no different so if you wanna see a cheat, look no further than your captain.

The trouble is, that football public in general are very difficult to please. The biggest problem in my eyes with the introduction of video technology, is wher to stop. I mean, if the ball is put in the back of the net, does the video ref look back at the last 10 seconds of play to see if there was foul play in the build up? What would happen if something was missed 11 seconds back? 12 seconds back? People would still feel hard done by, it's a fact of nature, nobody likes losing and will try to find reasons in most situations. Video refs work with Rugby, tennis and Cricket as it is, in most occasions, a simple question of In or Out. The referee in Rugby is trusted with the decisions he makes, if a player hits the floor for a try and thinks he has scored, the game would stop anyway, whether the try stands or not. If the referee deemed the ball not to of crossed the line in football, play continues. What would happen if teh defending team hit them on the counter and score, then being the only time the play sto

stops the ball is on the back of the net. Would you then call the play back, disallow the goal and award it the other way? Unworkable in my opinion. One of the reasons I love the sport is because of the massive opportunity for human error, if you take that out of the game you take out a lot of the games dynamics. What would we talk about in the pubs afterwards? What would happen to the banter, the feeling of relief, feeling of being hard done by. It's all part of being a football fan. However, I do agree with retrospective punishments, if a player clearly tries to decieve a ref, a'la Stevie G laaaaaa, then they should be punished with, if the player they got punished is carded/sent off, a penalty larger then theirs. Player gets yellow, cheat gets red. Player get Red and 3 games, cheat gets 5 games etc etc. With the players card revoked of course. It would soon stop some of the rubbish we see.

Your point is well argued and quite clearly based on the Rugby Rule of 'Penalty Try'(although you fail to mention that). I agree, it was cheating. Can't be condoned. I was at the game you refer to. I hope you were. I walked out of the ground stunned, thinking that what I had just seen was because I am a biased blue....it couldn't possibly have happened the way that I 'thought' I saw it at the highest level of the professional Premier League. Problem ! Everything I have seen and heard since then from TV, Radio, Newspapers, friends, oh ... and the Reds in the Pub afterwards tells me that I did see a high-level FA Premier League game given away by the referee. where oh where are the FA...? Why oh why do you ignore the full context of the game and the effect on the outcome..?? Do us all a favour and please take off the blinkers. We can then be real football fans and have adult discussions. We all have had a game or two in a season thrown our way by a bad decision or two, and then another game taken away in th

agree with you. Whilst one argument is that some refereeing decision go your way;thats football, but it only takes one decision to go against your team and your 'all for it'. I think video technology would benefit the game, but not because 'other sports' have it. Officials are only human, whereas the game is magical. Needless to say, some decision ie a free-kick being awarded is a matter of opinion and it would severely slow down the game. Well written though.