Graham Poll

[reprophil]

Saw the documentary on him last night and was quite saddened to hear that he has retired and the reasons why.
Football is our National game and we wouldnt be able to watch it every week if we didnt have honest, upstanding individuals such as Graham turning out on parks, non-league and league grounds every week.
The abuse and non-support that referees get from fans, players, managers and the FA is a disgrace.
Every referee who walks out onto a football pitch intends and tries to give what he thinks is the correct decision judging by what he has seen, not the crowd or the players, that is his job.
Obviously a ref will sometimes get decisions wrong, that is human nature, but we have to accept a wrong decision with the 50 right ones he has just made.
Its the players who should be being pilloried, not the refs.
They are the ones doing the kicking, diving, elbowing, swearing and its they who are bringing our game down, not the refs.

My 10 ways to 'improve' our beautiful game.
1 - Dissent should be punished with a yellow card, whether its verbal or kicking the ball away, this would stop straight away if implemented.
2 - Maybe we should introduce sin bins for yellow cards, 5 mins off the pitch for each and when you get 3 yellows you are OFF!
3 - Each half is 30 minutes, and the clock gets stopped every time the ball goes out or the whistle is blown. How many times do we get to the end of a game and Sky tell us the ball has been in play about 25 mins per half?
This way, the only way a team could 'waste time' would be to keep the ball!
4 - All holding, blocking, wrestling at corners and free kicks punishable with a penalty, this would stop immediately.
5 - No striker is allowed in the 6 yard box until the corner is taken, thus stopping him impeding the goalie.
6 - The 4th official has a TV monitor anyway, he is wired to the ref, let him tell the ref if he sees anything he should know, he cant at the moment.
7 - NO OFFSIDES, what a great, open flowing game of football we would have if both teams had to use the whole pitch instead of just about a third as we have now, plus strikers could not 'goal hang' as they would still have to contribute to the team performance.
7 - During a game, penalties taken as normal, but Goalies cannot dive forwards, Pepe Reina ends up saving pens on his 6 yard line and its play on???????
8 - Penalty shoot outs at the end scrapped and replaced with a shoot out from the half way line with no goalkeeper. If a team ends the game with 10 men then only they can take the kicks, a team finishing with 11 would have an advantage. ALL players to take the kicks, not just five.
9 - 10 yards at free kicks should be 10 yards, we see refs pacing it out backwards, we count their steps and its only 7 or 8 sometimes, then the wall creeps forwards and they end up 5 yards from the ball!
Why dont refs pace out 11 yards and make them stay there, or yellow card the whole wall if they encroach?
On a direct free kick, how can a player be 3 yards from the ball when he blocks it and its play on?
10 - Lets stop this daft situation when the ball is going out for a goal kick and the defender is virtually allowed to wrestle the attacker out of the awy to stop him crossing it, the free kick always goes to the defender, why? If this happened on the half way line then it would be obstruction and a yellow card.

[Cunning stunts]

Originally Posted by reprophil

1 - Dissent should be punished with a yellow card, whether its verbal or kicking the ball away, this would stop straight away if implemented.
2 - Maybe we should introduce sin bins for yellow cards, 5 mins off the pitch for each and when you get 3 yellows you are OFF!

Both of these should like a bloody good ideas to me

[Toffee]

For me, Football would learn alot by watching and learning from how Rugby League plays and respects the ref.