By John Considine
Howard Webb refereed the 2010 FIFA World Cup final where he famously decided not to give a red card 25 minutes into the game – and later admitted he got it wrong. He now heads up the Professional Game Match Officials Board. In a Sky TV interview earlier this week, he justified a recent decision by another referee and the VAR system not to give a penalty in a Liverpool versus Manchester City game.
In explaining the non-penalty decision, Webb used words like "threshold" and "certainty" many times. Webb was effectively saying that referees require a higher degree of certainty when it comes to giving penalty kicks. He clearly implied that the burden of proof is higher later in games. Webb seems to be giving the same guidelines to soccer referees that was provided to NBA officials two decades ago. The words in the Comments on the Rules: I. Guides for Administration and Application of the Rules say, "there are times during a game where 'degrees of certainty' are necessary to determine a foul during physical contact. This practice may be necessary throughout the game with a higher degree implemented during impact times when the intensity is risen, especially nearing the end of a game.”
I have taken the above quote from a Georgetown Law Journal article by Mitchell Berman. It is called “Let ‘em Play” and I would recommend it to anyone interested in games. Towards the end of the article, Berman has a section called “A wart on the beautiful game”. The wart is that the red card removes the offender from the field for the remainder of the game. That length of time is variable depending on when the player is dismissed. It could be 65 minutes or 65 seconds. In 2010, would Webb have sent off the player in the orange shirt above if there was 65 seconds rather than 65 minutes left in the game?
A few months ago, a VAR-weary world dismissed the idea of a blue card in soccer. It was going to be something between a yellow card and a red card. It would have removed the offender for a fixed-length period from the game. It was compared to the 10-minute "sin-bin" used in rugby union for yellow cards. Now rugby union is trialling a 20-minute penalty for the red card where the offender is removed but can be replaced after 20 minutes. It looks like both sports are moving in the direction of American football when it comes to removal of individual players.
In explaining the non-penalty decision, Webb used words like "threshold" and "certainty" many times. Webb was effectively saying that referees require a higher degree of certainty when it comes to giving penalty kicks. He clearly implied that the burden of proof is higher later in games. Webb seems to be giving the same guidelines to soccer referees that was provided to NBA officials two decades ago. The words in the Comments on the Rules: I. Guides for Administration and Application of the Rules say, "there are times during a game where 'degrees of certainty' are necessary to determine a foul during physical contact. This practice may be necessary throughout the game with a higher degree implemented during impact times when the intensity is risen, especially nearing the end of a game.”
I have taken the above quote from a Georgetown Law Journal article by Mitchell Berman. It is called “Let ‘em Play” and I would recommend it to anyone interested in games. Towards the end of the article, Berman has a section called “A wart on the beautiful game”. The wart is that the red card removes the offender from the field for the remainder of the game. That length of time is variable depending on when the player is dismissed. It could be 65 minutes or 65 seconds. In 2010, would Webb have sent off the player in the orange shirt above if there was 65 seconds rather than 65 minutes left in the game?
A few months ago, a VAR-weary world dismissed the idea of a blue card in soccer. It was going to be something between a yellow card and a red card. It would have removed the offender for a fixed-length period from the game. It was compared to the 10-minute "sin-bin" used in rugby union for yellow cards. Now rugby union is trialling a 20-minute penalty for the red card where the offender is removed but can be replaced after 20 minutes. It looks like both sports are moving in the direction of American football when it comes to removal of individual players.
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