Does anyone else think that this is the most flawed part of the game?
It just seems totally convoluted and irrational to me, surely a 3 tiered system is much better: Warning - Sin Bin - Sent Off
That way you get rid of some of the most annoying aspects:
Sending offs and suspensions for last man fouls - does a player really deserve to sit out a whole match and get a suspension for one error of judgement? A penalty and sin bin is surely punishment enough.
Yellow cards when you're attacking on the break and an opposition player brings you down deliberately, knowing they'll get a yellow card. All your team gets is a free-kick in a non-dangerous position, in most cases there is no real down side to deliberately cheating like this. Surely a 10 minute sin bin for such an offence would be far fairer than the possibly of a suspension through accumulated yellows at some point in the future (potentially meaning a rival team actually benefits from fouls comitted against you).
Yellow cards for taking your shirt off and other stupid misdemeanors, too often i think players have to be sent off by the letter of the law (2nd yellow), even though what they've done is nothing really. Why should an opposition team benefit from a player celebrating the wrong way? Referee's should have the option just to issue some kind of official warning for crap like that.
I'm sure there's many more examples, but it would be a much more flexible system, it would give the referee more room to use his own judgement and common sense.
Then you have the retrospective system. They just seem to make it up as they go along (Thatcher). Did the ref see it at the time - it's such a flimsy system that just makes no sense. Players get away with snide, cowardly acts just because the ref 'dealt with it at the time' when he clearly didn't, yet other players get nailed for the most minor acts when pictures have shown the ref looking like at it. There's no consistency because the system is so ambiguous and open to corruption by things like personal pride and stubborness.
A standard, consistent and robust retrospective system should be introduced. For things like violent conduct, if a player has comitted what is clearly a red card offence, why should he get away with it just because the referee made an error of judgement or didn't see it clearly? They shouldn't, they should be banned.
I think the whole system is shit, the only reason it isn't changed is because of the stubborn 'that's the way it is' attitude.
It just seems totally convoluted and irrational to me, surely a 3 tiered system is much better: Warning - Sin Bin - Sent Off
That way you get rid of some of the most annoying aspects:
Sending offs and suspensions for last man fouls - does a player really deserve to sit out a whole match and get a suspension for one error of judgement? A penalty and sin bin is surely punishment enough.
Yellow cards when you're attacking on the break and an opposition player brings you down deliberately, knowing they'll get a yellow card. All your team gets is a free-kick in a non-dangerous position, in most cases there is no real down side to deliberately cheating like this. Surely a 10 minute sin bin for such an offence would be far fairer than the possibly of a suspension through accumulated yellows at some point in the future (potentially meaning a rival team actually benefits from fouls comitted against you).
Yellow cards for taking your shirt off and other stupid misdemeanors, too often i think players have to be sent off by the letter of the law (2nd yellow), even though what they've done is nothing really. Why should an opposition team benefit from a player celebrating the wrong way? Referee's should have the option just to issue some kind of official warning for crap like that.
I'm sure there's many more examples, but it would be a much more flexible system, it would give the referee more room to use his own judgement and common sense.
Then you have the retrospective system. They just seem to make it up as they go along (Thatcher). Did the ref see it at the time - it's such a flimsy system that just makes no sense. Players get away with snide, cowardly acts just because the ref 'dealt with it at the time' when he clearly didn't, yet other players get nailed for the most minor acts when pictures have shown the ref looking like at it. There's no consistency because the system is so ambiguous and open to corruption by things like personal pride and stubborness.
A standard, consistent and robust retrospective system should be introduced. For things like violent conduct, if a player has comitted what is clearly a red card offence, why should he get away with it just because the referee made an error of judgement or didn't see it clearly? They shouldn't, they should be banned.
I think the whole system is shit, the only reason it isn't changed is because of the stubborn 'that's the way it is' attitude.