Dave Ewing's Back 'eader
Well-Known Member
When I traipsed the playing fields of Debdale Park, Greenbank and Hough End chastising the ragamuffins of the Gorton and District Sunday League with one refereeing masterclass followed by anotherr, the LotG were a thing of beauty - simple, uncomplicated, a measure of why football has spread across the surface of the planet. They needed nothing more than the lightest of wafts with a sky blue feather duster. Before we could get the duster from under the stairs, the LotG had been scrutinised on various training grounds to see how they could be manipulated in order to con a referee and make an innocuous challenge in a game noted for its ability to absorb the notion of contact as part and parcel of the ninety minutes into something more akin to gymnastics and acrobatics, often seen in a circus, performed by clowns. Unfortunately, some of these players were experts at taking a tumbling, often in thin air, getting a player sent off and securing a penalty, all at the expense to them of performing a triple salchow with twist. So FIFA charge the International Board with 'developing' the LotG to make it clear that cheats would not prosper. I think one of the first iterations was that the offending team had to fuck off ten yard IMMEDIATELY. We even had that little add-on filched from rugby where the kick was advanced ten yards if the offending team didn't conform. (Wonder what happened to that.) Nowadays, the pamphlet that was the published LotG has now mushroomed to challenge a Bradshaw in its complexity and weight. It will not end here. We now have a set of the LotG where the ref can decide one way or another, and happily contradict himself with another incident five minutes later and the Laws cover it. The Laws have been traduced to the point where any result, with or without the aid of the 'godsend' VAR, can be delivered, regardless of what goes on during the game. I wonder what Mike Riley's 'take' is!