We attract the best players and managers from around the world but don’t do the same for refs. Then we wonder why the officiating is much worse than the quality of players and coaches. The quality of the playing would be way worse without foreigners and quality of refereeing would improve with foreigners.
Agree or disagree?
There’s an issue with getting former players (of any level) involved with football. Refs seem to be kids who weren’t ever any good at football but liked football.
We need ex pros either being refs or being part of the VAR system to provide an ex players view of the game. People who understand that if you’re trying to play a ball and your foot rolls over or a players leg goes under your foot completely unaware to you, is a normal part of the game and shouldn’t be red cards. People who understand that jumping required you to used your arms to jump. People who understand what it’s like to have a football kicked at you from two yards away and how impossible it is to get your hand out the way and how your hand being up isn’t unnatural as you need to keep your balance.
Too many refs haven’t a fucking clue about the actual physical actions of playing football and all they seem to care about are the literal interpretation of the law rather than applying the laws with a degree of common sense or understanding of how the games played.
Afraid I’m going to have to disagree here… Though we might be able to find common ground. My issue with players in VAR is that almost every pundit is a former player and they consistently come out with biased, inconsistent, and often objectively incorrect information.
Where I think there’s more scope to reflect your point is in giving ex players a role in IFAB’s development of the laws but I wouldn’t want them anywhere near VAR.