I’m so confused. A few weeks back Liverpool had a last minute goal ruled out for a handball in the buildup, which was another case of the ball hitting the body first, and then the arm.

The explanation among fans was that there’s not enough clarity in the handball rule currently to distinguish handballs that come off the body first don’t count, which is annoying, but fine.

Happens again last night, and now the VAR is being stood down, which basically communicates that UEFA think something has gone wrong. So which is it? Are they going to address the rule change or not, they look like they’ve come into this season so unprepared. It wasn’t like they hadn’t been told it was recommended as an expansion to the handball rule back in April of this year.

They put The Completionist in charge of the money, it seems.

On the flip side, Liverpool players on international duty have been flourishing, scoring lots of goals. City players might be fresher, but Liverpool players will arguably be sharper.

This only really became an issue when it concerned Israel/Palestine, let’s be honest.

Horrible timing this. We’re just getting to Semi Auto VAR becoming standard, making close offside calls heaps easier to understand for television audiences, and now they want to shake the whole rule up again.

For all the faux shock in this thread… it was just an ankle sprain.

Haaland only had one the other month against Bournemouth. It caused him to leave the pitch, but he still started in the CL just a few days later.

When you accidentally double schedule your VAR duty with your mate’s wedding reception.

Comments here are going to age like milk when City inevitably get off with a slap on the wrist and Everton were in fact over-punished in comparison.

Football’s lawmakers are also considering adopting rugby’s rule where only the captain can approach the referee.

Good! The crowding that happens to refs is embarrassing and does nothing positive for the game.

“No innocent children deserve to die” has got that Greame Souness “For me, that cat hadn’t done anything wrong” vibe

Is there any reason this rule wouldn’t get voted through? Besides a few obvious clubs who’d vote against it, this should be a straightforward rule change.

“Oh dear! We’ve suffered burn-in to our big screen. Now we’ll be reminded of our late comeback win against Manchester United forever!.. ;)”

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Southgate’s kidding himself if he thinks performances against Malta or North Macedonia would factor in to his assessment of Reece James. Frankly he should know whether or not he wants him already.

Leaked footage of the dressing room.

I’m not surprised at all. Long term I think if FIFA had their way, they’d have international football all year round and there’d simply be no realistic way for players to commit fully to both club and country. The modern football schedule is only getting worse.

Well look who won the pony!

Game’s the other way mate.

The weekly dunce show of English PL officiating continues.

Whatever league you’re playing in, it’s a bad look to have this much disparity in attendance figures throughout a season.

I don’t think anyone would really have much to say about attendance if the numbers were consistently between about 10-15,000 every match, but that you can have almost 60,000 for one game and barely over a hundred in another, in the same league, asks a lot of questions about the size of the league relative to its fanbases.

Squires typical comedy often makes you forget just how much of a gut punch he’s capable of in more sombre pieces. This is one of them.