They should market this as an option... "Stadium Experience" -- We give you all of the camera angles you enjoy, but none of the useless banter. If you leave the room and don't know a goal was scored, well that's just like getting a beer during the match at the venue, only here you can use your DVR. We won't tell you what to think about the game, the tactics, or the players. You have to decide for yourself! Then, they should have optional vuvuzela filtering.
The NFL did that for a few games many years ago. (I often do it for myself by listening to the Spanish broadcast, as I only know enough Spanish to pick out key words, not enough to understand any tangential blather . . . and no one does goals quite like the announcers in Spanish!)
Another follow-through SFP incident, this time in WCQ Panama vs. El Salvador handled by Marco Ortíz (MEX). What do you make of it? El jugador No 10 de Panama Browne, tenía que ser expulsado al min 24, Marcó A Ortiz árbitro mexicano califica muy mal y no sanciona la falta. pic.twitter.com/wwxvqIKdML— Felipe Ramos Rizo (@ramosrizo) November 17, 2021
Quotes from The Guardian article on the qualifying competition: "Original refereeing is one of the quirks of Concacaf," "Considering the number of brutal challenges that go unpunished or under-punished in Concacaf fixtures, with Tuesday’s games no exception, red cards as well as disallowed goals might have an impact on which teams reach Qatar next year." It's not just us! Total disgrace, embarrassment and shameful. There used to be many very good referees in CONCACAF, back in the 80s, 90s and 00s, mostly from Mexico, USA and some individual Central Americans. It is a mystery what has happened, (but maybe not). PH
I just watched the highlights of the Scotland-Denmark match. It looked like a real football match, totally different from whatever game was being played and officiated in Edmonton. PH
This is what baffles me about CONCACAF. The rest of the world thinks their competition is substandard. I don't understand how the confederation can look at this and say, "yes, this is what we want to show the rest of the world!" To put it bluntly, the rest of the world thinks our competition is a joke. If we are to be taken seriously, then the standard of refereeing needs to improve. It's as simple as that.
It used to be that you couldn’t caution something like this for “reckless” because holding was (and still is) one of the fouls that isn’t subject to the C/R/E matrix. So a few years ago, aside from the obvious SPA component, yes I’d write this up as “game disrepute.” But now the “challenge” foul bucket allows this to be reckless. This is a reckless challenge. If not worse. In the end it’s all semantics. The list for unsporting behavior isn’t exhaustive. You can simply write it up as UB (other) and be done with it if you are worried about which bucket to pick. The behavior is quite literally unsporting.
You still could go with a reckless foul for holding. The USB explanation does not restrict the reckless caution to the CREF fouls: “commits in a reckless manner a direct free kick offence” (I feel like it used to be only CREF fouls, but I didn’t go back to check)
I can’t cite chapter and verse on LOTG history either, but recollection of the old LOTG is that clause you cite simply didn’t exist. It was understood that reckless = caution, and so on. I don’t think it was ever explicitly stated. Do I have that wrong? Anyway, I think the language is ambiguous or at tension with itself. The first section of Law 12 still says only certain fouls are seen through C/R/E. While the text you cite has no restrictions, a literal interpretation of it means we could have “reckless handball” or “reckless spitting.” So I still don’t think we are supposed to have “reckless holding” and “challenging” is the safer path. But ultimately it is down to semantics and doesn’t matter. UB covers it, no matter what you choose.
We're three weeks away from a massive three match day window and we will have VAR for this. We've started to see assignments come out 10 to 14 days prior in the past couple of windows so perhaps something as soon as next week. But obviously since we'll have VAR, that means this thread should really have nothing to talk about.
My advice to all of these people who are going nuts about English refereeing is to watch this next round of CONCACAF matches. My guess is they'll go back with an understanding that maybe things aren't all that bad with PGMOL.
While still finding it odd that CONCACAF hasn’t officially said anything through its channels or on-the-record to media, I’m now quite confident this is happening.
http://radiojamaicanewsonline.com/sports/concacaf-to-use-var-for-remaining-world-cup-qualifiers Radio Jamaica being the penultimate news provider said back in December that the Jamaican FA said VAR will be used foe the rest of qualifying. They are claiming the FA officially told them that. Not quite concacaf announcing but again, Radio Jamaica is probably the best source out there.
Thinking about this a little more, it boggles the mind that CONCACAF hasn't gone out and said anything official about this. Don't get me wrong, I still think this is a bad idea. But... It sounds like CONCACAF knew in November that it had made this decision. And assignments have been known by the officials assigned to January matches for a decent while. So... why not announce to the world that this is officially happening and own the decision? Let people know that this has been in the works for a full two months by the time matches start getting played. Demonsrate you responded to the calls for VAR (whether they were misguided calls or not is another question). Announce that you have been planning for this and accelerating training. Own the decision and explain what has been done to get prepared for the final matchday windows. Show the world you're ready and that this won't be haphazard. Instead, there's a rumor mill with outlets like Radio Jamaica reporting on it and a few stray Twitter comments with no official word. So assignments will leak about 48 hours before the matches, with no CONCACAF press release or briefing, and it will look to the masses like things were thrown together at the last minute. I mean, I feel like I'm pretty plugged into these things and even I didn't know it was happening until last week. Just seems like a huge PR miss--and maybe even a mess waiting to happen. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that we get a VAR disaster followed by commentary about how "CONCACAF just decided they were doing this a couple days ago."
Everything you've written seems very reasonable and well-planned. Which is why CONCACAF would never execute it in this manner.
Indeed--whether it's true, not true, or still being decided, seems the smart move would have been to have an official announcement. The silence is just plain weird.
To be clear, it's happening. I jumped into the thread last week last week precisely because there had been no official announcement and I was skeptical. But assignments have been communicated to officials and those assignments include VAR spots.
Confirmation: https://the18.com/futbol-noticias/2022-world-cup-is-var-available-in-concacaf-qualifiers
Sure but honestly this is not much different than Radio Jamaica. This article and the one linked to it has an unnamed "CONCACAF official" as the confirming source. I know it's true, so fine. But why isn't CONCACAF out there owning and talking about this decision and the implementation. No one is willing to put their name on it and go out there and publicly explain, defend and advertise what is about to happen. That's media relations malpractice... unless you're more concerned about explaining the aftermath of implementation. Also... the source article alleges that one of the last impediments was non-FMF and non-PRO officials not having VMO FIFA badges, which they now have for 2022. I mean... first of all, c'mon. FIFA had Alan Kelly VAR an U20 WC Final; the idea that a trained VAR can't work an international match because he/she didn't yet have a VMO badge is laughable on its face. To allege that was the (or a) big hurdle and suddenly everything is fine because the calendar says 2022 is laughable. Said Martinez couldn't VAR a match in November but now he magically can? Sure. Perhaps more importantly, it does seem to imply we are going to see a bunch of VARs who have very little actual experience doing it and this won't be a replay of the Gold Cup with US, Canadian and Mexican VARs taking almost every position. So... that sounds fun!