I don't like the idea of the video panel looking over every game. Also premier league matches are all covered by a number of cameras for TV. Superleague gets two a week with the rest covered by usually one camera (suppose it's 3 if Catalans are at home) which impacts on it's affectiveness.

I agree there needs to be a safety net in case of anything really drastic and of course player safety is paramount. But not every incident in every game Ganson, Silverwood et al know what they are doing and get it right (when you take your blinkers off) most of the time.

Exactly. If they did pander to Newcastle (Who are just mard because they lost the game) it would set such a dangerous precedent. It would essentially mean every game would have to be re-refereed after it has happened and any retrospective bookings taken into account. You would end up with 3 or 4 banned per game no doubt. If they reviewed the Everton v City game from the weekend for example, James Milner would have ended up with about 5 bookings.

The law that they can ban a player if the officials didn't see it is fine, it catches the elbows and punches in back play and lets the referees referee.

Having said that, the referee who didn't at least book McManaman should be stood down from the next round of fixtures and have his poor assessment score made public.

The Wigan lad hasn't gone in deliberately to hurt the player (despite Mark Lawrensen's comment to that effect on MOTD) however that he made contact or 'got' the ball isn't relevant. the tackle was dangerous, the knock on effect of which was clear to see.
Players of any sport need to take responsibility in recognising what is and what isn't going to be a marginal situation to the serious detriment of their fellow sportsmen. You can still take out your oppo without the need to be putting them in danger of injury

I was listening talk sport discussing it yesterday, they had a FA spokesman’s on who said something along the lines of, the FA policy of ‘If a match official saw the incident then they do not review it’. Was because the Match Officials overall get more decisions right than they get wrong and was to also ensure whenever possible match officials make decisions on the pitch at the time of incident, knowing that the ruling body supports them in all their decisions, and is not undermining their authority or rights to control the game, they also want to avoid match officials not making decisions knowing it will be reviewed later, especially when you consider what is seen in other sports where the Match Officials appear to take the easy option of putting incidents ‘On Report’.

Wonder which other sports he was refering to?

They don't "back the referee" though do they? On the one hand they will refuse to take retrospective action or not impose a ban when a red card has been shown in error. But then they'll stand down the official from the following week's matches. They make it fairly clear that he's being punished.

That said, I think there's a stronger case for leaving things alone if the ref takes no action than there is for imposing a ban if a red card is shown when clearly wrong. Automatic bans go against natural justice. Banning someone who shouldn't have been sent off in the first place is punishing someone wrongly, twice. And often a sending off is adequate punishment itself.

Couldn't agree more. It was an accident but he does make serious contact with the player so if he had been banned I wouldn't have complained.

The challenges on Kone, Alcaraz and Scharner were deliberate and intended to hurt. They're the types of tackle we should be outlawing.

Perch got booked for that. The handball for the winner was deliberate, as was Macmanamans seconds after his disgusting tackle. No bookings there though.

So you're saying that Callum should at most have only been booked for his challenge then and not hung from the Douglas Bridge like some are pointing out? As I said, his was accidental. I'm not sure the same can be said for the Newcastle challenges in the second half.

Regards the handball, I'll see you the sending off of Figueroa at Newcastle that ended the game after just 12 minutes.

rlNewcastle lose moral high groundrl