Referees

Sorry to Ruin Your Day But You’ve Probably Been Saying “Offsides” Wrong Your Whole Life

The offside rule is one which causes a lot of controversy in soccer: was he or wasn’t he onside? For players and refs alike, the line is blurred. This same sort of grey area and sense of uncertainty presents itself in analyzing the semantics of the word itself: is it “offside” or “offsides”?

Drum roll, please.

History Is Made As VAR Shames Despicable Bundesliga Dive

Who knows, in another era (last year) or perhaps just another league (most likely La Liga), the referee somehow gets it in his head that Cologne’s Jhon Cordoba has committed a serious foul play here and red cards him. I mean, how else could you explain rugged Hamburg center back Kyriakos Papadopoulos screaming and rolling around like this? Obviously Cordoba has done something unspeakable, so send him off.

Cristiano Ronaldo's Life Is Basically An Alexandre Dumas Novel

Cristiano Ronaldo has been WRONGED. By the SYSTEM. Cruelly banished from four La Liga matches for the minor offense of pushing a referee, Ronaldo will not allow himself to be broken so easily.

Ronaldo tweeted his displeasure at his UNFAIR sentence.

You’ll Be Infuriated By These 20 Shocking Refereeing Decisions

Some referees will let you get away with murder. Others will send you off for bad breath. Getting a grasp on what a ref will and will not allow is vital in every match for those who like to push the line, but getting a grasp on what the following refs were thinking is beyond our abilities. 

We’ve compiled a list of the players who've been least deserving of being sent off, juxtaposed against players who were most deserving of seeing red but were allowed to stay on the pitch. 

Whether VAR Is Male Or Female Least Of Video Review Concerns In Serie A

This was the first week of the new Serie A season. Things seemed to go according to plan. Juventus won. Fiorentina played like a bunch of hastily assembled strangers. Napoli played free flowing, attractive football and almost undid itself in the end. Everything went according to plan. So, there’s not really a result that stands out from the rest in terms of demanding the attention. But that’s because there’s a new game in town.

Bundesliga Shows The World How VAR Is Supposed To Work On Opening Day

After FIFA’s strangely inept trials of the Video Assistant Referee system at both the 2016 Club World Cup and 2017 Confederations Cup, it looks as though Germany will once again prove to be an ever-reliable fountainhead for efficiency and mastery, now with regards to using replay technology in football.

VAR decisions have been overly long, miscommunicated and occasionally downright baffling, but before the start of the new Bundesliga season, the German DFB made it clear that they didn't envision these issues plaguing their own use of the system.

Orlando Won’t Appeal Kaka’s Super Playful, Super Weird Red Card Goof

We’ve come to understand that VAR is going to get weird. There are going to be suspensions of play that feel strange, there are going to be offenses that are bizarrely non-reviewable, there are going to be goals disallowed for offenses in the buildup that’ll feel mysteriously idiosyncratic. It all comes with the power of time travel.

But the one surreal use of VAR we never expected would be the one ending with the brandishing of a straight red card to the wholesome Kaka, which happened on Saturday. This wasn’t your classic sending off — it was weird as s**t. 

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