The life of a referee is a brutal one. If a referee does their job correctly and makes all the right calls then no one talks about the official. However, if the referee does the opposite — much like Anthony Taylor in the FA Cup final — then they receive a tidal wave of criticism.
In some ways, you have to feel bad for João Pedro. In others, you can’t help but laugh at the Cagliari striker for not knowing better. After the João Pedro free kick fiasco against Lazio on Thursday, either reaction is appropriate.
Early in Cagliari’s visit to Lazio, the referee blew his whistle for a foul about 30 yards from Lazio’s net. João Pedro stepped up and smashed the free kick straight into the back of the net.
It was a flabbergasting shot, rifled straight into the upper 90.
And it didn’t count.
Football's rule-making body IFAB on Wednesday said teams will be allowed to continue to use up to five substitutes next season, in a bid to cope with potential fixture congestion in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak.
IFAB, the International Football Association Board, had agreed to a temporary change to allow teams to use five substitutes, rather than the usual three, in May to "protect player welfare."
Players and coaches around Europe are becoming increasingly perplexed by the current handball rule which one has said is best suited to foosball.
Forwards have seen goals chalked off for almost imperceptible handballs while defenders have conceded penalties for unintentional ones in innocuous situations because their arm was seen as making the body "unnaturally bigger."
FIFA wants VAR video reviews to be applied in the same way across all competitions, as they take over direct responsibility for the system.
Issues concerning VAR have been handled primarily by IFAB, the game's law-making body, during the system's two-year experimental phase and its introduction as part of the laws of the game. Soccer's global governing body FIFA, however, took over the role of supporting competition organizers with the implementation of VAR from July 1.
Arsenal’s Shkodran Mustafi woke up Wednesday morning with two holes in his face after receiving a Jamie Vardy boot to the side of his head during Tuesday’s match. The match between Arsenal and Leicester City ended 1-1 after Vardy scored the Foxes’ equalizer in the final moments of the match. Some argue the Leicester striker shouldn’t have been on the field after the incident with Mustafi before halftime.
Here is the controversial moment between Vardy and Mustafi in the 45th minute:
Kateryna Monzul will become the first female to take charge of the Ukrainian Cup final when Dynamo Kiev face Vorskla Poltava on Wednesday, the Ukrainian Football Association said on Monday.
Monzul, 39, was the first woman to referee a Ukrainian Premier League match when she took charge of Chornomorets Odesa against Volyn Lutsk in 2016.
She refereed the opening match of the 2015 Women's World Cup and the final between the United States and Japan as well as matches at the 2019 tournament including the quarterfinal.
The Armenian Football Federation (FFA) suspended the country's second tier with immediate effect and disqualified five teams after receiving "undeniable evidence" of their involvement in match-fixing.
About 45 people, including club owners, players and coaches, have been handed with life bans and another 13 were banned for different periods for being involved in manipulation of matches, the FFA said.
Local media reported that club owners with Russian passports, Russian players and coaches, as well as Ukrainian, Latvian and Belarusian footballers were among those banned.
Let me just get this out of the way first: I love the VAR. I think video replay is a necessary addition to soccer and greatly improves the accuracy of match-changing calls. But that Harry Kane disallowed goal on Thursday was BS, even if the VAR technically got it right.
The moment in question came in the 33rd minute of Tottenham’s 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United. The Blades had gone ahead less than two minutes earlier through Sander Berge, but Spurs thought they had found a quickfire response.
The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system is not being used correctly in LaLiga, Barcelona manager Quique Setién said on Monday following Real Madrid's controversial win at Real Sociedad.
Madrid beat Sociedad 2-1 to climb above Barcelona at the top of LaLiga but the home side were aggrieved because they had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside and Karim Benzema's winner stood after he appeared to control the ball with his arm.