by Nameless »
28 Jan 2016 11:59
stealthpapes The seemed to think that because they could see some grass the ball was out.
That's
typically a good rule of thumb. You see a bit of green between ball and line - ball is probably going to be completely over the line.
The few yards out of position will screw you because of perspective and parallax.
Shame. Preferred Everton to go through.
I'd be very wary of a rule of thumb that is likely to give you the wrong answer more often than the right one in these tight situations.
Especially when just knowing the law is as easy as a poor substitute way of looking at it.
Every week at the Madejski the home fans get wound up at corners by visiting players placing the ball well outside the quadrant. But they do it so the edge of the ball overhangs the outer edge of the line. There is plenty of grass clearly visible but the ball is technically in a legal position.
However this is also another example of how greater TV analysis is making the game almost impossible to referee. Once upon a time we allowed officials to operate within sensible tolerances, now a decision shown by multiple slow motion replays to be marginally incorrect is called an 'error' or 'controversial'. Referees are expected to make judgements that are just about impossible to do. This call wasn't an error, there's nothing conclusive either way. Players made way more avoidable errors than the officials (see Aguero's air shot or the City defence for Barclay's goal !)