[Albion] Is it time Independent doctors at matches?

Berty23 · Sep 23, 2024

I am now fed up with teams like Arsenal wasting time and faking injuries all the time to get the physio on allowing managers to pass on messages. It is cheating. Has Raya ever got cramp when Arsenal need a goal? No. In fact how often do any players go down with cramp when they are losing?

It is against the laws to fake injury and a bookable offence

attempts to deceive the referee e.g. by feigning injury or pretending to have been fouled (simulation)

Obviously the issue with cramp is that you can say “oh it got better” - therefore I am saying we should ever stop for cramp. Play on. Its tough. We don’t stop because players are unfit and out of breath so why should we stop for cramp. If they are struggling them hobble off and get help. If that changed then I would bet very good money that we would see less cramp in the game.

Independent doctor could be first on the scene to check whether an injury is genuine or not. It is time for a crackdown on all this timewasting. It is shocking. It is not mastering the dark arts. It is cheating. People pay money to watch sport not people pretend to be hurt.

Harry Wilson's tackle · Sep 23, 2024

Yep. If you are injured, go off for treatment.

And anyone rolling back onto the pitch before calling for the physio should be red carded.

And play should never be stopped for someone going down off the ball unless they are in VF (cardiac arrest) or injured sufficiently* to be subbed (and they must be subbed). We can trust team mates to signal this. Red card for faking.

Any player getting cramp is an idiot. Take potassium supplements. I do and I no longer get cramp. And I'm a geriatric arse, not a footballer. FFS.

(*Edited after someone commented about Solly March's mysterious off the ball injury)

Muzzman · Sep 23, 2024

Agree. If you're rolling about whilst waving your hand in the air, you're not injured. The really worrying injuries are when the player goes down and is stock still, that's when you know something is wrong.

beorhthelm · Sep 23, 2024

Harry Wilson's tackle said:
Yep. If you are injured, go off for treatment.

i thought that was the rule, just been slowly eroded.

Robdinho · Sep 23, 2024

Totally agree in spirit, and i am pretty sure the rule still is that an injured player is supposed to leave the pitch but, for some reason, the treatment /assessment on the pitch seems to have been allowed to creep back in.

The flipside is that you need to be very careful not to penalise a team whose player is legitimately injured though; if a player has to leave the field for absolutely anything, then that just encourages the Crawley Towns of this world to give out a few ankle high challenges, hoping they can play against 10 men for a few minutes.

Whatever the rule is, people will try and take advantage, unfortunately. And not sure getting independent doctors would speed this up to be honest (and is a lawsuit waiting to happen when they miss something)

RandyWanger · Sep 23, 2024

The officials in this country are poor and get mugged off so easily. It's embarrassing.

nickbrighton · Sep 23, 2024

One thing becomes very apparent with injuries when you have watched a reasonable number of games. 99% of the time (made up% but its probably not far off) anytime a player is actually seriously injured, other payers (team mates, opposition) immediately signal the ref and benches for help. They kick the ball out, they go help, in fact just about anything other than play on.

When i have hurt myself in bike accidents, i've known instantly whether something just hurts and will be fine in a few mins, or I have done some serious damage

Even from the stands the majority of the time a nasty injury happens the fans know it. You can see from how a player falls and rolls five or six times before wailing and waving arms, or if just hits the deck, lays still. Even how a player cries out can often tell you.

The current rule is that play continues until the ref stops it. That should be adhered to, unless the other players can see its a serious injury.

As with most contentious things in football (or other sport) there is no need to change rules, just apply, consistently the ones we have.

Zeberdi · Sep 23, 2024

Muzzman said:
Agree. If you're rolling about whilst waving your hand in the air, you're not injured.

Well not dead at least

Harry Wilson's tackle · Sep 23, 2024

Robdinho said:
Totally agree in spirit, and i am pretty sure the rule still is that an injured player is supposed to leave the pitch but, for some reason, the treatment /assessment on the pitch seems to have been allowed to creep back in.

The flipside is that you need to be very careful not to penalise a team whose player is legitimately injured though; if a player has to leave the field for absolutely anything, then that just encourages the Crawley Towns of this world to give out a few ankle high challenges, hoping they can play against 10 men for a few minutes.

Whatever the rule is, people will try and take advantage, unfortunately. And not sure getting independent doctors would speed this up to be honest (and is a lawsuit waiting to happen when they miss something)

Very minimum, make referees follow the rules. There is no rule that says play has to be stopped because a keeper (or anyone else) has cramp, and if a player is injured they should go off for treatment. These are the rules. If refs and players don't like the rules they need to be changed.

worthingweird · Sep 23, 2024

If, you go down holding your head, you go straight off for 5 mins examination...

ElectricNaz · Sep 23, 2024

I noticed yesterday when Pedro got smashed by Gibbs White he was treated on the pitch but I don't think he ever had to go off. I could be wrong but I think (99.9% certain) he was on the field for our resulting free kick.

Is this a rule now regarding tackles that are "punished" with a card? Or did the ref just miss this one?

Commander · Sep 23, 2024

How would an independent Dr know if a player is faking or not? I can't see how it would make a difference. Unless you're going to get them to run on to the pitch with an MRI scanner. But that would take 30 mins to complete the scan, and then 2-3 weeks to get the results back, and I think would interrupt the flow of the game somewhat.

HeaviestTed · Sep 23, 2024

They should go back and review games and if someone is rolling around and then walking fine 30 seconds later they should get a automatic red and one goal removed from their score.

Punish the ****s.

schmunk · Sep 23, 2024

ElectricNaz said:
I noticed yesterday when Pedro got smashed by Gibbs White he was treated on the pitch but I don't think he ever had to go off. I could be wrong but I think (99.9% certain) he was on the field for our resulting free kick.

Is this a rule now regarding tackles that are "punished" with a card? Or did the ref just miss this one?

Is it because the play had already stopped for the foul, rather than play stopping for the injury?

Madafwo · Sep 23, 2024

Start treating footballers like race horses and see how quickly feigning injury stops.

MattBackHome · Sep 23, 2024

Independent doctors with luminescent flags ideally.

NSC having a perimenopausal moment it seems.

Albion my Albion · Sep 23, 2024

HeaviestTed said:
They should go back and review games and if someone is rolling around and then walking fine 30 seconds later they should get a automatic red and one goal removed from their score.

Punish the ****s.

Maybe they should get a hammer and have the injury application referee (IAR) actually hit the supposed injured player's effected body part with the hammer and give the player a real injury. That would shirley teach them not to fake it!!!!

nwgull · Sep 23, 2024

I thought that the 4th official adding time that was a more realistic reflection of the number of minutes lost to injuries, subs and VAR checks was the best development of the game over the last couple of years, with 8+ minutes not being an unusual amount of added time in the 2nd half. They seem to have stopped this this season though, and the usual 3-5 mins seems to have returned.

Robdinho · Sep 23, 2024

Harry Wilson's tackle said:
Very minimum, make referees follow the rules. There is no rule that says play has to be stopped because a keeper (or anyone else) has cramp, and if a player is injured they should go off for treatment. These are the rules. If refs and players don't like the rules they need to be changed.

Absolutely. Wasn't the rule, at one point, that if the physio had to come on then the player had to go off (remember that furore a few years ago with Mourinho being furious with his physio for running on, because he knew the player was faking it)?

Not that that is necessarily a good solution either, as it leaves the initial decision to the ref. For all the things to criticise refs for, I don't think it is fair to put them in the position of diagnosing how serious an injury is.

It really is a "least worst option" scenario. For me that means get them off the pitch ASAP and get on with the game. Maybe they could allow temporary subs so teams aren't disadvantaged, although that would no doubt be abused as well!

Nobby Cybergoat · Sep 23, 2024

My proposal is to add the following rule.

Any act by any player, which the referee considers to be timewasting, will result in the referee giving a signal. (both arms up or something).

This signal means that twice the amount of time that is wasted is added to the length of the match

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