What is the Referee's official line for pulling and pushing at corners.

[wallyback]

Referees obviously know it goes on every corner. Are they told by FA, UEFA or FIFA to turn a blind eye unless bleeding obvious?

I suppose the repercussions of a hard line on this would be lots of diving by attackers/defenders to win a penalty/free kick. And we have enough diving already!

 

[vegster]

Punish ALL offences in the box that would warrant a free kick on the pitch with a penalty. No holding, blocking off,clothes lining or pushing , John Terry's career would be over in a week. There would be chaos in the form of sendings off and penalties until the players learn what is unacceptable.....could be great fun !

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Punish ALL offences in the box that would warrant a free kick on the pitch with a penalty. No holding, blocking off,clothes lining or pushing , John Terry's career would be over in a week. There would be chaos in the form of sendings off and penalties until the players learn what is unacceptable.....could be great fun !

Nah. Do exactly the opposite. Apply the laws of kickboxing to all interactions inside the penalty area.

If it's "great fun" you are after, that will improve the game no end.

 

[WhingForPresident]

Ignore all, unless you fancy spicing the game up and getting a bit of the spotlight, in which case give a penalty.

 

[Ernest]

Make it up as you go along seems the current rule

 

[BensGrandad]

Stick by the rules if it means 10 penalties so be it players will soon learn and clubs will stop teaching the young lads how to do it.

 

[GT49er]

As the fourth official seems to spend 90 minutes doing three quarters of eff all, I think their time would be better spent if spotting shirt tugging in the area became their responsibility. A quick word over the radio to the refs ear when to award a pen. Lots of pens for a few weeks, then message received loud and clear that you cannot hold on to a shirt. Job done.

 

[BensGrandad]

As the fourth official seems to spend 90 minutes doing three quarters of eff all, I think their time would be better spent if spotting shirt tugging in the area became their responsibility. A quick word over the radio to the refs ear when to award a pen. Lots of pens for a few weeks, then message received loud and clear that you cannot hold on to a shirt. Job done.

100% correct better in the long run and if a directive was issued to refs today to use that incident as an example and it was acted on Saturday especially in the Premier there would be none the next week.

All it needs is a statement from the FL that refs have been told to clamp down on it and it will be punished and clubs would tell their players not to do it and take the chance during training this week.

 

[Barham's tash]

I think within the game referees should determine a weekend, but not tell anyone when, and punish EVERYTHING.

Then watch the fallout unfold and in theory players wouldn't do stupid things.

As a defender you have to react when manhandled by strikers but you open yourself up to the risk of a pen.

Dunk did it twice more after the pen and I can't believe no one on the staff told him not to...

 

[mwrpoole]

I heard an interview with former referee Graham Poll a few weeks back about this very thing. He said that no offence occurs until the ball is actually in play. I'll admit I didn't appreciate that. He went onto say to give a penalty the ref needs to watch the corner being taken and the players at the same time, not easy. To give a penalty the ref would have to be absolutely certain that the defender committed the first offence, again not easy if you're also watching the corner being taken. He did say that the best defenders time their release of the shirt/player at the time the corner is taken to perfection and quite often attackers get penalised because they don't. In Dunk's case he was probably very naïve by continuing to pull Keane's shirt up his back after the corner was taken, he should have let go sooner & Keane would have probably pulled him over.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Incidentally I recall Dunk got booked later on but not sent off so assume he didn't get a booking for the pen. How can that be?

 

[Postman Pat]

I heard an interview with former referee Graham Poll a few weeks back about this very thing. He said that no offence occurs until the ball is actually in play. I'll admit I didn't appreciate that. He went onto say to give a penalty the ref needs to watch the corner being taken and the players at the same time, not easy.

Not disputing what you heard, but don't understand why Ref would need to watch the corner being taken, they should be concentrating on the action in the box. Nothing likely to happen when they are running up to kick it.

They also need to give more responsibility to the assistants to spot stuff.

To answer the OP I would say that pushing and shoving will happen by players trying to get position, but as soon as a player is impeded from heading or getting to the ball, that is when an offence has occurred, with benefit of the doubt to the defender in 50/50 instances.

 

[Easy 10]

Incidentally I recall Dunk got booked later on but not sent off so assume he didn't get a booking for the pen. How can that be?

Giving away a pen doesn't mean its a mandatory yellow. But he was probably lucky not to get one.

 

[papajaff]

Dunk's got a reputation for it. He can't shield a player without getting him in a Half Nelson.

Hoops would have been watching him.

 

[Arthur]

Thought it was interesting what the Brum manager said at half time yesterday.

I didn't catch what game he was talking about so I'll assume it was their game at Charlton the day before. He said he was told by the referee that his side were fouled but not enough of a foul to be a penalty. Surely a foul is a foul regardless of where it takes place on the park?

We were unlucky yesterday. Dunk was being pushed and pulled as much as their fella BUT their fella ended up looking like Dunk was trying to undress him. Either Dunk needs to get better at cheating or he needs to stop with the shirt grabbing. He made it very easy for the ref to give it.

 

[sully]

Not disputing what you heard, but don't understand why Ref would need to watch the corner being taken, they should be concentrating on the action in the box. Nothing likely to happen when they are running up to kick it.

I imagine it's so that they know when the ball is in play - though you'd think they could hear the ball being kicked.

 

[nwgull]

Thought it was interesting what the Brum manager said at half time yesterday.

I didn't catch what game he was talking about so I'll assume it was their game at Charlton the day before. He said he was told by the referee that his side were fouled but not enough of a foul to be a penalty. Surely a foul is a foul regardless of where it takes place on the park?

Ideally yes, but football is a physical game, and the general roughness between big defenders and attackers in the box has been a standard part of the game ever since I've been watching. Besides, I don't think that it'd work if referees were to start consistently clamping down on it: defenders may stop tugging shirts once they learned that they may concede a penalty; however if the attacking team knew that there was a good chance of winning a penalty, then every corner would resemble a formation dive competition as the attackers attempted to throw themselves to the ground in a convincing manner. The diving when players are in the box is bad enough as it is.

Yesterday's incident was a 50/50 foul by both players that normally goes unpunished either way: the Burnley player was hauling Dunk's arm with both hands, and Dunk had a good handful of shirt at the same time. To give Hoops the benefit, it probably looked more of a foul by Dunk because of the way his shirt got pulled up.

 

[BBassic]

Thought it was interesting what the Brum manager said at half time yesterday.

I didn't catch what game he was talking about so I'll assume it was their game at Charlton the day before. He said he was told by the referee that his side were fouled but not enough of a foul to be a penalty. Surely a foul is a foul regardless of where it takes place on the park?

We were unlucky yesterday. Dunk was being pushed and pulled as much as their fella BUT their fella ended up looking like Dunk was trying to undress him. Either Dunk needs to get better at cheating or he needs to stop with the shirt grabbing. He made it very easy for the ref to give it.

I watched the replay more than a couple of times and whilst Dunk definitely had hold and the guys shirt was up a bit but its one of their players who raises the shirt further accidentally.

Regardless Dunk absolutely has to stop with all the grabbing. He's not Skrtel.

 

[Big Bill]

Why pull someone's shirt sleeve?
1. To stop them playing in which case it must be an obvious foul.
2. Because they are pulling your shirt.
Both 1 and 2 seem pretty stupid. Blame the player, not the ref.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Now that Hoops has shown us the way forward maybe the Albion should employ the services of a seamstress so that with a deft tug of a thread the shirt is hoisted chestwards "venetian blind-style"?