Bet those same Man U fans had no objection to Bankes from the North West sending-off one of our players for losing his footing last season! The same thing happened then as yesterday! They lost to 10 men!!

I see it was my least favourite European referee - the useless Marciniak!

Yellow for me - it is reckless for me but I could understand a red if it was given.

Ive never heard of this particular ref.

I dont have old kit like that left.

That Umbro kit was my first referees kit.

The only thing I remember about the ref in that match was when Arsenal scored their 1st goal Liverpool players complaining and questioning the legality of the goal.Hutchinson stood his ground and awarded the goal.Alan Hansen said later he didn't know what he and his teammates were complaining about!

They do still deny any corruption - they are like Donald Trump & Nigel Farage, liars!

😆 Glenn Turner likes it!! 😆 🤣

Smith clearly had no sense of humour when he yellow carded Gaza!

A 48 team tournament though would be to big for 8 groups of 6 it would mean 120 group matches whereas 12 groups of 4 meant 72 group matches. 48 teams is too big, 32 was perfect - 48 group matches before the knockout stages.

He always hated being known as the first ref to send off a player in the FA Cup Final, he always said he had two options when Moran kicked Reid up a height:
1 Follow the Laws and send Moran off.
2 Put his whistle on the ground and walk off the pitch.
Option was NOT an option to him!

They initially were going to have 16 groups of 3 for this WC with 2 teams going into the last 32 but it was open to a German/Austrian fiddle like in 1982 which eliminated Algeria.In a24team tournament I would have 4 groups of 6 then a knock out phase with either 2 or 4 sides going to the knockouts.

Without looking it up I believe this was a 4-1 win for France in the 2nd group stage. This 1982 WC tournament had a one off format of a 1st group stage of 6 groups of 4 a 2nd group stage of 4 groups of 3 then a Semi-Final and Final and the 3/4th place play-off.

I have never heard of him either.

To early for Tony Glasson - he was a League referee from 1972 until 1983. I dont recognise him.

I agree it is shifting the margins. If the gap is 1mm it would be Offside. They are already trialling it in Canada.

Strangely I have come to accept Offside rulings that are marginally Offside. But I do think the idea from Wenger where there must be a gap between the forward and the 2nd last defender for it to be deemed Offside is a good one. I accept though that it is still a fine line as is the current Law.

When that "gormless shit" rant at me happened, I was getting assessed as well! The assessor didn't hear what he said but did say it was the only time I got mixed up in the play and was difficult for any ref at the time to "read" the game at the time so it was an understandable error on my part.