Arsene Wenger believes last weekend’s case of mistaken identity hasn’t been taken seriously enough by those in charge of the game and again called on the introduction of video technology to aid officials.
Reflecting on the accidental dismissal of Kieran Gibbs at Stamford Bridge the boss claimed that the decision had been made by the linesman on the halfway line rather than referee Andre Marriner or the assistant nearer the incident.
“I think he has not seen it, I just want to know the truth,” Wenger told his pre-Manchester City press conference.
“My opinion is quite simple: I think the whole case has not been taken seriously. Why? Because he has not seen it.”It was the linesman in front of us who made the decision. From where I was, I couldn’t see the difference between Chamberlain and Gibbs either. So I believe that maybe the referee needs more assistance to make the decision,” said Wenger, hinting that the referee had been given bogus information.
“When they have a doubt, as I have said many times, the referees should have video assistance on his demand. For a long long time I plead for video, only for that purpose.
“Then, when the referee feels he needs assistance, he should have that resource. I believe it would be very good to give them that opportunity. Referees need help, the game is too quick today for everybody to master everything.”
Stressing that he doesn’t believe Andre Marriner to be dishonest, Wenger played down the apology he’d received from the man in black admonishing him of any guilt.
“He does not have to do that, I trust his honesty. He made a mistake and it can happen.
“We did not lose [because] of that, the game became much more difficult for us of course – at 3-0 down with 10 men, you know you have to attack. I completely accept the fact that Andre Marriner is an honest referee and a good referee. He did not do that on purpose, it was accidental.”
This whole incident does appear to have been swept under the carpet somewhat (Marriner hasn’t even been suspended from duty, he’s reffing Southampton vs Newcastle this weekend!) and there remain more questions than answers.
Given the battle that took place to have goal line technology installed it’s wishful thinking to imagine referees will get the help they obviously need any time soon, but the debate needs to keep being had for momentum to build.
Goal line technology makes even more sense than extraditing Farage. Get to it, Platini!
The lack of technology in the sport is ridiculous. The game is now played at such a rapid speed, that Referee’s with no help are always going to make mistakes. Imagine in Formula 1 if instead of a real lap time clocks / cameras, they just paid a guy to stand their and count the laps as the cars ripped round the tracks.. Every other sport is developing and evolving through technology .. so why the hell isn’t football>?? its the biggest sport in the world? With so much money at stake in the EPL, European Football etc.. its flat… Read more »
I’ve always argued against the use of more technology in football for several reasons. First off, I love the fact that the sport can be played by all ages and skill levels everywhere in the world with the same rules and technology; that my crappy sunday league can play the sport the same way as it is played in the Champions League. Well, not with the same level of skill of course, we play a crappy long all version of football tha Wenger would be ashamed of, but it makes me happy. Secondly, I love the human error part of… Read more »
Very true, still too many ‘grey’ areas in the rules of the game.
sorry but when eduardo got a near amputation, we won that game , walcoot scored a double and we were 2-1 up till the ref discovered penalty on clichy in the l;ast second of the match.
having the option to review that and nott give the penalty means none of the “arsenal copllapse blah blah” would take place……
same goes for:
vidic handball
fletcher on arshavin
rooney diving over almunia
rooney diving in front of sol for game #50
and countless other “moments” ………moments which prohibited us from wining trophies and/or titles…
I wonder if there had video technology in place they might have also decided it wasn’t, by going be the laws of the game, a red card anyway?
We may have only been beaten 3 or 4-0 then….
had been*
going by the* ffs.
*fps
*psg
*sgt *gta
The vast majority of people in the game and those watching the game are crying out for replays to be used.
Not silly calls for it in a game for every foul, off sides or whether the ball was out of play but to be used for incidents leading to a goal or potential sending off when the officials are unsure.
Won’t happen till Blatter has gone though.
It would have to be like cricket DRS system where each team gets maybe 2 reviews each.
Wenger as usual is diplomatic and measured. But in actual sense, this thing is inexcusable. Whichever way you look at it, however much you want to sympathise with Marriner, you’ve got to ask why the FA is downplaying a cock-up of this magnitude. Of course they always want to convince us that officials are infallible and its not up for discussion anyway. But i rant…
No point getting on the wrong sides of referee’s, we need all the help we can get.
And maybe Arsene’s diplomatic view of the referees mishap will make them more sympathetic to us.
We can only hope i guess!!!
If it came be seen on the big screens within seconds (in the case of a replay anyway) why not. I think it should be a mix of rugby and tennis appeals mind. ie the ref can use it when he wants but if say a goal is scored and the team that let it are positive it was offside, let them use one of their appeals. Unlike tennis even if right they don’t get the appeal back. This will make them use them wisely
Clubs are not allowed show any potentially controversial incidents on the large screens as it could instigate crowd trouble. Don’t forget Rugby and Tennis fans are very different from football fans.
in a regulated environment, wenger owns them all. they all know it therefore they wont regulate it. we cant have russians and sheiks “investing arhgghem… ” millions and wenger running away with the prizes with gibbs and walcott…………. nor can we have a frenchman with a funny accent owning us in our national sport… kick them, smash em, and give them reds for the minimum of offences, break their legs, their spirits and then lets all call wenger useless and get rid of him …. a big thank you to our fans who are making our rivals and medias work… Read more »
what a nice msg… am Arsenal till i die
Wenger could not himself distinguish Gibbs from Ox ? Not exactly reassuring coming from the boss. Is he the one who really needs video assist during the match?
The point he was making was that if he, who knows the players better than anyone, couldn’t tell the difference from that distance, how on earth could the linesman?
“he, who knows the players better than anyone”
Sorry, but that’s not good enough. Where are their mothers? Where are their fathers? We must know if they could distinguish the players. Do the officials’ headsets have bluetooth? They should call them. Also, the players should call them more often.
Football is 45 minutes – 15 minutes – 45 minutes give or take 5-8 minutes on average. This makes it easy for tv companies to arrange and sell advertising slots, and the channels schedules etc..etc…
If it went like Rugby for example and had a stop clock system it suddenly makes game length highly (in relative terms) unpredictable.
Why stop the clock at all? Just add on time like any other stoppage situation. In other sports, a review doesn’t last longer than a minute or two (I know the decision must be made in 60 seconds in the NFL, not sure about other leagues and sports). Football would be no different. Playing an extra minute of added time isn’t going to create a serious problem.
Wenger is being kind to Marriner. Sending off the wrong person was not the worst mistake he made during this incident. The rules are very clear that the ball has to be going in for this to be a red card offence. If he didn’t see it well enough to identify the culprit, it cannot have been (in his opinion) a denial of a clear goal-scoring opportunity. So, with the help of your assistant, give the penalty, but keep your cards in your pocket. Very poor refereeing, and very indicative of the mindset of referees these days, seemingly eager to… Read more »
So the two officials near the incident dont give it but the one 60 yards away does and thats considered ok
Some people are going to be pretty angry when they go through the press conference. Wenger is still talking about beating $ity and challenging for the league. And Vermaelen saying there’s no doubt we can beat $ity. Oh Lawd, I thought we had enough of that! Anyway, apparently Diaby is back in training soon. Something to look forward to next season, ha! Getting back to the topic, if technology is used so freely in rugby, cricket, tennis, why not football? We could have a system where each side gets two appeals per half, with the captain making the decision to… Read more »
you mad ? and have vidic volleyball in our area given as a penalty in our favour ? with fergie around? or have feltcher sent of for two footed ankle tackle on asrhavin inside penalty box in ot? or not give penalty on clichy that day vs birmingham ( eduardo…) or have to send three players off from the opposition everytime arsenal plays ? arsenal will win everything in their path if they regulate the league. we cant have that. look at roman and abu dhabi and the millions they bring and look at arsenal with their scrooge policy….. who… Read more »
Video Referees are a good idea but need more consensus/fine-tuning about scope and application of the same. But one thing they can absolutely do away with is the extra time. It is allocated pseudo-randomly to begin with and the referee then adds some more random time based on goals/injuries during extra time (previously also called fergie time). Football could learn from field hockey. Replace the clock with a countdown timer which is stopped whenever ball goes out of play or whenever referee signals for the same (injury, handbags etc.). At the end of stipulated time the automatic hooter goes off… Read more »
But it is what I love about football. I mean when the ball is going in the top corner, it’s a half second away from a goal and the buzzer goes off and the goal isn’t counted, that seems a ridiculous rule to me. I’ve always enjoyed the clock not being stopped during an attack.
Also, having been a referee, having to stop the clock and restart it at every throw in and goal kick would be quite difficult, the ref has enough to look after on the pitch without having to make all those split second clock stoppages.
Ref doesn’t do it. Another match official does it. Only during a serious injury or something like that when play must be stopped when ball is still in play does the referee signal to the time-keeper to stop the clock. It also frees the referee from looking into his watch time and again
But it can’t really be played by those rules at all levels. I would prefer a system that can be played everywhere, rather than making the rules exclusive to those with the facilities to do so.
Lets just buy back alex song. Song ramsey, walcott ozil cazorla, higuan. That team could cause some damage to the likes of chelsea, liverpool qnd city Wenger just spend some money i know your a good businessman and the best manager in the league. Now buy some players and leave some trophies at the emirates before you leave.
There’s no need to make the game too realistic now that we have gibbsorox.com
Hear, hear! Sometimes I can’t tell the difference between Younes Kaboul and a footballer myself!
Is it me, or does it look like Arsene is wearing an oddly shaped hat?
Yeah, he is wearing a hat. They go with his stilts.
Hat – Suit – Stilts, it’s a classic combination.
When is football going to realize that referees play an unnecesarilly big role in the result of too many games. So many sports have incorporated video replays to help referees consistantly make the right calls and ensure the game is kept fair in that regard. Why is it taking football so long to do the same?
“Marriner hasn’t even been suspended from duty, he’s reffing Southampton vs Newcastle this weekend”
Fucking disgrace and the FA can fuck off as well.
Video works exceptionally well in international rugby and football is arguably easier to video since there’s far less rucking! It’s time Platini!
In American hockey, they use video replay every time a goal is scored or a penalty is awarded, because play has been stopped anyway and they want to make sure they got the call right. I don’t understand why they can’t do this in football. For goals, penalties, and red cards- since play is stopped anyway and the players are busy celebrating/arguing with the ref- do a quick video check. Easy! Simple! Wouldn’t take time or take away from the flow of the game!
And mic the refs, too.
No wenger.. 3-0 down with 10 men.. You don’t have to attack
To be honest I’m truly astounded that video refereeing isn’t part of football when we’re half way through the second decade of the 21st century. We have the technology to completely abolish, for example, bad offside calls. The video and technology used can calculate whether a player is offside or not which sends a notification to the referee’s watch who then blows the whistle. No time is wasted and calls will probably be 100% correct. Instead we have dreadful officiating which offside calls being wrong by easily over a yard at times – both onside and offside. These decisions do… Read more »
Have a 5th official watching the game on TV at the stadium and give him a direct line to the referee on the field. Any contentious decision, 5th official can just confirm or deny the call made and the decision can be overturned instantly. There’s no need to create a stoppage to show the fans on the big screen and make a big scene out of it. The referees on the field made quick decisions in record time; so another qualified official sitting in an office with all the replays in the world should be able to do the same.… Read more »