Piry the club owner who has just invested fortunes in the playing squad only to find that the players can join another club at will for free. That would mean x millions of pounds has just been wiped off the club's asset value by a court ruling. Surely this cannot happen !

One thing is certain.More seems to have been written about Close than any other player over the time he’s been here. The fact that occasionally he can be brilliant maintains his supporters’ faith.

It is surely a considerable challenge to decide when a match in this rough and tumble league might suit his delicate touch. Rarely, I would have thought. Perhaps McCann could think the unthinkable and use him as a substitute. That way the character of the game is established as either suitable or not.

It's going to be a total overhaul of the contract system as we know it, I think.

My interpretation says that a player can break his contract when he wants to without suffering a penalty for doing so. And his new club won't be liable for any costs either.

Quote;

“The rules in question are such as to impede the free movement of professional footballers wishing to develop their activity by going to work for a new club,” said the Luxembourg-based court of justice of the European Union (CJEU).

As I said, they want their cake etc. But it doesn't work like that in normal employment, so how they expect to be the exception I don't know.

I bet if the boot was on the other foot and clubs want to terminate a players contract early, the players would want compensating.

I can see the logic in transfer fees between clubs becoming defunct and transactions between players and clubs being the norm but that surely has to be compensation around wages?

Maybe clubs will have to insist on contractual notice periods and/or players buy themselves out of contracts?

Either way, there's got to be some protection for clubs too!

By 'eck Badger, that looks a posh pub!

Like you, I thought you were doomed at one point last season but fortunately you rallied in your last few games and Sutton and Forest Green were terrible.

Should be a good game on Saturday with Clifton nailed on to score!

Quote from: VivaRovers on October 02, 2024, 01:03:10 pm

Quote from: Reg of the Rovers on October 02, 2024, 12:43:23 pm

I don't think it's about bribery, it's about referees not being impartial - James Bell for whatever reason - loyalty to Sheff Wed, personal bias, reaction to crowd jeers, or perverse arrogance (which I think drives many refs - that feeling of smug satisfaction about being centre of attention and having the power to upset so many people) - deliberately and routinely favoured one team over another on Tuesday. That is corrupt.

That's a nonsense. There is absolutely no incentive for referees to be biased in any way or form.

The reactions to referees performances are blown way out of proportion. They're an easy target, and are held to account much more rigorously than anyone else on the pitch, despite being paid the least. We've got players making really stupid decisions that are getting them rightly carded, yet the referees get their credibility questioned for rightly issuing those cards.

Refereeing is tougher than it's ever been – television has massively skewed the expectation of them and what they're there for; they're bound by very exacting assessment criteria which limits their ability to let games flow; and then you've this increasing celebration of 'shithousery' whereby refs have to contain with 22 players, managers and subs trying to influence every decision they might make.

Referees will always perceive a game differently to everyone in the stands because they've got a different perspective aspect of the game to everyone else. I think there are some excellent referees, I think there are some less good ones, and yeah there are some who I whince at the prospect of, but either way they don't deserve the level of nonsense that gets hurled at them just because they read a game differently to people watching.

Talking of nonsense, how are refs "held to account much more rigorously than anyone else on the pitch"?

In his last three matches alone, James Bell has given:

21 (TWENTY ONE!!!) yellow cards
4 red cards

Yet he'll never be held to account in the media because they aren't forced to give media interviews. Crowds can chant, but they are powerless - they can never hold him to account.

Who's holding him to account?

I'm presuming the Refs Assessor but then I have to ask if the Assessor gave him 80 out of 100 as the marking was last time I saw one , I would say way too high , so who is holding the Assessor accountable .

If that's how it works I would then expect the Ref to give the Officials a similar score THOUGH in the Case of the 4th Official he might have given higher as he was alert enough to keep watching the Anderson "clash" and with his superb eyesight managed to discern him to be the aggressor and alerted the Ref to that in a few seconds

It all STINKS