Recent content by YorkshireBlue877

We need to rid ourselves of any delusions that we are aiming higher than avoiding relegation. We have just that one target now - PL survival. The manager should reflect this; we don’t have the luxury of taking a gamble on an unproven, potentially-great-in-the-future manager. We need someone who...

Don’t know about that last part, but you’re spot on about perception - until we get rid of human input it will always be about what set of facts the Judge/jury/tribunal chair thinks is more likely to have been the case.

Ha! My outrage lies more with the punishment (should be the same as if the ref actually caught him diving) and the fact that many more egregious examples have occurred since the start of the season without any action being taken.

As I say, I disagree, and there will always be arguments on both sides with this kind of decision. For me a grown, professional athlete is not irresistibly forced to the ground because an arm grazes his chest. For me, on balance, a dive.

If the standard of proof is beyond reasonable doubt, not guilty for me. I’d be surprised if that was the case however; most sport disciplinary tribunals adhere to the civil, ‘on balance’ standard of proof.

Hmmm, there was certainly clear evidence of diving, Niasse being a human being and not a house of soggy cards. I’m not sure I’d have convicted him if the evidence had to be overwhelming however - on balance, yes, but not beyond doubt.

Well I guess that’s what’s great about the game from a fan’s perspective - we can see two different things in the same incident and argue until the cows come home. Shame there wasn’t the same disagreement on the panel - Oumar would be a free man.

Definitely contact there - and if Oumar’s legs were made out of al dente spaghetti I could understand the tumble. However there’s no way he should be going down because some bloke touched him, therefore a dive.

True! To take an extreme and ridiculous example, say the ball rolled out and Oumar and Dann squared up to each other. Dann shoves Oumar in the chest, which would make him stumble - clearly a foul by Dann. Oumar then leaps gracefully five feet in the air and rolls 25 yards into the dugout...

I don’t think that’s quite right. The charge relates to Niasse, not the ref; did Oumar try and deceive the Official? I my view yes - he was not pushed to the ground, he chose to fall over, with the intention of gaining a pen.

Loads! Why poor Oumar is getting the firing squad after months of the rule being in place is a mystery.

The deception is Oumar deliberately falling over. If we accept that because of the defender’s arm across his chest he was unavoidably forced to the ground (or I suppose that he genuinely tripped over his own gangly legs) then clearly there is no deception. However that arm lightly grazed his...

It doesn’t really matter whether there was any contact or even whether Oumar was actually fouled; he’s been charged with deception of an official. If he deliberately went to ground, even under contact, with the aim of deceiving the ref then he’s guilty. As much as I like Oumar he clearly went to...