Clattenburg (cc licence)
Mark Clattenburg did not see Javier Hernández was offside because it was almost impossible to have notice it. It’s a matter of milliseconds and centimeters. And besides, there is a linesman who needs to see the offside.
Until football use TV technology to assist referees, no referee – even Clattenburg – is to be blamed for a goal scored from this kind of offside position.
However, Clattenburg should be blamed for ruining the game by giving Fernando Torres a second yellow and sending him off for a “diving” offence.
Even if he thinks that the diving problem is a national calamity and it should be extinguished by yellow and red cards – that was not the right time to send off Torres.
When a team plays with 10 players and a striker “dares” to dive - then the reasonable thing to do is to approach him, point to the yellow card and tell him that next time he’s off. It’s still within the law. It’s called Law of logic.
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