Is it time for football to take a leaf from the book of cricket

We are once again faced with another poor refereeing decision involving Manchester United. How Nani's goal can ever be considered a legitimate goal is beyond me. If we look at the dive, the handball, the non free kick and the linesman's flag, Clattenberg really let himself down. But it is hardly surprising. The rules in football are extremely rigid when it comes to error.

Let us not forget some of the major incidents in the last year: The Lampard goal against Germany, Tevez's goal against Mexico where the referee knew he had made an error but was unable to change his decision, Defoe's goal against Wigan last year when he was a mile offside. Add this to the Ronaldo dive a couple of years ago and the Mendes goal.

Referee's are human and do make mistakes, I accept that, but in other major sports such as tennis, cricket and Rugby, such obvious errors can be rectified and it is about time they were.

Clattenberg's error was on so many levels but let me take an example from cricket. Gomes was under the assumption that he had a free kick so he ignored the presence of Nani. I am reminded of an incident in a test match in the West Indies against Australia. An Australian batsmen was caught off a no-ball and he walked thinking he was out, the West Indies fielders ran him out. Now although the umpire of the day gave the Australian batsmen out, the rule actually state that you cannot run out a batsmen when he is out of his ground if he is under the belief that he is out, it should have been a dead ball.

Maybe football needs to bring in some rule that is similar whereby the ball becomes dead where a player is under the mistaken belief that he had been awarded a free kick. It really is time that fair play becomes a central basis for rule making in football.

Whether it be for or against Spurs or any other team, it is time for football authorities to clamp down on poor refereeing decisions and fall onto the side of common sense putting aside egos and the strict rule of law.

Redknapp Out!

Ok, maybe a little over the top and based on 45 minutes of football. But my god I swear I was looking at at a conference side playing Brazil. The first thing I have to say is how can Redknapp expect Spurs to win a fight against Europes Champions with Hutton and Jenas in the side. Don't get me wrong they are both good players but we needed to come into this game wth the intention  frustrating Inter Milan instead of allowing them to play. Hutton is an attacking full back whose defensive abilities are modest at best and Jenas is not likely to win a battle.

I find it increibly frsutrating that a man of Redknapp's experience fails to grasp the tactics needed to beat the best. Generally Spurs are harder to beat nowadays but we don't score goals with the regularity that we should, we fail to beat the lower rankedteams and away from home fail to make it hard for the better teams to break us down.

Something has to changed quickly.