Andy Capp by Reg Smythe for October 24, 2021

Leave the umps to work it out themselves.

What we need is a third ref to breakup the other two refs.

Where is Ted Lasso when you need him?

Can you imagine American politicians trying to settle their differences like that?? ;-)

That’s what VAR is for…. use it !

Some distant cousin of Andy’s turned ref? ;-)

This is out of character for Andy. A match without the refs is a match without red cards.

Refs from Ireland? The U.S.?

This has to be a first for Andy, playing the role of peacemaker.

In all my years of officiating football I’ve never seen two referees get into a fight on the pitch but I’ve seen a couple of ‘em come to blows in the locker room and once was involved in a match where the center referee over-rode and/or ignored all of the calls by his side judges the entire first half of the game that they refused to continue to referee the second half with him.

I was one of the line referees.

The center referee’s behavior was so erratic, so arbitrary, and so unfair – to both sides – that when he adamantly refused our requests for him to either cede his center position or at very least recognize our line flags and calls, we were forced to quit the match, file a protest, and leave him to center the rest of the game with volunteer linesmen.

Subsequently, even though at one time he’d been the President of the Referee’s Association, he was suspended from further refereeing. It turned out that the man was suffering from some serious mental health issues. ( Not that you didn’t have to be a bit mental to become a referee in the first place! )

Who’s going to send the referees off?