Linesmen With A Whistle and Cards?

[AT8]

I’ve been watching a Thai youth tournament on tv and noticed that the linesmen have a whistle and the ability to dish out cards. As a result, there are very few sneaky fouls outwith the referee’s view. Is this the way forward?

[StevieT]

It's a no from me. Assistants can already signal for free kicks. There needs to be one person in charge of managing the game - the referee. Can you imagine a referee allowing the game to continue as he believes there is an advantage but the assistant blows his whistle and stops the game.

I think they are trying to fix a problem that doesn't really exist.

[Musselbound]

I've wondered if there's much point in having assistants on the line any more when games have VAR. What do these assistants actually do other than flag for a clear and obvious offside.

Rather than giving them more power I'd question why they are there.

[overdrive]

I've wondered if there's much point in having assistants on the line any more when games have VAR. What do these assistants actually do other than flag for a clear and obvious offside.

Rather than giving them more power I'd question why they are there.

As above, they can wave their flag for a free kick that the ref either hasn’t seen or wasn’t in the best position - currently VAR can’t intervene in those situations.

[Carheenlea]

Scottish officials can’t be trusted with VAR, so imagine if linesmen were let loose in this country with this?

[Keith_M]

As above, they can wave their flag for a free kick that the ref either hasn’t seen or wasn’t in the best position - currently VAR can’t intervene in those situations.


Plus VAR is pretty much focused on the active state of play, where the ball is, but the assistants/linos give an extra view point, hopefully notice some stuff the ref didn't see.

[overdrive]

Plus VAR is pretty much focused on the active state of play, where the ball is, but the assistants/linos give an extra view point, hopefully notice some stuff the ref didn't see.

Yep. They can also hear stuff which VAR can't.

[StevieT]

Plus VAR is pretty much focused on the active state of play, where the ball is, but the assistants/linos give an extra view point, hopefully notice some stuff the ref didn't see.

Referees will normally run on the diagonal (corner flag to corner flag) not covered by an assistant thus normally putting them at the opposite side of the pitch to where the assistant is. IMHO having the officials mic'd up and the assistant with a flag is sufficient and no need for whistles and cards.

Also, if we were to have three match officials able to dish out cards then we would have chaos as we see every week that referees see fouls and yellow cards differently to the referee from the week before. Imagine if these differences were happening in the same game.