FIFA must help referees interpret shirt-pulling and offside decisions consistently, says Andy Gray.
Men in grey suits must clear up grey areas, says Andy
There's one thing I'd like to say to every fan who has emailed me this week bemoaning the offside rule or shirt-pulling in the box: I share your frustration.
When it comes to interpreting the rules, there has been a lack of consistency on the part of officials for as long as I can remember. It is not a new problem.
However, I think we were all under the impression that when referees became professional there would be less grey and more black-and-white areas. That decision-making would be more clear-cut.
Certain events this week have shown that is not the case and that referees will always interpret the laws of the game in different ways to some extent.
Debate
In one sense that is no bad thing and we should allow them some tolerance because differences of opinion help the world go round.
Every night of every week you can hear people in the pub or on the train giving their take on the big talking points in football. I think that's healthy. I would hate to come to the end of a weekend and find there are no topics of conversation to discuss and debate.
But there is room for opinion and transparent decision-making in the game. This was brought home to me by Jermain Defoe's disallowed equaliser against Liverpool on Wednesday.
I've played and worked in this game for the best part of 36 years and I've never been more unsure than I am now about what is offside and what isn't.
We're not in danger of making the rules too complex to understand - that's already the case.
Control
Officials can now use the ambiguity of the offside rule to defend every decision that they make but to me disallowing Defoe's strike was a clear case of getting it badly wrong.
I understand what the offside rule in its current form is trying to achieve. We don't want to see 40-yard strikes into the top corner ruled out because a player is standing in an offside position on the wing.
But if the ball hits the post or the goalkeeper and comes back to a striker who makes himself active by scoring from an offside position, then that can't be right either.
On Wednesday two Liverpool players - Sotiros Kyrgiakos and Pepe Reina - touched the ball before Defoe did so I can't see how he can be deemed to be getting an advantage.
Kyrgiakos was in control of his actions when he played the ball back to his goalkeeper and any pressure he may have been under from Defoe - who incidentally made no attempt to play the ball when he was offside - was token at best.
Perhaps the problem is this: I've asked many referees 'when does a new phase of play start?' - and they don't know.
If we can't get the officials singing from the same hymn sheet what chance have the rest of us got?
The answer might be to rule that a player who is coming back from an offside remains offside until he is back onside AND a defender intentionally touches the ball. Let me know your thoughts on that one below.
Fact
Defoe's goal should have stood but that is not an argument for bringing in instant, pitch-side video replays similar to the review system used in cricket.
I want video replays for matters of fact: was the foul inside or outside the box? Was the ball across the line or not? The other decisions we'll have to live with.
Alan Wiley has been criticised for not punishing a blatant foul by William Gallas on Mark Davies in the build up to Arsenal's equaliser against Bolton.
Now, 98 referees out of 100 would have given that free-kick - it just so happens that Wiley didn't see it and waved play on.
And what about Liverpool? They had a blatant penalty turned down at Stoke last weekend in a game they desperately needed to win but then got the rub of the green on Wednesday, when Spurs' equaliser was disallowed. Sometimes you have to take it on the chin.
Cherry-pick
I feel the same about shirt-pulling in the box as I do about the offside rule because it seems entirely open to interpretation.
Mike Dean gave a penalty against Nemanja Vidic for pulling Frederic Piquionne's shirt in Manchester United's 4-1 win at Portsmouth in November.
Fine - but I watched Dean closely a couple of weeks later when Stoke played Wigan and three or four times he gave nothing when players were pulled to the ground in the box.
You can't do that. Officials can't cherry-pick when they are going to give a decision and when they are not. We have the same problem with encroaching at penalty kicks. What's that all about?
What point was Howard Webb trying to make on Wednesday by making Dirk Kuyt retake his penalty? Javier Mascherano clearly strayed into the penalty area second time around and he lets it go. What is the point? I don't get that, I really don't. Either make a player take it every single time until no-one steps into the box or don't. Don't cherry-pick when you enforce the rules to make a point.
Stronger
Shirt-pulling is a pet hate of mine. I hate it. How can Peter Crouch get hauled to the ground by Kyrgiakos and have a free-kick given against him?
I can't stand it because it's cheap defending; if a player has a handful of shirt it shows they are not good enough to mark their man.
I would love to see a spell where every time that happened it was either a free-kick to the defending side or a penalty to the attacking side depending on which side was guilty of the offence.
The only reason the players continue to do it is because the officials allow them to get away with it so blatantly.
If I was a referee, I would tell the managers and captains of each side when I had the team-sheets to tell their players that if there is any shirt-pulling in the box it will be penalised.
If referees keep highlighting the issue, players will be deterred from committing the offence because the punishment is too costly - especially for defenders.
I believe we need to be stronger on this issue and I'd love to see the men in grey suits at FIFA and Uefa trying to do something positive about it.
