I thought about VAR overnight and the more one considers it the more ridiculous it becomes. Apparently Mata’s knee was offside. A silly statement as it’s clearly Mata who is offside not his knee. The point though is the intention of a rule. Rules and regulations are intended to prevent players gaining an advantage by breaking a rule. Handball in the penalty area is gaining a clear advantage. VAR is asking a player to be aware of the position of every part of his body. These players are moving all the time. How on earth are they to be expected to judge if their knee, head or chest is a few inches ahead of the rest of the body? One’s foot, knee, head etc. ahead of the rest of the body can’t be intentionally gaining an advantage - it’s part of running! VAR is wasting money on equipment and people to achieve what? Nothing other than frustrating fans and reducing the game to a farce.

No offence to you but this is one the funniest things I’ve read in a long time. “Oh ref ‘is knee’s offside!” If it’s come to this bring back the Pools Panel for every match. We can see the season’s fixtures on a Friday, do the panel bit over the weekend and award the trophies on Monday. FFS It this is the level VAR is reducing the game to I might attemp some sabotage.

Why not? It’s proportionate. If a player earns £1000/week and another £100,000/week they are punished equally in real terms. There’s nothing admirable about cheats in any sport. Players need to respect the sport which feeds them, it’s officials and supporters.

I didn’t know about the programme but did watch it as a result of your post. I gather you haven’t watched it? I wonder why you would raise the topic? Panorama didn’t cover any issues I wasn’t already generally aware of. Did the programme put the town in a good light? Possibly not. I feel issues we need to address as a country, not just in Blackburn, were covered but not in any depth. The prime message which struck home for me was barely mentioned. Poverty, the terribly depressing state of the town and lack of opportunity. If we had governments prepared to tackle these issues with massive, long term capital programmes it would go along way towards alleviating these problems. None have the courage or foresight to do so. Solve these social issues and questions of segregated communities in small local towns might well disappear as wealth and opportunity return.

Nope. None of the members I imagine you are referring to are or were banned.

Willian is widely reported as earning £110 - 120,000 per week. I’d say £500,000 is the sort of fine which might make these vastly overpriced, overpaid players think?

I’m absolutely certain all PL teams, and no doubt many others, practice every single possibility for diving and stretching the rules to the absolute limit. There are the laws of the game and then there is the spirit of the game. The spirit sold its soul and died 25 years ago.........

I hate to say it but this is exactly what I’ve been saying. It’s a complete waste of time and money. If the football authorities have a serious interest in improving the game let’s start with: Respect for match officials from players and managers Significant punishment for cheating Managers to face sanctions for media outbursts Punishments to truly impact the offender. Let’s start fining these highly paid individuals amounts which will really hurt them. £500,000 or more at a time.

In both cases this is not my point. The introduction of this technology does not, for me, improve the game but serves to further disrupt what was once a very simple thing. The only driving force here is money. If it was other, such as improving fairness and honesty, there are cheaper and better solutions. If you’re happy with watching a game frequently stopped for a minute or more for VAR that’s fine but I’m not. Think about how much time is already lost in a game and just how much football do we actually see. It wont be long before VAR provides the opportunity for “a word from our sponsor” while the referee makes a decision. Seriously. The TV companies will jump at a chance to switch away from the match and show an advert.

I’ve watched the 3 minute highlights on the BBC website and read the BBC match report from which I quote: ”But referee Jonathan Moss liaised with video official Mike Jones, who told him Nathan Pond's trailing foot was keeping Iheanacho onside, and the goal was awarded 67 seconds after it hit the back of the net.” ”Trailing foot?” Come on let’s have a bit of common sense. Goal line technology, yes, I get that though there seem to be very, very few ocassions when it’s required. A trailing foot? We are being conned this is taking the mick. Presumably the 67 seconds are added to the end of the match? If all six substitutes *** are used in a game this adds 3 minutes, a couple of injury stoppages can add another 2-3 minutes, add two VARs for another 2 minutes and it doesn’t take long for games to regularly have 7-8 minutes of extra time. How long is it going to take before fans get very unhappy over their team losing matches in the 98th minute? *** I know the calculation relies on six subs in the second half but 4-5 is not uncommon. Excessive transfer fees. Disgusting wages. Idiot motor mouth managers. Ridiculous levels of over analysis. Agents. Endless idiot pundits. Cheating players. Poor officials. Now VAR and trailing legs. The game has lost itself in blur of incredible sums of money most of which is totally wasted on transfer fees, agents and wages. VAR is just another nail in a coffin which for me was sealed and buried several years ago. I’ll always support the Rovers but that’s all. Totally lost interest in any other football. Apologies but I needed to rant about the destruction of the once beautiful game.

Flukey? I won't complain if every goal we score for the rest of the season looks like those. He seems to be able to score from reasonable distance, something which is missing from our game.

Yes, I hadn’t thought of the fact and opinion aspect. Very good point.

I had to google VAR to know what this is. I think goal line technology could be worthwhile but wonder just how many incorrect decisions actually occur? I can’t recall a recent one. As for VAR? Flat out no from me. The game is already blighted, especially in the PL, by players, managers and coaches who cheat in the game, moan, berate and crowd the referee when they don’t like a decision. Giving them VAR will just lead to more finger pointing and gesturing. Players and managers should first learn respect for the officials to prove they deserve the privilege of the referee taking a second look at a decision. Referees make mistakes, it’s part of the game. I wouldn’t have their job for any money. Where I believe there could be significant improvement would be if linesmen gave decisions. I’ve lost count of the times linesmen fail to flag fouls which take place under their nose when the referee could be 30 or more yards away.

If he’s not a Rover why would he bother with an early day motion calling for greater transparency in football? http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/10465054.MP___s_Commons_call_after_Blackburn_Rovers____chaos___/ Secondly why would he consistently lie about being a Rovers fan to the extent of appearing on Celebrity Mastermind? One might want to rubbish Farron on a number of political issues but your factually incorrect on this one.

Well I didn’t know Gallagher, other than for work, or Derbyshire go to Ewood. Thanks for the tip. It will help me avoid looking daft if I suggest they never go to Rovers.

I’ve never seen Tim Farron at Rovers but then there are probably 25,000 other people I’ve never seen at Rovers!! Tim’s wife was a member of BRFCS for many years.

I know I could have answered those questions but not 13 in two minutes! Suspect I’d have got the Fazakerley one wrong. Really good showing by Tim Farron.

It’s your choice, no one forces you to stay away. I’m enjoying it.

Conway has never been any good. Entirely predictable in every aspect of his play.

I wouldn’t restrict that funding to football either and the game most definitely needs to make a contribution. I do feel though the impact of government policy has had a huge influence on the nation’s sporting prowess, standard of football and general health. When I was at secondary school, 5O years ago, we had 90 minutes of PE, an hours swimming and 3 hours of sport in the curriculum every week. Plus an hours frantic football every lunchtime. 20 years later as parents we had to organise and fund all our children’s sports activity - fortunately for them we could afford to access this. I happen to know the parents of a recent Lancs CCC captain, helping him make the grade required a second mortgage, literally. While I accept the influence of foreign players in football influences opportunities for British players the decline from the days when every team was made up of players from the home nations must be closely linked to government policy on sport.

“It's not a government problem” But it is a government problem as you have identified in your article. It’s not the PL which is cutting central government grants or underfunding education, sports facilities etc. It’s the government that is responsible for the closure of and/or lack of facilities: “Austerity has councils under huge pressure to slash budgets; Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council's budget for Leisure, Culture & Young People was cut by £2m from 2015/16 to 16/17” ”Schools have long since sold off their pitches to cover short term gaps in funding,” As a youngster I had every opportunity to take part in sport. Those opportunities have dwindled away as successive governments have failed to provide the investment to maintain facilities in schools and local authorities. Sport in particular was not seen as important. Now we might see PL support as a solution but we should not lose sight of the real issue and try to shift responsibility elsewhere. Ultimately if we want the facilities for grassroots sport of any type it has to come from our taxes, if it doesn’t it will become or remain elitist.

Thank you. It is what I’d expect of myself which is why I wasn’t happy with my initial reaction when they first reappeared. When I was growing up tattoos presumed the wearer was at best dodgy and probably far worse. I don’t though feel that association exists today. I do think some people have gone too far. I know one lad in his early 30s who has a pink swirling design across his torso, back and legs. Another who has a passage from some eastern literature tattooed across the back of his whole body. The first sentence begins on his left shoulder with the quotation running across and down his back, buttocks and right leg to the ankle. I also don’t get the ones where people do the entire arm with a heavy, intricate design - I don’t object but neither do I understand the desire. What does make me smile is young people seem unaware of what time does to the skin. There’s going to be some interesting looking 60+ people wandering around in future. ??

Are you suggesting there needs to be a seating area where fans can take dogs?

I think it’s a generation and possibly cultural thing. When tattoos first reappeared I would have thought it unusual for a professional person to wear a visible tattoo. I think I felt the same about piercings. I’d look twice. I was, wrongly, making a judgement based on appearance something which in other circumstances I’m unlikely to do. Today I simply accept both without question or reaction.

Vietnam BBC 4 is excellent providing a commentary on much I was unaware of but as a child of the 60s much of it rings a bell.