Dale Johnson Profile picture
Jul 9, 2020 3 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Get ready. Champions League and Europa League match dates and RO16 venues will be announced in just under an hour. #mufc #mcfc #cfc #wolves #RangersFC
All Champions League and Europa League RO16 games will be played without fans at the home club.

But here's a big development. UEFA decides ALL one legged qualifiers for 2020-21 will be behind closed doors regardless of how the situation develops in individual countries.
Fixture dates for the Round of 16 ties of the Champions League and Europa League will now be announced on Friday.

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More from @DaleJohnsonESPN

Jun 19
Why don't leagues have a chip in the ball for semi-automated VAR offside?

🖥️ Tech by Kinexon
⚽️ Centre-mounted chip in ball developed & patented by Adidas
❌ No league uses Adidas

Adidas would need to share/licence, or other ball companies find an alternative to house chip. Image
Who are the ball manufacturers for the different leagues?

Premier League (Nike this season, Puma from 2025-26)
LaLiga (Puma)
Bundesliga (Derbystar)
Serie A (Puma)
Ligue 1 (Kipsta)

Kinexon has worked with Adidas, Derbystar and Puma so far.
It's not easy to overcome, as Kinexon went through 1000s of prototypes until it achieved a ball that was actually FIFA-approved, in weight and the counterweight and the balance, and that provided good results.

So it's not as simple as saying "put a chip in the ball".
Read 7 tweets
May 22
So, Atalanta win the Europa League.

That presents a host of questions about:

🔷 How many places in Champions League for Serie A
🔷 What happens to place in UCL for the UEL titleholders
🔷 What happens to seeding for the 2024-25 UCL, 👀 Barcelona

Pull up a chair a moment.
1. How many places will Serie A get in the Champions League?

We know Italy will have 5 teams in the UCL next season as they have one of the 2 extra places for league performance.

Atalanta are 5th. If they finish 5th, and 5th only, Italy will have 6 teams in the UCL.
AS Roma are guaranteed to finish in 6th, so they are left waiting on Atalanta's final position.

If Atalanta finish 5th, AS Roma will be in the UCL.

If Atalanta finish 3rd or 4th, AS Roma will be in the UEL.

Atalanta sit two points outside the top 4 with a game in hand.
Read 11 tweets
Apr 16
Sick of keepers holding the ball for 30-40 seconds to waste time or slow down play?

The [unenforced] law says a keeper can only hold the ball for 6 seconds. Any longer and it's an indirect FK to the opposition.

We now have details of The IFAB trial to change it.

Thread. 👇 Image
As well as wasting time, a goalkeeper holding the ball for too long is considered an unfair tactic because the opposing team has no possibility to regain possession.

That's because a goalkeeper cannot be challenged when in control of the ball with the hand(s).
A keeper holding the ball for more than 6 seconds should be punishable by an indirect free kick.

However, we have got to the stage where this is rarely enforced by referees, which in recent years has been exploited tactically.

So, why not enforced the law as it stands today?
Read 12 tweets
Nov 30, 2023
Mauro Icardi's offside in Galatasaray vs. Manchester United gives us a good illustration of how semi-automated technology will be more accurate and reliable - yet may lead to more goals being disallowed.

This was ruled out on the field, but stay with me.
There's a common misconception that handball starts at the bottom of the sleeve.

This isn't the case.

It's the arm point level with the armpit - if you had it by your side - around the whole arm.

Basically, the area of the arm which can't increase body size if you move it. Image
The starting point for offside (and handball) is therefore an imaginary line on the arm.

With the old tech, the point on the attacker and defender is plotted manually by the VAR and operator.

This obviously has to cause inconsistencies, and it's why there's a tolerance level.
Read 10 tweets
Sep 30, 2023
Ok, here's the nuts and bolts.

This is what happened with the Luis Diaz "goal" which Liverpool had disallowed vs. Tottenham.

There will be a deeper dive in the Monday VAR thread, but in simple terms the VAR took the wrong onfield decision - it led to the goal being disallowed.
So the VAR, Darren England, checked offside thinking the onfield decision was "goal."

It was a quick offside check because it was clear Diaz was onside, so he told the referee "check complete".

In telling the ref "check complete" he is saying the onfield decision was correct.
So the "human error" by the VAR team is getting the onfield decision wrong. Not by failing to draw lines etc.

The lines were drawn and Diaz was clearly onside.

The huge, quite unbelievable error was misunderstanding the onfield decision.
Read 5 tweets
Sep 6, 2023
So the dust has settled on the first VAR audio show of the year with Howard Webb.

Time for a little old-school VAR thread to go through it.

I'll include the video clips.
We got 2 of the 3 big errors in the Premier League this season - the penalty not given against Andre Onana vs. Wolves + the offside goal Man City scored against Fulham.

It didn't include Alexis Mac Allister's red card, which has been the main point of complaint in my comments.
It would have been better to include that Mac Allister red, especially as it was overturned on appeal.

But then if you include Mac Allister, you drop something else (Zaroury?). And you absolutely have to include the examples of good process to show where VAR works.
Read 25 tweets

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