One of the things that was suggested on commentary and elsewhere was that Yates could/should have been booked for asking the referee for a VAR review.
But if you look at this clip, on about 30 seconds: x.com/johncrossmirror/status/1777297662758285740 it's pretty clear that Yates is gesturing to his right as the referee walks towards him from his left. He's telling the bench to ask for VAR not the referee.
Yes I read couple of reports that said he was gesticulating to the bench to look at itz not the ref (though I guess you could argue he was expecting the ref to see it too).
I found myself wondering whether this was the first time that our referee consultant has told us something useful i.e. you get booked for asking for cards/VAR from the referee (but there's nothing saying you can't gesticulate at the bench).
Where do we stand on players counting up how many fouls a opposition player has done and telling the ref (essentially asking for a yellow without directly asking for a yellow), because I saw that cheeky chap Maddison doing this on Sunday as well
I hate, hate, hate the rugby comparisons, especially the holier-than-thou rugby fans who love pointing out how tough and how corinthian rugby players are compared to the cheating namby-pamby fairies who play football, but I would adopt their rule about only the captain being allowed to talk to the referee about decisions, and I would be supportive of an automatic card for anyone else doing so. I would also be interested in a sin bin rule.
Son would be sent off every week (let's not forget he did that Trentside - when already on a yellow card himself, "sonny" demanded a second yellow for a Forest player (I forget who) for a foul, and therefore should have been sent off himself).
I do like in rugby is how the referee basically says "I'm making this decision and the reason is this". Even if you don't agree at least you get a rationale.
One of the problems with it (and all the VAR stuff etc) is that football's great strength is that it flows, which means that stoppages ruin it, so it may not translate over to football, although a bit of extra transparency, and maybe accountability, would be good.
That flow is also why there are more mistakes in football refereeing, so it would also be good to have a bit of allowance for that and accept that mistakes do happen.
I've watched the "punch" a good few times now and having read and heard a lot about it before I did so, I'm underwhelmed. Doesn't look anything more than a little shove to me.