Sunderland ‘beach ball goal’ should have been disallowed says referee

By Max Munton On · 64 Comments · In LFC News

Former Premier League referee Jeff Winter says Sunderland’s winning goal against Liverpool yesterday should have been disallowed, according to the laws of the game.

Darren Bent’s fifth minute goal hit a beach ball that had been thrown onto the pitch by a Liverpool fan, deflecting past Reds keeper Pepe Reina.

But Winter says that there is a law in the rules of football that referee Mike Jones failed to use.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Winter said, “Everyone’s going to have a field day but nobody’s getting upset about it.

“But the laws of the game clearly state that if there’s an outside interference the game has to be stopped.

“The referee and his assistant knew something was wrong, and it should have been a dropped ball.”

“Sunderland fans would say it would have probably gone in anyway and that it was a Liverpool fan who threw it [the beach ball] on the pitch.

“But I’m absolutely amazed. It is a basic law in football and the goal should just not have stood.

“I am absolutely amazed that a referee at that level of football, that between him, his assistant and the fourth official they didn’t see what had happened and give the correct decision.

“There would have been absolute ructions at the Stadium of Light because the fans wouldn’t have understood what had happened but I was watching yesterday afternoon and I was thinking ‘hang on this can’t be right’.

“I try to defend referees whenever possible but this, in terms of interpreting the laws of the game, is far more serious than when a ball crosses a line and somebody doesn’t see it.

“But on this occasion the irony is that everyone is having a laugh and a joke about it.”

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  • SAFC FOR LIFE :)

    agree with bluenose tbh and sorry for retaliating at the ‘small club’ calling i thort tht the comment was directed at a sunderland fan (as in me thinking bluenose was a mackem boy), aww well, get bk to the main point, im just a lil pissed off with the people who say it should b replayed and tht it shouldnt of been aloud, ok the ref got it wrong its not the first time a ref has got something wrong is it, like the penalty which awarded to Newcastle last year which was clearly wrong but the point is its happened to sunderland plenty of times ! take a hit for once and stop being babies its a fast game he cant have every rule in the back of there mind can they ?

  • SAFC FOR LIFE :)

    agree with bluenose tbh and sorry for retaliating at the ‘small club’ calling i thort tht the comment was directed at a sunderland fan (as in me thinking bluenose was a mackem boy), aww well, get bk to the main point, im just a lil pissed off with the people who say it should b replayed and tht it shouldnt of been aloud, ok the ref got it wrong its not the first time a ref has got something wrong is it, like the penalty which awarded to Newcastle last year which was clearly wrong but the point is its happened to sunderland plenty of times ! take a hit for once and stop being babies its a fast game he cant have every rule in the back of there mind can they ?

  • CCS

    SAFC-
    I don’t think anyone around here, Liverpool fans in general or anyone at the club is sitting around blaming the loss on the beach ball. As many have said, we were outperformed and that’s the disappointing part of this, not the goal. Granted, teams outplay other teams all the time without winning, so that argument doesn’t really hold any water (we could have used the divine intervention of a beach ball in some of our draws last season, in which we were decidedly on top but failed to make our chances pay, much like Sunderland on Saturday.) But again, none of us are blaming the beach ball. Some of us are blaming Rafa, others Lucas, the owners, etc.

    However, I hardly think you can say that recognizing that beach balls should first of all not be on the field and secondly, should certainly not interfere with play requires the ref to keep “every rule in the back of his mind”. That seems more like common sense refereeing. It’s not a particularly sophisticated concept that takes a lot of intense study to understand or a special mnemonic device to remember: if you see a beach ball on the field, particularly in the box, you should probably stop play and remove it, because it’s a fucking beach ball, and doesn’t belong on a football pitch. Because he didn’t come out to defend himself or justify his decision based on another rule, I think it’s clear that he just didn’t see it, which is incredible.

  • CCS

    SAFC-
    I don’t think anyone around here, Liverpool fans in general or anyone at the club is sitting around blaming the loss on the beach ball. As many have said, we were outperformed and that’s the disappointing part of this, not the goal. Granted, teams outplay other teams all the time without winning, so that argument doesn’t really hold any water (we could have used the divine intervention of a beach ball in some of our draws last season, in which we were decidedly on top but failed to make our chances pay, much like Sunderland on Saturday.) But again, none of us are blaming the beach ball. Some of us are blaming Rafa, others Lucas, the owners, etc.

    However, I hardly think you can say that recognizing that beach balls should first of all not be on the field and secondly, should certainly not interfere with play requires the ref to keep “every rule in the back of his mind”. That seems more like common sense refereeing. It’s not a particularly sophisticated concept that takes a lot of intense study to understand or a special mnemonic device to remember: if you see a beach ball on the field, particularly in the box, you should probably stop play and remove it, because it’s a fucking beach ball, and doesn’t belong on a football pitch. Because he didn’t come out to defend himself or justify his decision based on another rule, I think it’s clear that he just didn’t see it, which is incredible.

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