by ResurrectionRooney Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:43 am
Refereeing mistakes are a common and accepted part of football, they are a fundamental part of the game's character. They make it easier for upsets to happen because they have an equalising effect, mistakes are detrimental to one side or another with no regard for those teams' respective quality. In any game there are dozens of mistakes made and it is overwhelmingly common practice to take advantage of them, so for that reason I would not expect a team to refuse to score from a penalty wrongly awarded. The law of averages means luck tends to even itself out over the course of a season, if you skew that calculation against you by missing all your dodgy penalties you're putting yourself at an unfair disadvantage, albeit you're making the one incident fairer.
This incident, on the other hand, is an exceptional circumstance. It's nothing accepted in the sport as a risk like a dodgy referee, it's a clerical error which is too rare for the law of averages to apply to.
I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. We know how much Celtic like to screw other clubs over because of what goes on in boardrooms and secretaries offices because they can't hack it on the pitch.
On the Rooney thing, it's a refereeing mistake, they happen, they're an accepted part of the sport. The referee shouldn't skew that by looking at giant TV screens.
