Rory Smith
@RorySmith
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Chief Soccer Correspondent for @nytimes. Sign up for our football newsletter: https://t.co/FrFrZW8m51
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Joined April 2010
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Do you like reading but have weak arms? Good news! Mister is now out in paperback. Available in all good newsagents https://t.co/vpCJcvWRhp
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New York’s 1916 Zoning Law, or why I’ve found this version of Manchester City engage the brain more easily than they stir the soul https://t.co/FPCzwmbkYO
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As always, these tweets are brought to you by my sponsor: What Matters Is That Fans Believe The Rules Of A Human Game Correspond With Some Sort Of Sense Of Natural Justice.
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Handball is a relatively minor law, and is generally quite a rare occurrence. VAR has turned it into a major part of the game, and it feels like the punishment doesn’t always fit the crime. So reduce the punishment.
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Oh, and on handball: the Law is too far gone to have a universally-acceptable fix. So change the punishment. Make a handball in the area that doesn’t deny a goalscoring opportunity - a VAR handball - a free-kick, rather than a penalty.
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This would, I think, be better. Not perfect, but better: you’d still get narrow ones and harsh ones but I think you’d get fewer. Might also encourage teams to play deeper. But crucially: it would mean an interpretation of offside that fits with what most fans think of as offside. https://t.co/ErHkeIozks
Infantino says Arsene Wenger presented a new interpretation of offside law today.
Essentially would mean you're onside if any part of your body you can play the ball with is inline with the defender.
Data shows would reduce average offsides a game in Prem from 4 to 2.
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“Please don’t worry about seating at the funeral. Immediate family in the first two rows. Then cousins, friends and colleagues behind them. If people arrive late, just put a couple of them on my lifeless body” https://t.co/HAYx1gjrXQ
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There is lots of stuff in this week's Monday Night Club - now on @BBCiPlayer, remember, so you can see inside our houses - but you should mainly watch it to hear @markchapman go into his frankly problematic on-pitch disciplinary record https://t.co/o3fP7Gihif
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I am looking forward to the culture war in 20 years time when there's a load of people who are saying that football should stick to its traditional metrics, like xG and PPDA, who are referred to as "dinosaurs" by a new generation.
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Be good if this happened, and it would also be good if England, as a country that is obsessed with living up to its own history, had a tantrum that people not in the "home of football" had the nerve to play at all, took its ball home, and refused to enter. https://t.co/jXXbbzOPPI
Oh, England to host the World Cup. Again? Really? 2030 is the 100th anniversary of the first WC in Uruguay. It's already being stitched up for South America. Expect a final in Montevideo at the "Centenario" stadium.
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"Come in, come in. Do you want a coffee?"
"Yeah, lovely, in one of those mugs I got you."
"Oh yeah, that must have been, what, 132 years ago"
"Yeah. But I gave you them. Never forget that. In a sense, really, they're still mine. So we'll be using them."
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Even if you accept the (flawed) premise that England invented football - rather than codified and evangelised a version of a game that basically everyone played - it is a) insanely bad diplomacy in Fifaland b) very Brexity and c) a really bad look.
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There is literally no phrase in the world less likely to help Britain get a World Cup than "bring football home."
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Rory Smith Retweeted
🆕 7pm - The Monday Night Club with @markchapman, @MicahRichards, @chris_sutton73 & @RorySmith
⚽️ 8pm - 🔵 #EFC v #SaintsFC 😇
🏉 10pm - Rugby Union Weekly with @chjones9
Listen live via the @BBCSounds app 👇
📲🎧 https://t.co/5Du5Yi3KXr
#bbcfootball #bbcrugby
#EVESOU #MNC https://t.co/ozokf4cUod
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The Lee Mason thing wasn’t a problem with VAR. VAR had no reason to be involved. But it highlights one of the unintended consequences of VAR, which is that his immediate reaction was to get VAR to reofficiate his own mistake, and assume it would get him out of it. https://t.co/pFcLmSsQ8B
"Why is VAR even involved, does Lee Mason not have control of his own mouth?" 🤨
"So are we saying that we need a camera to see if Lee Mason, a grown man, has blown a whistle?" 😳
We're as confused as you are 🥴 https://t.co/TNEQTce3S6
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Rory Smith Retweeted
VAR has to make sure they're using the exact frame where Lee Mason's lungs deflate to blow the whistle
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Oscar has got what he wanted, and needed, out of his career, and that should be celebrated. But there’s a little lingering sadness for the rest of us that we never got to see what he might have been. https://t.co/MLGz1d0k1R
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Rory Smith Retweeted
Guardiola & the Open Arms hoodie. Exclusive with Pep & the charity that has rescued thousands of refugee children from international waters. How Pep/Xavi/Valverde donated & presentation at #mcfc that left “players in tears” & queueing up to make donations https://t.co/7jYuHJ1UaA
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Rory Smith Retweeted
Kopparbergs/Gothenburg won their first ever Swedish title in November. They played in the Champions League in December.
And then the club just...stopped. There's a happy ending, but also a warning about the complexity of women's football's rapid growth https://t.co/xjcZcJIq8k
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