I am staggered that the FAs and or Refs mouthpieces have not publicly faced questions about it.
Is it some kind of secret society they work under?

The co commentator in Saturday sounded as fed up about it as we are, something needs to be done.
Completely random idea here, but when we have corners, all our players who are in the box should crouch down and see what the opposition do then. It would be funny to see their faces let alone watch them try to wrestle our lads from a crouching position!

Lyndon, never a truer word has been spoken. At least you have taken the trouble to capture these images. I hope Everton prepare their own dossier - otherwise just use the TW pictures! - and take it to the FA. James Morgan (425) suggestion is hilarious but should be seriously considered - if only to bring attention to the problem.

I've often thought that all the players should just line up in a straight line of equl intervals outside the box then when the corner comes in run as fast as they could into the box. The opposition defense would never go so far outside their box to manhandle them, our players would always have a running start over static opposition, and overhit or under hit corners would almost invariably at least be near someone.

Lyndon

I totally agree with all you say I said in a post the other day that not only do refs not punish these acts enough but Blatters plan for extra officials isn't working either just look what happened in the Celtic game against Juventus.

Then you have the pundits on TV who now adopt the stance of the problem is if you give a penalty for holding in the box then you will end up with 5/6 penalties per game, so what. These are the same people who say as long as there is contact in the box its a penalty, as far as I am aware the rule hasnt changed just the perception that it has changed, and now players have the slightest touch in the box go down but it is supposed to be the same inside or outside the box is it a foul or not should be the criteria. I remember 25 years ago our pundits saying thank god the British game doesn't have players falling down feigning injury and claiming penalties when no foul has been committed.

It's been happening for years now, but only on very rare occasions will you see a referee do anything about it. All sides these days are under orders to target and ruffle the feathers of the oppositions main threats at set pieces.

You see it in every match. Ridiculous tussles between players awaiting a corner. Always the defenders who are tugging or holding attackers. Ref goes over, has a word, tells everyone to cool it. Corner is taken, ref awards a free kick for the defending team. Something indeed needs to done. Jags goal against Oldham or the disgusting tactics by Juve against Celtic in last week's CL game are the type of things that should be an immediate penalty and automatic yellow card.

Good stuff Lyndon, it highlights the wrestling match we see at every corner / free kick. James' suggestion was a tactic used a few years back by a lot of teams, and seemed to work very well from memory, but for some reason you never see it any more.

Its one of the most frustrating parts of the game for me, and has been like it since everyone started copying the Italian defending during the 90's. I just don't understand why the people at UEFA / FIFA can't bring an end to it. Football seems to be the sport that adapts slower than any other when it comes to things like this, and goal line tech etc.

To my mind, I can only really recall Fellaini being punished to date.... probably more in games that I haven't seen.

Let's see if we have a penalty given against us tomorrow for the same thing.

Also, for the sake of fairness, we can hold our own too...no pun intended.

Dick Fearon, Never a truer word said in jest, a complete law onto themselves.
And the FA initials suit the governing body.

There is more chance of getting a penalty by diving and its a disgrace.

After the Stoke game, numerous clips of fouling in the box from set plays were analyzed by ex-referees and a number of so-called pundits. One of these featured ex-referee Dermot Gallagher who, at that time, said that you can expect this match to be a topic at the next referees meeting and you could expect to see some changes in the future.

A number of players interviewed stated that nothing will happen as that would require 3-4 players sent off every game. This raises the question with all their attempts by referees to prove they are in charge: How come nothing has changed? Is this a directive from the referees society or are they just to frightened of the repercussions if they followed the laws of the game and treated the penalty area infractions the same as anywhere else on the pitch?

The recent Celtic Europeon clash showed to me that Fifa considers the penalty area a war zone where anything goes and the rest of the pitch a nursery school were minimum contact is to be punished.

Referees, get some backbone! Cut this garbage out, show the clubs you are not afraid to apply the laws of the game. Be a man, show these players you're not their friend but an official who is not going to accept any shit from any of them, and then we may (but I doubt it) get some justice and the game played within the laws.

Lyndon, I haven't had time to read through all the posts on here (I'm decorating) so forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but could Toffeeweb start a campaign with the FA or referees association to put an end to all this?

Maybe if we could collate all the most serious occasions, like Stoke away or the agricultural shower at Norwich as well as the Celtic fiasco, and all e-mail a standard message that the referees MUST put an end to this right away.

It would be good if they could have a look at the time-wasting as well. I pay decent money to watch football, not wrestling and certainly not goalkeepers wandering from one side of their area to the other to take a goalkick etc.

Here here! One of the biggest contributors to what turns me off football these days. Holding is beyond a joke now.

Its not something I get overly worked up on unless its outright holding, as above, because corners present a very unique set of circumstances.

A ball if fired in and you've got two sides or players trying to be on the same exact piece of turf to head the ball 90 degrees in opposite directions. The mass of contact will naturally occur. That in itself is no problem.

You can barge with your shoulders and push with your forearms as much as you like, that's fine. But grappling is a joke. But if players can get away with diving why won't they proceed to get away with this?

The biggest danger is that this builds a momentum in the media, 'dealt with' by the authorities and diving is conveniently swept under the carpet.

(There was one corner in the second half and a Norwich defender was all over Fellaini, who was pushed and happened by default to do exactly the same to the Keeper as was done to him... foul on the keeper of course.

Then there was a goal kick and Fellaini was flattened to the floor, the Norwich defender then tripped over Fellaini who was on the ground - free kick to Norwich!)

The hold on Fellaini pictured above was also right in front of the ref. He saw it and CHOSE not to do anything about it.

No excuse for that.

There is a simple solution to the problem but these guys are highly paid morons with an equally highly paid moron of a manager.

Want my solution? It's so fucking simple? Your marker is holding on to you and gets away with it at every set piece. What do you do? Take the marker out of the 6 yard box and some where between the 18 and 22 yd and then do nothing, let him hold your hand or whatever.

Now this creates a lot of space if our boys are being held back outside the penalty area. Some nifty by play from Mirallas and Coleman have them running into the box where someone like Jags can come from a deeper unchecked position and get on the end of the cross. A bit of imagination? No not really... classic football from Alan Ball and Sandy Brown circa 1970? anyone?

I'll repeat myself, there used to be a foul for an offence called obstruction for which an indirect free-kick was awarded. Now this offence does not exist, it's called "strong defending" and is celebrated by journalists and broadcasters. Holding is a manifeststion of this obstruction and in its worst form. Referees are terrified of upsetting managers by punishing defenders for holding or forwards for blocking keepers.Until the refs are strong enough to punish this offence, it will get worse.

James Morgan, your suggestion is funny but if it was put into practice it really would get attention and make people take notice.

I agree on the stance of giving penalties for these things, so what if it's 5 a game or whatever.

If they did introduce it, you would find that defenders etc would cut down on doing it.

This is a very impressive article, Lyndon; hopefully the shitheads at the FA could see it.

James (#435) — at last!!

When I first started teaching in 1967, I coached our Under-10 primary school team which included, among others, one Billy McClure who in his adult years emigrated to New Zealand, played many times for their national team (including the World Cup finals). He was a terrific striker of the ball and took most of our free kicks/corners.

What did we teach our lads to do? Line up outside the box and run into the box to meet Billy's usually brilliant deliveries. We won the cup that year!

I have never understood why the professional game has never ever shown any inclination to include the tactic in their approach to penalty-box delivery. In this disgraceful mayhem in the box that we are currently witnessing, and with the officials incapable/unwilling to do their duty and penalise offences, I long for the day when a team would devise methods to defeat the cheats (players and referees included) — what a delight that would be!

Thanks for bringing back some very precious memories but ones with very definite possibilities for the present day.

Great idea James Morgan.

There wouldn't be 5 sendings off a game or 5 penalties though. If the referee gave a penalty and yellow card for the first one or two, it would stop.

What really pisses me off is when the referee sees a foul, or pulling, tugging, whatever just before and stops the corner from being taken.

Just let the corner go and blow up for a foul.

Seriously, does anyone think that we will ever get the benefit of the doubt in any of these circumstances? If you take a look at our season to date, we have goals given against us when they are clearly full of infrigements, goals dissallowed for the exact opposite to the ones given. Then we have the weekly manhandling of our players and penalties not given for us, then you have the Man City penalty.

Seriously if any body has doubts about the campaign to keep us out of the top 4 they should sit down and watch these decisions. Every week I watch our players get kicked all around the park, but not too many cards given against, then for the slightest infringement our players get booked.

It has been worse this season, but it had been noticable for a number of years. Just watch our games against Chelsea, they get away with murder, yet we get penalised for the slightest touch. Fact is they don't want us gate-crashing the party, we don't have the money to be part of the fashionable crowd. Dont know when, but we must have really pissed the FA off sometime in the past!!

Well said Lyndon and those above. A petition sounds like a good idea, not sure how many other websites would be up for it but nothing is being done as we speak and it has to stop.

The most annoying thing is at corners, all the wrestling and the ref walks over to have a word, why not book whoever is in the wrong and restart the game, I have no problem with 4/5 penalties a game.

The only way to stop it is financially but only supporters are capable of doing it. Pick one match a week and inform the clubs that, until they force a meeting with the FA, the supporters will boycott the match that is picked..

(NOT THAT THIS WILL EVER HAPPEN!!!)

But somehow someone has to do something as it will never stop without some form of action.

Great piece Lyndon. I suppose it's too much to expect the refs to take any action at this stage. and to do their jobs properly and implement the rules.

It's hard to fathom why FIFA seem to want to retain controversy and bad decisions and ultimately a lack of fairness in the game. Apart from the Holding which is easily dealt with as suggested earlier by awarding penalties, but worst of all we have the refusal of FIFA to use technology. A big deal is made of the nonsense of goal-line technology rather than introducing systems used in Rugby with the TMO or in American Football, where the coach has an opportunity to question a call, such as fouls like holding as discussed, offside, diving, dangerous tackles as well as policing the goal line. If system is designed properly, it need not take too much time.

On the stream I was watching on Saturday, the summariser suggested that the rules would have to be changed. The rules state that a Direct Free Kick is awarded where a player holds an opponent. In open play, a player would generally get a yellow card if he holds an arm or a shirt.

It's a long time now since I played, but another tactic to use to stop a player holding you from behind as per Turner/Shawcross/Barnard is to step back, and 'accidentally' trod on the toes of the holder, hard. I am sure that the light boots the players use these days would be unable to protect from a seriously sore toe. Followed by falling backwards and apologising profusely etc etc and a lack of appetite for future holding.

My son plays for an under 10 side in South Liverpool. I was gobsmacked to witness an opposition team recently deliberately target our goalkeeper at corners. They had obviously been instructed to block the keeper's view and attempt to back into him and do anything they could to intimidate and even push him behind the goal-line.

As they were winning near the end their young lads were wasting time in various ways such as encroaching to within 4/5 yards for free kicks and eventually backing off at the ref's command (a minute or two later).

This is the first time I have witnessed this sort of thing at this level and very disheartening. The referees at this level are generally young lads themselves and not assertive enough to stamp down on such spoiling tactics. We lost by the way (obviously).

After the game a few of us parents discussed their tactics with the general opinion being that our lads are just "too nice." What do you do? Advise the boys to "Give it back" or just carry on being "too nice?"

It's just a game of football after all... isn't it?

I was explaining this to a colleague today. Although we are more honest and honourable than most Premiership teams (our fairplay standing will testify to that come May) we are too nice. We have a side who don't complain to refs, don't dive easily and don't assault the opposition.

The only one in our team who uses some interesting tactics is Fellaini. And of course he got banned for 3 matches because the ref basically let Stoke get away with far too much.

I sometimes wish our players weren't so honest and affable. If Jags had some of the aggression of Stubbs or Watson it would make certain forwards think twice. And none of our strikers have any real aggression these days but then can you blame them when refs give free kicks against Big Vic for simply holding his own against an Oldham defender?

Everton have toed the line in the new non contact world that FIFA are trying to create. Look where it gets us!

Lee Mason always referees in this manner.

Inconsistency is rampant in every aspect of the game, not only in 'hugging' but in offside calls where inches are involved with replays showing wrong calls. This week we had classic examples Bradford's 'keeper sent off for fouling in the area and Man City's 'keeper not even yellow carded for the same thing... we saw Fellaini leg-gouged and HE was carded for complaining, etc etc.

Simple enough to get under control. End the 1 referee tradition. 3 refs, minimum, need to be running about the pitch. It's embarassing there's still only one ref moving about during play. An embarassment. On set pieces, particularly corners, we only need an official walking right in the mix of the scrum (rugby-like) issuing quick warnings, then cards if they're disobeyed. Would get this mess cleaned up very fast. Very fast.

As an American, watching so many professional sports over here, how strange it is to see the fastest-paced soccer league not taking the lead on squashing this nonsense. Christ, even baseball has 4 umpires. I've said before and repeat, Fifa either needs to dump the pathetic grandpas "ruling" the game or England should make unilateral decisions to fix this problem. The rest of the world will follow, whatever bleating comes from Blatter and them.

I totally agree Lyndon - it's getting worse and it is ruining the game. It's making virtually every corner a joke. As fans we see what's going on and surely the officials do but they seem content to do absolutely nothing about it.

As Bill (510)stated on the rest of the pitch the absolute minimum contact can result in a free kick or even a yellow card yet in the penalty area there seems to be no limits at all. If nothing is done about it - and be honest do we really have faith that the FA or EUFA or FIFA will do anything ? - then it will make the game a laughing stock.

When you see the inconsistency of how the rules are applied it really does make you despair. Personally I would like to see Football adopt the same approach as Rugby and have a sin bin. And also have better communication between the Referees and the players. You often hear of the repsect that Rugby players have for the Referees - I thnk that a lot of that is down to the communication between the Officials and the players. The rugby Refs talk to the players - in Football the Refs seem to talk at the players - very seldom explaining their decisions.

Lyndon has highlighted corners - where are the Refs when all this is happening ? They can surely see it but in a situtation when it really does need them to take charge, show some leadership and communicate with the players they seem content to let there be a free for all.

In Rugby - the Ref will make the teams have 2 or 3 or more scrums until he is satisfied. I think it needs a Ref to stop all the pushing and shoving and holding by awarding a penalty. If a defender was to do the same thing anywhere else on the pitch it would be a foul. If it's a foul in the penalty area I always thought that it was a penalty. That would soon put a stop to it.

Just this second published an article on this (I can see we used the same Google image search!). Here it is for anyone who's interested

http://www.therussianlinesman.com/the-holding-from-corners-debate-a-lifeline-for-the-fifth-official/#.USzMCcU6N_Q

Might not be the final answer but I'm trying to get the ball rolling by making a suggestion as opposed to just 'something has to be done'.

Richard (#530) - as far as I am aware the offence of obstruction remains but the punishment was raised to an direct free-kick (ie, a penalty if the offence is committed in the area).

Refs seem reluctant to punish players for it simply because it means giving a penalty, but that shouldn't really deter them should it? They don't have to show an automatic red as most chances wouldn't be classified as clear goal-scoring opportunities.

The rules already exist but the officials lack the backbone to make the calls. The other option would be to reinstate the indirect free-kick and see if a shed-load of them will put the cheats off.

It has got to stop, if a player were through on goal and someone bear hugged him, he'd be sent off no question.

However, we don't wanna per 3/4 players sentido off per game. Maybe a different approach.

As this is something that happens at set pieces, there is nothing to stop a referee's interference. Should someone be round illegally restraining an opposition player, the ref should blow the whistle and send the offending player to the sidelines ( a sort of sin bin) while the set piece is played.

*sent off

*found illegally

Effing auto-correct

A number of comments are offering different options to stop holding and blocking in the area from free kicks and corners why?? The rules are already there in the laws of the game and holding and obstruction regardless where on the pitch it occurs it is a foul and depending on the severity of the foul gets (A) a free kick (B) a yellow card or (C) a red card. If it happens in the penalty area it is a penalty.

The problem at the moment is with the governing bodies,In my opinion the main culprits are the referees, unless they received instructions from the FA or Fifa the only rules that have changed over the last 20 years are the pass back to the keeper and the offside rule.

This holding and obstruction is crept in the game over the last few years with the only ones not complaining are the ones who practice it. As I have said before the ones who can stop it are the referees even if it means 2-3 penalties a game or sending offs so what they will soon stop.

Apart from the no-brainer red card and penalty award solution to sorting out the 'Rugby Scrums' that the penalty area has become, referees could also stop the time wasting of so many teams protesting and encroaching on free kicks by the simple solution of giving a 5-yard advantage to the offended team every time it occurs.

Similarly obstruction should be called and a free kick or even a penalty where appropriate should be awarded when a defender simply obstructs an attacker from playing the ball and allows it to run out of play to HIS teams advantage while at the same time making absolutely no attempt to play it himself.

@Lyndon, what really upsets me is that Fella gets a red card for his retaliation and Shawcross gets away free. The only option fella has is to grab his eyeball, drop to the ground, and roll for 20 meters in order to tell the ref he needs to blow his damn whistle. I say call everything or give some leeway for good old fashioned retaliation. Not a perfect solution but then, there really isn't one!

@DanDoran — Fellaini didn't even receive a yellow card, let alone a red for a blatant headbutt and later an elbow. He was dealt with by the video review panel after the game.