大象传媒

Question
It is the final of Euro 2008. You are the ref and your assistant referee is having a TERRIBLE game.

Every time the ball is played forward in his half he flags for offside. He makes two or three decisions that you can clearly see are wrong and you overrule him, allowing play to continue.

At half-time you are fortunate enough to see footage of several clear goalscoring opportunities that were ruled out by your assistant. You have a word with him and he assures you he is fit and well and, from where he was standing, the players appeared to be clearly offside.

In the second half the scenario is reversed - the assistant's flag stays down for 20 minutes and a goal is scored when the player looked offside to you, but you couldn't be sure.

After overruling the assistant for the second time on a CLEAR decision, you are faced with the possibility he may be getting these decisions wrong, not by accident but on purpose.

You have stopped play for offside. The managers and the players of both teams are understandably angry, but not doing anything that warrants action from you.

One team is asking for the assistant to be removed, the other is berating you for constantly overruling him.

What would you do?

Thanks to Chester_Rd_Parade_Cancelled for this question.

We will bring you Keith Hackett's answer after the final of Euro 2008.