https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/02/behold-the-kickmen-how-a-game-designer-who-hates-football-made-the-ultimate-football-sim

With umpires not referees, no throw-ins and an arbitrary approach to offside, Dan Marshall’s game makes getting football wrong just right

Dan Marshall insists there is no such thing as a football referee. “Umpires officiate over sport,” he argues. There’s a lot about football that annoys Marshall – he really doesn’t get it. And yet this experienced game designer has just spent a year-and-a-half of his life creating a football simulation. Why?