The Five Foul Rule

In "Why the Makelele foul is the real threat to football," The Guardian's Rob Smyth identifies one of the biggest threats to the beautiful game.

"Claude Makelele is a master of it, and in that Portsmouth/United game it was abundantly clear that Lassana Diarra, the Luke Skywalker to his Obi-Wan Kenobi, had been taught well in their time together at Chelsea. Diarra was a deserved man of the match, in the sense that his influence on the match was greatest, but that influence was almost entirely negative. That is not his fault - it's his job - but to excel at it requires at times a simulation of defensive-midfield play that is just as unacceptable as its offensive equivalent: diving - and even harder for referees to judge."

But Smyth does have trouble finding the solution to the problem. Our suggestion? We've made it before: The Five Foul Rule: Football becomes a totally non-contact sport, the referees call everything without using their "judgement", every foul gets recorded in the referee's book based on shirt number and for every five fouls committed by a team, the opposing team is awarded a penalty. Eventually the game would flow better and finally we would have a game full of goals.

Source > 28.03.2008

Video Protection

Recently when the International Football Association Board met in Gleneagles former Scottish player Gordon Smith was keen to talk to FIFA president Sepp Blatter about use of video evidence to retrospectively punish players for diving. But we have always felt that the best use of such a policy would be to punish the more damaging aspect of modern football--physical play.

Today, in the wake of the Ashley Cole tackle on Alan Hutton, Rafa Benitez has come out in favour of using video evidence to protect skillful players:

"I have always felt that video evidence should be used after a game for disciplinary matters...You can find things, you can protect players for the next game...Everyone will see that players have to be careful, they will say 'I can't do this again because I could be banned on what the video shows'...To me it is clear, you do not need to change the game, you just need to analyse what has happened...If players get banned for three games the first week it is done, then three games on the second week and more on the third, it will soon stop...I don't want to talk about just Ronaldo or Torres. Skilful players must be protected. We need to help referees and we need to look at the video afterwards to see what has happened. "

We at TBGSE have been saying this all along. It is true, the game need not be changed. All that needs to happen is that everyone starts to more closely adhere to the laws of football. And if video evidence puts a little fear into players and the managers who instruct them, then the we will get closer to the playing of the beautiful game.

Source > 21.03.2008

Changing the Soundtrack

It's two days after the Ashley Cole tackle on Alan Hutton. Good Friday.

Yesterday Cole "apologized" for the tackle and for his behaviour toward referee Mike Riley. Today we hear that Fabio Capello, on behalf of the FA, will weigh in on the issue of "discipline" in English football in response to the way the entire Chelsea team behaved toward the referee. But we have said this before here: for us behaviour comes second to other issues; for instance, in the case of Zidane's headbutting of Matterazzi behaviour is second to justice. The FA apparently has a new "respect the referee" initiative. But what we would like to see is a "Respect The Game" initiative. This initiative would be quite simple really--and make the referee's job easier too: players, managers, fans, administrators and especially media, would be asked only to respect the "laws of football."

As we said in an earlier post, there wasn't just one noticeable foul in the Chelsea-Tottenham match. There were countless fouls. For us Chelsea's Ricardo Carvalho was the biggest offender in that he did many small things to put striker Dimitar Berbatov off of his game--which the official failed to see or did not want to see. It's another case of a centreback trying to deny talent its rightful opportunity to shine (see Zidane-Materazzi).

We feel that the most effective way to change things is to change the soundtrack of the televised matches provided by the commentators. Like this little track from the Chelsea-Tottenham match:

"The tackles are flying in but it's not so bad really...The players are playing with passion...it's great to see."

Blah, blah.Such commentators provide both the indictment of what is wrong with English football and the opportunity to improve the game. If instead of celebrating an out-dated view of the game, commentators embraced the essence of the beautiful game--the skill, the movement of players and the ball--the game in England could really march forward.

Source > 21.03.2008

Experiment: Two additional assistant referees to focus on fouls and misconduct in the penalty area

Craig Urquhart, a former FIFA media officer and current editor of Project 2010, is relieved that the governing body has decided to not introduce goal-line technology during the African World Cup. He refers to the debates that followed after England won its Cup on a goal which may or may not have crossed the line:

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"And that's what makes football - unlike other codes such as cricket, rugby, tennis or American football - so beautiful. The human element, and human frailties, are part and parcel of the extraordinary theatre that is played out during the contest."

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Urquhart also reveals his satisfaction with the decision to introduce additional match-officials to focus on fouls in the penalty area:

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"Interestingly, the IFAB has approved a proposal from Fifa to conduct an experiment involving two additional assistant referees, who will mainly focus on fouls and misconduct in the penalty area...Again, that should be welcomed. Perhaps the 2010 World Cup will be remembered for ending the kind of cheating in the penalty area that so often takes the fairness out of football."

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Urquhart may be trying to support his earlier point about the Grosso dive that allowed Italy to defeat Australia but we are more interested in the more frequent kinds of physical cheating that occur in the penalty area (and elsewhere): body-checking, holding, pushing, elbowing, obstruction, tripping, stamping, etc. These are the real problems of the beautiful game. These are the behaviours that limit individual talent and kill the beautiful flow of football. Like Mr. Urquhart, we could also focus on another perpetrator of cheating from the Italian team to support our point: Marco Materazzi. If his shirt-pulling and verbal abuse had been spotted by an additional official, the beautiful Zidane would not have been forced to take justice into his own hands.

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Source > 13.03.2008

English Media Defends Reckless Tackling

Those seeking to find out why English football has declined need look no further than the English media and the way they see the game. For the thinking of the English media reflects the thinking of English society.Take the BBC's report on Liverpool's 1-Nil Champions League win over Inter. This is how one of its writers saw the sending off of Inter defender Nicolas Burdisso:

"Inter's hopes of mounting a fightback were dealt a cruel blow after 49 minutes when Burdisso - who had already been booked - collided with Lucas...The challenge looked innocuous and Inter were understandably enraged when Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo produced a red card that was harsh in the extreme."

Some might quickly point to the objectivity of the British media company in standing up for a player on an Italian team. But that would be missing the point.The fact of the matter is that Burdisso deserved to be sent off not just for repeated infringements of the laws of football but also for the dangerous final tackle itself. Burdisso did not collide with Lukas as the BBC reported, he charged at him full speed with studs up after already having been booked. The red was not harsh. It was fully warranted.It seems that at least one BBC reporter is as deluded as Scottish coach Alex McCleish who the other day pulled out a conspiracy theory about Sepp Blatter's intentions to change the game of football. McCleish cast the English game in a positive light by calling it robust. But the fact of the matter is that the English and Scottish are simply a bust. It is sad that the very people who first wrote the laws of football in the nineteenth century are now being undone by their misinterpretation of those laws.By celebrating a game full of fouls they may be creating a spectacle in their leagues but the cost is that they no longer produce enough technical footballers. For how can a country develop talent when everyone including the media is defending the kind of reckless tackling that we saw from Inter's Burdisso yesterday.

Source > 12.03.2008

Sunderland Lucky To Keep All Their Players On The Pitch

"Sunderland were perhaps lucky to keep all their players on the pitch when Bardsley received a yellow card for a bad foul on Pienaar."

Source > 11.03.2008

Boa Morte Was Making Too Many Fouls

Spurs assistant manager Gus Poyet explains why West Ham were reduced to ten men:

"Boa Morte was making too many fouls and that's why he was sent off..."

Source > 11.03.2008