One of our local referees, Richard Highfield is a seasoned traveller in the course
of his business and often brings me back items on refereeing that he has spotted
in local newspapers.
This month Richard has passed on to me a copy of the
Buenos Aires Herald from Argentina, but published in English. On the front page, as
might be expected, were photographs and reports of the demonstrations against
their economic crisis, but the back pages as ever were dedicated to football.
However, it was not the stories of local clubs such as River Plate that caught my
eye but a report of a meeting held at FIFA headquarters half way across the
world in Zurich, Switzerland.
As part of their desire to have a World Cup of
attacking soccer and fair play, FIFA invited former world cup players and
referees to say what they would hope to see in Japan and Korea this summer.
Our own Bobby Charlton felt that diving was damaging the game and wanted a video review panel to scrutinize such incidents the next day. I'm not sure what
the panel would do as he said they wouldn't change any of the referee's on the
spot decisions. I know that the thirty six referees selected for the World Cup,
including England's Graham Poll, have already been called together for a
seminar in Seoul where they discussed how to recognise and penalise feigning
of fouls.
Michel Platini, the past great French player and special adviser to Sepp Blatter
during his time as President of FIFA, made what I thought were a couple a
pathetic suggestions. He wanted two further assistant referees at each game, one
behind each goal to judge controversial goal line incidents.
Former Italian referee. Paolo Casarin called for more
vigilance in punishing goal mouth incidents but I can't see that requires two more officials. Platini also wanted
defenders to be sanctioned when they deliberately step into their own penalty
area to play the ball from their own team's goal kick. How often do you see that
happen? The ball is not in play until it comes outside the penalty area so all the
referee has to do, is order the kick to be retaken.
Pele, who many consider the greatest player ever and winner of three world cup medals with Brazil, had some ideas that would require changes in the Laws
of the Game.
One is a non-starter having already been rejected by the
International FA Board, which is replacing the throw-in with a kick-in. He also
called for the defensive wall to be scrapped. 'It's not fair,' he said, 'that when a
player is going through and is fouled with only one player to beat, the
subsequent free kick faces not just one but half a dozen defenders'. I think his
other suggestion will also receive a lot of sympathy. He suggested that when a
player has to leave the field for medical treatment after being fouled, the
opponent who committed the foul should be made to leave the field for the same
amount of time. I have always thought it unfair that the innocent team are
reduced for a period of time whilst the offending side keep a full team.
The International Board who write the laws of the game meet every year during the close season to decide on any changes. In World Cup years they met
a little earlier than normal so that any amendments can be introduced during the
tournament. It will be interesting to see if any of the suggestions are taken up.
A sub-heading in the Buenos Aires Herald was 'Argentina beat England'. This
turned out to be the hockey world cup in Kuala Lumpur. I'm sure what we all
want from the football World Cup, is for them not to be able to publish a similar
headline from the far east this summer.
Dick Sawdon Smith