One of my favourites amongst the old time Football League referees was Harry
New from Portsmouth.
I remember him telling about the start of one of his
matches at Elm Park. He walked to the centre circle and whistled up the two
captains. He put his hand in his pocket and discovered that he had forgotten a
coin to toss up with. Thinking quickly as the two captains approached him he
bent down and picked up two blades of grass. He put them in a fist and asked the
captain to pick one instead of choosing heads or tails. He then asked them to
take part in a little charade. He pretended to hand a coin to the home captain
who played along by tossing the invisible coin in the air and picking it up.
The reason for their play acting was because there was an assessor in the stand who
would have deducted marks if he realised that Harry had forgotten his coin.
Personally I would have added marks for improvisation.
When trainee referees take their examination one of the questions they have to
answer is 'what does a referee take with him on to the field of play?' One of the
items often forgotten from their list is the humble coin.
The coin is important because Law 8, The Start of Play says ' A coin is tossed and the team which
wins the toss, decides which goal it will attack in the first half. It is one of the
oldest clauses in laws, it appeared in all the early rules back in the mid-1800s. A
few years ago, in 1997 there was a slight change. Until then the captain winning
the toss could choose to have the kick off or choice of ends. This was altered
and the winning captain can now only choose which way to kick, the
losing side always kick-off. By the number of captains who still say 'We'll have kick-
off, I sometimes wonder if this change has filtered down to everyone, including
some referees. Of course there is exactly the same procedure and same choice if
the game goes into extra time.
I mention all this because there has been a change in one coin toss-up in the
laws of the game. Not at kick off or extra time but when the game has to be
decided by kicks from the penalty mark, which many people call
'the penalty shoot-out'.
Every year representatives of the FA, the Welsh, Scottish and
Northern Ireland FAs meet with an equal number of members from FIFA, as the
International FA Board to consider any changes to the Laws of the Game. This
year the total sum of their deliberations was this simple change. To be fair, they
have said they feel there should be a period of consolidation without too many
changes being made. Amen to that. They have decreed that when the coin is
tossed for kicks from the penalty mark, the winning team now has the option of
going first or second. Previously the team who won the toss went first without
question.
The reason for the change the International Board said, was to give the
clubs at this important stage of the game a choice. At one time, kicks from the
penalty mark was only used to settle matches in later stages of cup
competitions now it is used in early rounds to save fixture congestion.
Clubs might like to to think beforehand whether they
prefer to go first or second, rather than leave it to the captain at the crunch time. If they don't, knowing how long some local team
captains take to decide which way to kick, I can foresee some delays when they
have to make this decision. It could be even longer if the referee has forgotten
his coin.
Dick Sawdon Smith