If you are not a
watcher of daytime television, you have probably not heard of
Adrian Chiles before, unless you were unfortunate to see his
presentation of the ludicrous programme on the Queen's
finances. It seems, however, that he has been transferred from
Working Lunch, weekdays-midday on BBC 2, to host Match of the
Day 2 on Sunday night.
You can tell that
Adrian doesn't know much about football as he keeps waiving
sheets of papers about, asking about the 'rules'. As any
referee could tell him, football is played to the Laws of the
Game, not to rules.
Why the Football
Association decided to call them 'laws' when they first drew
them up in 1863,1 don't know. Possibly it was to differentiate
them from the various sets of rules that existed before, the
Cambridge Rules, the Rules of Harrow and the Rules of Eton
College.
For referees today, it
is very useful to have them designated as laws, for it helps
keep them separate from the rules that we also have to be
aware of - the rules of the competition under which the game
is played.
Let me give an
example. The Laws of the Game say the minimum width of a
football field, is 50 yards and the maximum 100 yards.
Competitions can accept that as it stands, or can set their
own measurements within those parameters. About three years
ago I was down to run the line at a cup final in the Hayes
area. At the last minute the game was switched as the original
pitch was unplayable.
When we arrived at the
hastily rearranged venue, one team, who had travelled a
considerable distance, declared their reluctance to play. The
new field of play was, in their opinion, too narrow. Like good
referees, we had the competition rules with us. These gave the
minimum width permissible as 60 yards. As the referee had the
shortest legs, we let him pace out the pitch. He measured it
as 64 yards wide and the game was played.
Competition rules
can't override the Laws of the Game. You may remember when
Greece played the Czech Republic in the semi-finals of Euro
2004, they won on what was known as the Silver goal. The
Silver goal was a variation of the Golden goal, as a method of
obtaining a result in matches which ended as a draw, possibly
preventing games going to the lottery of kicks from the
penalty mark.
In the Golden goal, if
a team scored in extra time, the game ended immediately; with
the Silver goal, if a goal was scored, the teams played out
the rest of that half, allowing the opportunity of an
equalizer. Greece scored right on half-time, putting
themselves surprisingly in the final.
That was the last time
a game could be settled by a Silver or even a Golden goal;
they have been abolished in this year's changes to the Laws of
the Game. The only way now for a drawn match to be decided,
where a result is needed on that day, is by kicks from the
penalty mark, with or without extra time first being played.
Competitions have that choice. They don't have the option to
ignore the changes and use any other method
A colleague of mine recently refereed a
cup tie and was surprised to see that the Golden goal was
still in the rules of the competition and both clubs expected
it to be used if the game was a draw after normal time. He
explained that he couldn't allow that to happen, under the
laws. Referees do have to know the rules - the rules of the
competition, but football is always played to the Laws of the
Game. I hope that someone at the BBC, soon points that out to
Adrian Chiles.
Dick
Sawdon Smith