Steve McClaren, England's beleaguered manager, said
some time ago, that one of the key factors that made up his mind to appoint John Terry as his new England captain, was hearing the defender effing and blinding as he tore into his team-mates after a fiery pre-match warm up at the World Cup last summer.
For a few years, I was the Leadership-Tutor for one of the country's largest conglomerates at their Management Training Centre in Keysham. This was a leadership trick I missed; cursing your team mates. I know that training someone to lead a team on a production line in a crisp factory, is different than for leading the England team but I wonder if those tactics were employed by great England captains such as Booby Moore or Billy Wright.
I would have been more impressed, if McClaren had said that Terry showed calmness and intelligence that would enable him to keep the team focused and disciplined, or had a tactical awareness to make adjustments on the pitch when things are going wrong.
It's a moot point how much influence captains have on the field of play. I think that in the lower levels of the game, it is very little. In local football they are often only a token figure needed to choose which way to kick if they win the toss. I know some of my refereeing colleagues have a different point of view. I have often run the line to referees, who will say to the captains at toss-up, that they are looking to them to control their team mates, 'because if I have to do it, it could mean cards coming out of my pocket'.
Personally, I say very little except to wish them both a good game. This is in part due to an experience I had back in the 1960s. The Football League instructed match officials to enter the dressing rooms prior to each match and brief players on general and specific match control policy. I ran the line at a pre-season game at Elm Park, Reading v Portsmouth. The referee, from Swindon, with us two linesmen in tow, went as directed into the dressing rooms and laid down in no uncertain terms what sort of behaviour he was going to penalise. The first such occurrence during the match, was not severe enough to warrant his dressing room prescribed punishment and so he did nothing. His credibility was immediately shot to pieces. Better I feel to say nothing and let your actions on the field speak for themselves.
The truth is that, in spite of the now ever-present armband, in the Laws of the
Game captains have no privileges. But UEFA want to change that and introduce a rule from rugby to protect referees from abusive players. UEFA, like many spectators and certainly referees, are tired of the growing number of incidents at the top level of football, where officials are harassed and pressured by groups of players.
The rugby rule they want to introduce, is where only the captain is allowed to question a decision or speak to the referee. This immediately conjures up the image of Kevin Nolan, the Bolton skipper, snarling in the face of referee Mike Dean, who had given an obvious penalty against his team. Are referees to take such behaviour because it comes from the captain? Mike Dean quite rightly dispatched him to the dressing room.
UEFA would first have to get this change passed by the International FA Board and in my opinion there is another rule from rugby that they would do better to support. If any player disputes a decision, the referee simply moves the kick ten yards forward - no need for cautions. The captain could then show his authority by dragging away any team mates likely to fall foul of this ruling and so disadvantage his team.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2007