Last summer’s World Cup was spoilt for many fans by the number of players who stayed down after tackles, apparently seriously injured, often writhing in agony, only to be miraculously revived after the most cursory of treatment from the physiotherapist.
Players often stayed down whilst their own goal was in danger and as soon as that danger
passed, they jumped up even without any treatment. Others went down for a breather or to take the momentum out of opponents play.
Since the World Cup the Technical Committee of PGMOL (the Professional Game Match Officials) has been studying a quite revolutionary solution to deal with faked injuries. The Technical Committee consists of members of the League Managers Association, the Professional Footballers Association and leading lights of the refereeing world including the Head of Senior Referees' Development at the FA, Neil Barry, who was guest speaker at the Reading Referees meeting last week.
If this new idea found favour with the committee, the plan was to put it to the FA. If they approved it, the suggestion was to be put forward to the International FA Board at their meeting to discuss changes to the laws, which was held in Manchester earlier this month. Quite what was presented to the Board, I don’t know but in the changes to the laws for next season, it says ‘The next IFAB sub-committee will establish a common protocol for dealing with injured players’.
So what was this grand idea that would put a stop to players feigning injury? It is a tactic already successful in both rugby codes, Union and League. The idea is that an injured player either hobbles off to the touchline for treatment, or is actually treated on the field of play whilst play continues on around them. One benefit is that referees wouldn’t have to stop play to judge how injured a player might be or not be. The physio would just sprint on to the field to treat the player. With play still continuing, the physio would be anxious to get him back into the action quickly. If the player’s injuries were serious, the physio would call for a stretcher and only then would play be stopped.
Many aspects of this suggestion require careful consideration. What happens if the ball should hit the physio or the prone player? Somehow rugby manages to avoid such incidents. But what happens if a goalkeeper is injured? Does he still get treatment whilst play is going on? In the same way, does the physio attend a player lying injured
in the penalty area? Should we still stop play for head injuries? And I wouldn’t put it past some physios to impede opposing players with the excuse of coming on to treat players.
I hope that, when the sub-committee get down to their deliberations, they give careful consideration instead to enforcing the law on injuries as it is already written, which says, ‘The referee stops the match if in his opinion, a player is seriously injured and ensures that he is removed from the field of play. A player may only return after the match has started’.
What this means is that, unless it is medically dangerous for the player to be moved, he is treated off the field of play whilst the game continues without him. The physio would be under the same pressure to get the player back on the field, as in the suggested treatment on the field. The law also says, ‘the referee allows play to continue until the ball is out of play if a player, in his opinion, is not seriously injured.’
So stop the silly kicking the ball out of play because a player has got cramp or mud in his eye or other non-serious injuries. Why introduce something new, when the solution is there all the time but needs courage to implement.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2007