FIXING FOOTBALL

Peter Radan (24 August 2018)

Football, or soccer as it is called in some places, has its affectionate monikers. SBS, the home of football on the Australian television landscape, calls it 'the World Game'.

Acclaimed British football journalist, David Conn, has authored a best-seller under the tile of 'The Beautiful Game?'. Given that almost every country in the world competes in its ultimate competition - the World Cup, it deserves 'the World Game' moniker. In this respect, it stands in stark contrast to the presumptuously labelled 'The World Series' in baseball, a competition that is open to 30 teams, 29 of which are from the United States and one from Canada.

On the other hand, as the question mark in the title of Conn's book would suggest, to call football 'the Beautiful Game' is somewhat, perhaps a lot, of an exaggeration. There is much to criticise football in terms of how it is run. The much-publicized FIFA scandals and the less well-known skulduggery that is part and parcel of player transfers come to mind here. And, why not throw in the English Premier League, which Margaret Thatcher would have legitimately seen as the shining example of neoliberalism in practice. Whether these cancers on 'the Beautiful Game' are terminal or not, only time will tell.

Apart from football's problems in the way the game is run, there are also problems with the way it is played. However, these problems - all associated with cheating - can be readily addressed.

FIFA's Laws of the Game, which regulate the way the game is to be played, are prefaced by a statement that asserts that 'football must be attractive and enjoyable for players, match officials, coaches, as well as spectators, fans, administrators etc.' With the apparent exception of 'administrators', what infuriates everybody else is the cheating that is, to all intents and purposes, allowed to go unpunished. Players can be criticised for this, but if they can get away with it is hardly surprising that they do it. After all, they are 'professionals'!

A few examples. First, there is the act of 'shirt pulling'. This is against the Laws of the Game, yet it is almost never punished. Occasionally, it may be pulled up and the offender given a 'yellow' card. 'Not enough', I say! It should be punished by a 'red' card. Some would say that such a punishment does not fit the crime. 'Bollocks', I say. Grabbing an opponent's shirt is a deliberate, pre-mediated act designed to put an opponent off balance and prevent what might lead to what spectators want - open play and, perhaps, a goal. Shirt pulling is not accidental as, say, a poorly executed tackle often is. It is intentional. It is the sporting equivalent of a criminal act and, like the latter, it meets the requirement of what lawyers refer to as mens rea. It deserves a severe penalty and if the penalty is rigorously enforced, the deterrent effect will be quickly evident. But, some would say, a referee cannot be expected to see every case of shirt pulling, so not all offenders will be caught. However, this ignores the fact that, in the major professional leagues around the world, cameras are at play recording the action from multiple angles. A post-match review would catch those not caught by the referees and those offenders can be given the same punishment as those red-carded by the referees. What the punishment should be, that is, how many games should offenders be suspended for, is something that wiser heads than mine could determine.

A second example of cheating is the inevitable grabbing, pushing, and shoving of players that takes place inside the penalty box area when an attacking team is threatening to score a goal either from open play or from a set piece, such as a free kick or corner. Like shirt pulling, this is a deliberate and premediated act of cheating and offenders should suffer the same punishment as shirt pullers. As a bonus, the attacking team should also be awarded a penalty kick. That such a severe punishment would have a deterrent effect is clear, there being evidence to support this claim in this context. At the recent World Cup in Russia, VAR (Video Assisted Referee) worked pretty well and there was a noticeable reduction, as the tournament progressed, in the occurrence of this type of cheating. It was also no accident that there was only one game in the entire tournament in which no goals were scored. Of course, VAR was not perfect as was made abundantly clear to everybody who watched the match between Serbia and Switzerland, in which two Swiss defenders brought down Serbia's Aleksandar Mitrović inside the penalty box with a tackle that any player of rugby (or football as it is called in some places) would have been proud of.

A third example of cheating is the notorious 'professional' foul. If FIFA is serious about its commitment to making football 'attractive and enjoyable', its administrators must stamp out this heinous practice. 'Taking one for the team' should not be a badge of honour. Invariably, the professional foul is committed when an attacking team is on the cusp of starting, or is in the midst of, play that will end up on the highlight reels that populate post-match TV analysis and reporting, as well as YouTube. In other words, it is the type of play that excites fans, keeps the turnstiles clicking, and makes pay-TV subscriptions worthwhile. That professional fouls only attract a yellow card is nothing short of scandalous. As with other examples of cheating, it warrants an automatic red card. A possible positive side effect of such an approach would be that the art of defending might creep back into the game.

To bring about changes that will eliminate cheating, or at least go close to doing so, requires some tweaking of the laws of the game, but more importantly, enforcement of them. In the past FIFA has made changes that have improved the game as a spectacle, the back-pass law being an exemplar. If done in relation to cheating, it may pave the way towards David Conn dropping the question mark from the title of a future edition of his book.