weemadando wrote:Someone gave 3 points on how to make football a fairer and more responsible game. And I feel like I needed to add a 4th and 5th.
1) The on field referee cannot award a penalty kick all by themselves. Similar to how it works in cricket and most other sports in the world, any critical call like this must be confirmed by a video referee. As there is already a break in play, then having a video ref review the incident isn't really causing a great interruption at this time and it will remove the element of limited referee vision and the problems of handball, tackle and diving calls in the box.
2) After match review. Most sports in Australia have after match review policies where if a player is caught doing something on video, but it is missed by all the refs on the day, then they are still called to account for it. The knowledge that a shitty dive or cheap handball will be picked up after the game and you will be suspended for it might prove to be penalty enough.
3) Straight red card for diving. - I'm not 100% behind this, I think that there should be matching penalties, so if someone is booked for a tackle where the opponent dived, then the diver should be given their own yellow/red. This can mesh with pt 2 or a ref can decide that yes the tackle was bad, but your acting was just as bad and send both guys off at the same time..
Number 2 does happen in football often enough, and in the world cup, 2002 regarding rivaldo's dive against Turkey for exmaple. After match review is also used to root out troublemakers amongst supporters, as well as players and refs.
Number 3 I don't agree with, players do dive, but there are those who do genuinely fall. At the highest level of football, the players are sprinting very fast, whilst trying to control the ball and ready a pass or a shot. Players can be knocked off balance. I think giving a yellow card caught diving to claim a penalty is fair enough, however I think a player should be given a straight red if he has dived and simulated injury with the intent to send someone else off.
weemadando wrote:And then my additions:
4) It's really an amendment to 1. Video ref has to confirm all goals. No more France v Ireland bullshit or Hand of God.
5) Get rid of offside. It was removed from field hockey years ago and everyone predicted it would be the end of the game and you'd just have people goal hawking the whole match. Turns out that the game still plays almost exactly the same, formations and marking patterns are hte same and score lines have remained the same. The only change is that there's one less infraction to be called that only ever slowed down the match and was usually wrong 50% of the time due to refs being out of position.
With number 4 I think we should have video refs for penalty claims (penalty claims don't occur that often and it can be decided as quickly, even more quickly then it would take the ref to sort out the players claiming/protesting about the penalty.)
Defining a 'goal' can be done much more simpler then having to use video evidence. For example 'goal line' technology. having sensors on the line and if the ball more or less passes the line then it's given. The only valid argument for claims against goalline technology is that there may be a glitch in the system but i can't see that as often as the mistakes occured by refs or the linesmen.
Number 5 is a bad idea, the offside rule is there to stop the game becomming just a game of long ball tactics. Football is entirely different to field hockey where other then size in pitch, in field hockey you cannot raise the ball (or in a way dangerous to the other player) in football, you can raise the ball as high as you like. So you can volley the ball in the air, straight to players within the penalty area. I can't see it workable for football and it's certinely not what anyone watching football want to see.
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