Respecting The Law – Time For Change (Another "old" one)

This another piece I wrote last year. Would maybe go in the football section rather than rugby




When I was a little girl and started to go and watch football with my dad there was one thing he taught me from the very outset – The referee is always right!

My dad was a very good footballer in his day. I never saw him play at his best but have been told that had the game been professional in Sweden at the time, he would have been playing professionally.

He had played at all levels from local village games through to playing for North Sweden v North Norway and North Finland. For him, it was a matter of course to respect the referee and as part of the game itself adhere to the fact that the referee was correct, with no questions asked.

When I started playing myself, this was deeply ingrained into me. I was captain of my team for the best part of 15 years and throughout my playing days … the referee was always right!

I didn’t necessarily agree with him/her all the time but I kept that to myself. Therefore, I find it very hard to accept the way football is now treating its officials. I am saying football because whilst it is the players that mainly hand out abuse, there are few laws that the referees can use to prevent this, and in the end that is down to FIFA.

The lack of respect from managers and players for the referees has led to football supporters behaving even worse at times. Anders Frisk, a former Swedish referee felt that enough was enough after he and his young family received death threats from Chelsea fans after a Champions League Semi-Final against Barcelona (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article432383.ece ).

Last year we saw Alex Ferguson receive a 5 match ban for his behaviour,and for me it’s clear that bad behaviour on the pitch or by managers gives a clear signal to the fans that this type of behaviour is acceptable. Worse still, football does not seem to do much about it. We seldom see any repercussions after atrocious behaviour on and off the pitch.

What makes it even harder is that a sport that pretty much grew up next door has working laws in place to obliterate this, but football has so far refused to even contemplate changes in that direction. I am of course talking about Rugby Union. I watch a lot of rugby and appreciate that the referee is so much better respected by players and coaches. When I watch football, it quite often makes me sad and disillusioned because of the way the players behave and demonstrate their lack of respect for the referee, especially as this is something that spreads and we now have a huge problem with abusive parents and young children behaving badly in youth football.

On a single weekend, there were three fights between parents and one between the children playing in my local area and those are only the ones I know of. There are some rugby laws that can be brought directly into football and would increase respect for match officials, making the spectacle more enjoyable.

There are three laws I would bring in to football directly help the standing of the referee when on the pitch, all of which are easy to implement. They are tools for the referee to control the behaviour of players and have a direct impact on the playerand the team:

A penalty can be moved 10 metres forward (in football it would be the free-kick)
Sin Bin
Reversed penalties/freekicks
The first law would enable the referee to move a free-kick forward as a direct consequence of players questioning his decision or swearing at him for the decision made. The referee just says 10 metres and that’s it. The player has been given a clear warning that he is out of line and if he continues, more severe sanctions will be implemented.

I think the yellow cards in today’s football are pretty useless. For example, Edwin van der Sar was given a yellow card against Liverpool at Anfield last year after shouting abuse at the referee but knew full well that that was the maximum punishment for his indiscretion. There was nothing in place to persuade him not to shout at the referee, knowing that a yellow card would be the only consequence. For a goal keeper a yellow card has very little impact on his play in the rest of the game.

If he knew that he could be sent off for 10 minutes, would he have done the same? The introduction of a sin bin would increase the referee’s ability to directly deal with any dissent, presenting a more severe outcome for the player and his team. In rugby, if you commit a yellow card offense, you are sent off for 10 minutes. It is a direct punishment and has an impact there and then on the player and the game.

The accumulation of cards in tournaments would become a non-issue as the disciplinary action has already been meted. Reversed penalties/free-kicks is another but slightly different tool for the match officials. This law makes it possible to reverse an already given penalty/freekick and give it to the opposition. This option is mainly used if a player retaliates. The scenario could be that one player is brought down and is given a free kick. If he or any of his team mates then goes up to the offending player and pushes, kicks them etc the referee can choose to reverse the award or decision.

I saw a very clear incident in a Magners League game last year. One player committed a yellow card offence and both penalty and a yellow card were given. However, the victim of the offence lost his temper and threw the ball in the head/back of the offender. The result was that the yellow card stood and that player was sin-binned but the penalty was reversed.

This law can also be used for dissent to match officials and if the assistant referee has seen something the referee did not. The main point of these three changes is that they stand for a direct punishment of unacceptable behaviour on the pitch, whether it is a bad tackle or disrespect against the referee.

In order to improve the game from a more general perspective I would also bring in citing. In rugby, if the match officials miss an incident and it is caught on camera, the player can be banned after the game. I think that this is something that should be used in football. The main use I see for this is blatant diving in the penalty box and when players feign injuries (some examples at the start of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT0dgAa7D8o). That is unsportsmanlike and should be unacceptable behaviour. The main point being that it doesn’t matter if the referee saw the incident during the game, you can still be caught and punished for it.

Furthermore, I want to allow physios/doctors in on the pitch if someone is injured while play continues. In football, we see players taking a dive, rolling around, pretending the injury is bad, ball then being kicked out etc. Suddenly the player makes a miraculous recovery and seems to be fine. In rugby, play continues while treatment is done on the pitch (there are a few exceptions like serious neck and head injuries). This means that the players don’t gain anything from pretending that an injury is worse than it is, in fact the team lose out as they have to play with one man less while treatment takes place. This would discourage football players from pretending that their injuries are worse than they are and the match would not be brought to a standstill.

The last thing I would like to mention is goal line technology. In rugby we are used tothe TMO sign. We wait until the TMO has checked if a try was scored or not. This happens nearly every game, sometimes many times in one game. Not a big issue. To be fair in rugby it is usually a bit trickier to actually see whether a try has been scored compared to football where the ball some 99% of the time is either in the net or not.

However, the main reason I want it for goals,unfortunately has to do with the referee. FIFA have conjured many excuses, but as mentioned above, there are referees that receive death threats for doing something that is vital for a football match to be played. We can play a game with less than 22players on the pitch but not without a referee – but who wants to be a referee now-a-days?

For the safety of the referees, I would welcome goal line technology. The use of technology works in many sports eg. rugby, tennis, cricket, American Football so I can see no reason why it wouldn’t work in football. As a youth coach, I am worried about the behaviour on the sidelines and by some players and I therefore think it is of utmost importance to deal with these issues.

I think that the changes I have proposed are all easy to implement and stand as a direct consequence for any type of foul play. They would all help the referees and improve the game of football. It is my belief that a better environment on the pitch, with respect for match officials, will in the long run have a positive impact on those watching the game.

Previously published here http://swingingballs.co.uk/magazine/2011/03/respecting-the-law-time-for-change/