Special: Football

I would like to mention two main things today. The first is the current rules regarding penalties and cards. To me both seem ridiculously stupid in their current descriptions at times being simply way too harsh a punishment and at other times simply not being enough of a punishment to stop players making "professional" fouls.

Firstly, the current penalty law which gives a penalty kick for fouls in the box. Way too often the fouls that occur in the box are near the edge with the player being fouled not even in a position to make an attempt on goal. In these circumstances a penalty is not a fair punishment because one team is being given a free chance at scoring simply because a foul occurred within an arbitrary area of the field. In all likelihood for most of these fouls had it occurred just slightly further away it would not be a penalty and the free kick would be far fairer punishment.

Of course the opposite is also true. Often players in good positions lining up a shot or having gone past their man are taken out just outside the box. In these cases the free kick given outside the box seems a ludicrously light punishment since a clear chance to score has been denied to a player.

Surely a far simpler and better solution would be to simply forget about the box with regards to penalties and simply give a penalty whenever a player is denied a definite goal scoring opportunity as decided by the referee. I don't think this will by any means remove all controversy. We will all still argue over what situations are definite goal scoring opportunities. For instance Steven Gerard from 25 yards might be a scoring opportunity if he is lining up a shot, but the same might not be true for other players from the same distance.

What I do think this ruling will accomplish is to stop players going done in nothing positions looking for a penalty. Rather they will strive to create that opportunity to score because that is the only way they will be able to do it. It will also mean that defenders are far less paranoid about defending inside the box, even when a player has his back to goal and is going nowhere.

My second issue is with yellow and red cards. Being a Liverpool fan I am of course deeply upset over Lucas' red in the derby this week. I find it completely stupid that he is sent off for two nothing tackles one of which was never in a million years a yellow. The whole game Everton players had been in late, at least 15 or 20 times and yet only the occasional yellow card was shown. Steven Pienaar made at least three tackles worse than any that Lucas made, two of which were on Lucas himself.

That red card completely swung the match and I think it does so in a way that is just not good for the game. Teams should not win a match because one player made two niggley little fouls when their entire team has been doing it the entire game.

Of course I was not very upset to see Lampard sent off on the weekend for what on second viewing should not have been a red either. Off course in that game Liverpool were dominant anyway and if anything the red just made Chelsea hang back a little more making it harder for Liverpool.

I think an approach more like rugby would work better than the current system. If a player makes a few stupid fouls or maybe one that is a little dangerous give him ten minutes of the field. The aggrieved team is given an advantage, but not one that will often instantly decide the match as a red card often does. Of course bad fouls must still be punished with a red where tackles are particularly bad or a professional foul is committed.

Then linking back to the penalty idea, often we see a red and a penalty given for a last man tackle or the like. If a player was rather given ten minutes off the field when a penalty is also given it would be far less of a match ending moment.

These simple adjustments to the rules I think will make the game a lot more fair and also improve the way the players go about the game. It will reduce diving and remove the fear and nerves from some tackles. The impact of refereeing decisions will also be reduced to a degree which is what you want. You don't want the whistle deciding a match, you want the players doing it.