First there was discussion between gentlemen.
Then there were Umpires with the impartial Timekeeper to refer to.
Then came one Referee with Linesmen.
Then there were four Officials.
Then there were six Officials.
Then there was Goal Line Technology.
Then there was Video Assisted Refereeing.
Then ...
The football rules and the way to implement them on the pitch have evolved both before and after the founding of The Football Association and (later) the International Football Association Board. Many of the changes have been made to adapt the rules to the growing seriousness of the game and the remarkable speeding up of the play. You would also probably question if the level of gentlemanliness in today´s football is on a level high enough to do without referees.
The last few years, technology has been introduced to help the officials. From the voice communication system between the referee and the assistants, via Goal Line Technology we have lately became acquainted with Video Assisted Refereeing. So you would think that this, combined with the growing number of officials surrounding a game, would make every call crisp and clear. Well, think again. No one can say that the debate over right or wrong calls has disappeared or even diminished. Rather the IFAB, who is responsible for the rules through the yearly revised "The Laws of the game", seems to have put itself in a situation of being forced even to change the rules during a World Cup tournament. Moreover, many feel that a lot of the joy disappears when neither the players or the audience can be sure that a goal made will stand, when everything can be scrutinized by the VAR team.
I realize that there might be no way back in using technology that in theory should make the refereeing more correct. However, in parallell with that, I strongly would like us to go back to some basics that would make the play flow smoother, with fewer longueurs. There is a debate about the delays of play that are so common and so
often destroy the flow of the game. Should football use effective
playing time as in ice hockey or something in-between as in handball? I think it´s not necessarily a matter of changing the rules. To start with, it´s really about some simple reading and counting.
In Law number 13, section 3 you can read:
"..an opponent who deliberately prevents a free kick being taken quickly must be cautioned for delaying the restart of play.".
Please read it again:
"...an opponent who deliberately prevents a free kick being taken quickly must be cautioned for delaying the restart of play."
"Cautioned" means a yellow card. How many yellow cards have been given this season following this offence? How many would it take before we always would see the defending player take the proper position directly?
Law 12, section 2 states:
"An indirect free kick is awarded if a goalkeeper, inside their penalty area ......controls the ball with the hand/arm for more than six seconds before releasing it." If you start counting you´ll find that in many, not to say the most, cases it usually takes 7-8 seconds, and it´s not that unusual to see the keeper hold on to the ball even 10 seconds. I don´t think I ever have seen a call against a goalkeeper breaking this rule. So, we have come to a point where we feel we need several video replays and an extra team of match officials to get more correct decisions about the whereabouts of a player´s nose in relation to another player´s chest, but we don´t care if the ref can´t count to six seconds.
A stricter interpretation of these two rules would of course not change anything when it comes to decide if a player has been in an offside position or if the ball has crossed the goal line, but it would certainly make the game more fun to watch. So, referees all over the world - start counting!
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Silly Season judges - better off without them!
The Silly Season is undoubtedly here. Transfers rumours are everywhere, all the time. Now and then some of them transform into done deals, some more silly then others. I mean, 235 million quid for a player with less than 20 international caps and less than one hundred Premier League appearances is just utterly ludicrous. Oh, sorry it wasn't 235, just 49? Well, the figures don't really seem to mean anything anyway.
As an eager tweeter, I'm amazed by the amount of arrogant judgements on if a player has made the right choice. "Asmir Begovic doesn´t really think he will play any matches for Chelsea, so he must just be after the salary! Nabil Bahoui of Swedish AIK is moving to Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia. That must be a VERY bad move for a 24-year old still in the beginning of his international career! Claire Lavogez doesn't have her heart in Montpellier! And why oh why would Big Zlatan ever move to Milan and miss the chance to play Champions League?"
You can quite rightfully criticise the lunacy of the transfer market, but are you and I in a position to criticise a certain player's choice?
Each and every player is (more or less) a grown-up man or woman with a unique set of life circumstances. Some are young, single and adventurous. Some are older with families to support. Some have grown up in the toughest suburbs of big cities, some in the safest and most prosperous. Among today´s top players there are more than a few that have awful memories from wars in West Africa or the Balkans.
We can't ever be certain how these circumstances influence a player's choice.
We all go through different phases in our lives, with different incentives. Most of us have other people to take into consideration before making life-changing decisions. Personally I would never move to another city if I didn´t think I could find a good school and a good life for my children. I would like to think that even the best athletes in the world actually are humans who care about their loved ones, don't you?
Moreover, there are of course the questions connected to the game itself. "Will I be able to compete for playing time? Who is manager? What kind of physiotherapy is there? What kind of football is played?" and so on.
I hope, and sincerely think, that our favourite players are mature enough to balance all aspects well enough. Now and then, time will show that someone perhaps took the wrong turn, but all put together, we as outsiders should refrain ourselves from playing presumptuous judges in advance. We should respect the players' choices!
That said, humble analysing and speculations are always welcome! That's what makes the Silly Season sizzle!
As an eager tweeter, I'm amazed by the amount of arrogant judgements on if a player has made the right choice. "Asmir Begovic doesn´t really think he will play any matches for Chelsea, so he must just be after the salary! Nabil Bahoui of Swedish AIK is moving to Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia. That must be a VERY bad move for a 24-year old still in the beginning of his international career! Claire Lavogez doesn't have her heart in Montpellier! And why oh why would Big Zlatan ever move to Milan and miss the chance to play Champions League?"
You can quite rightfully criticise the lunacy of the transfer market, but are you and I in a position to criticise a certain player's choice?
Each and every player is (more or less) a grown-up man or woman with a unique set of life circumstances. Some are young, single and adventurous. Some are older with families to support. Some have grown up in the toughest suburbs of big cities, some in the safest and most prosperous. Among today´s top players there are more than a few that have awful memories from wars in West Africa or the Balkans.
We can't ever be certain how these circumstances influence a player's choice.
We all go through different phases in our lives, with different incentives. Most of us have other people to take into consideration before making life-changing decisions. Personally I would never move to another city if I didn´t think I could find a good school and a good life for my children. I would like to think that even the best athletes in the world actually are humans who care about their loved ones, don't you?
Moreover, there are of course the questions connected to the game itself. "Will I be able to compete for playing time? Who is manager? What kind of physiotherapy is there? What kind of football is played?" and so on.
I hope, and sincerely think, that our favourite players are mature enough to balance all aspects well enough. Now and then, time will show that someone perhaps took the wrong turn, but all put together, we as outsiders should refrain ourselves from playing presumptuous judges in advance. We should respect the players' choices!
That said, humble analysing and speculations are always welcome! That's what makes the Silly Season sizzle!
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Saturday celebrations
Today I just want to be a happy football fan and celebrate the efforts of:
- Crusaders FC of Belfast, who virtually have secured the Northern Ireland Premiership title.
- Arsenal, who by beating Burnley (albeit by only one goal) now have a Premier League winning streak of 8 matches.
- Yannick Bolasie of Crystal Palace, who achieved a hat-trick in 11 minutes against Sunderland.
- Mia Jalkerud of Djurgårdens IF, who scored a double hattrick - in one half - in the first round of Swedish top tier Allsvenskan.
- The eleven years old boys of my own team who in good spirits showed up at 7.45 AM for their first Saturday training session this spring.
Yep, that felt good!
- Crusaders FC of Belfast, who virtually have secured the Northern Ireland Premiership title.
- Arsenal, who by beating Burnley (albeit by only one goal) now have a Premier League winning streak of 8 matches.
- Yannick Bolasie of Crystal Palace, who achieved a hat-trick in 11 minutes against Sunderland.
- Mia Jalkerud of Djurgårdens IF, who scored a double hattrick - in one half - in the first round of Swedish top tier Allsvenskan.
- The eleven years old boys of my own team who in good spirits showed up at 7.45 AM for their first Saturday training session this spring.
Yep, that felt good!
Wednesday, April 01, 2015
All that was needed: Swiss coffee and croissants
The 6th of June is Sweden´s National Day. Television viewers will, as every year, by live broadcasting watch the royal family attend the ceremonies in Stockholm. The 6th of June is also the day when the king of Swedish football, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, may at last win the UEFA Champions League.
While the ceremonies in Stockholm are going on, some 70 000 out-of-city football fans will take the U-bahn or the S-bahn and head towards western Berlin and start filling up the imposing Olympiastadion.Together with me and hundreds of millions other viewers in front of screens of all sizes, they will follow the fate of the players lucky enough, or rather skilful enough, to reach the final of the world´s biggest club tournament. Starting at 8.45 CEST, we will all hopefully witness ninety minutes (and then some) filled with fabulous football and big excitement. May the best team win!
By the time the teams have left the pitch and the stands of the Olympiastadion are emptied, two other nervous teams will be warming up far far away, eight time zones westwards. In Edmonton, Canada, the host nation will face the People´s Republic of China in the opening match of the Women´s World Cup, hopefully in front of a capacity crowd of 54,000. Kick-off is set to 4 pm local time. That´s less than ninety minutes after the final whistle of the Berlin match.
As I´ve written in an earlier post there are signs that 2015 can be a breakthrough year for women´s football. Great efforts are made in marketing the World Cup, and more than 600,000 tickets have been sold by the end of March (link here).
The two most powerful football organisations FIFA and UEFA both talk and write about the importance of supporting the development of women´s and girls´football in different ways. However, with these two matches being played on the same day, a lot of potential attention will be drawn from the match in Edmonton. The Champions League final is a huge, huge match, and there are not many events that would not lose the battle for attention with the build-up talk for a clash between Bayern München and FC Barcelona or between Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
I don´t know which schedule was set first, and it doesn´t matter. If UEFA and FIFA really meant something with their words on women´s football, they could have just sat down and reached an agreement over some coffee and a few croissants. If the 256 km distance between Nyon and Zürich felt too far to travel, they could have settled with one or two domestic calls.
I can easily accept that the Champions League final is played on Sweden´s National Day, but it will be much harder to overcome the lack of decency in not caring for the top athletes of the World Cup. FIFA and UEFA have a lot of work to do if they want some credibility in this matter. For starters UEFA could celebrate Easter by announcing major changes in the prize money structure and the choice of venues for the Women´s Champions League 2015-16, but that´s a totally different sad story.
While the ceremonies in Stockholm are going on, some 70 000 out-of-city football fans will take the U-bahn or the S-bahn and head towards western Berlin and start filling up the imposing Olympiastadion.Together with me and hundreds of millions other viewers in front of screens of all sizes, they will follow the fate of the players lucky enough, or rather skilful enough, to reach the final of the world´s biggest club tournament. Starting at 8.45 CEST, we will all hopefully witness ninety minutes (and then some) filled with fabulous football and big excitement. May the best team win!
By the time the teams have left the pitch and the stands of the Olympiastadion are emptied, two other nervous teams will be warming up far far away, eight time zones westwards. In Edmonton, Canada, the host nation will face the People´s Republic of China in the opening match of the Women´s World Cup, hopefully in front of a capacity crowd of 54,000. Kick-off is set to 4 pm local time. That´s less than ninety minutes after the final whistle of the Berlin match.
As I´ve written in an earlier post there are signs that 2015 can be a breakthrough year for women´s football. Great efforts are made in marketing the World Cup, and more than 600,000 tickets have been sold by the end of March (link here).
The two most powerful football organisations FIFA and UEFA both talk and write about the importance of supporting the development of women´s and girls´football in different ways. However, with these two matches being played on the same day, a lot of potential attention will be drawn from the match in Edmonton. The Champions League final is a huge, huge match, and there are not many events that would not lose the battle for attention with the build-up talk for a clash between Bayern München and FC Barcelona or between Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
I don´t know which schedule was set first, and it doesn´t matter. If UEFA and FIFA really meant something with their words on women´s football, they could have just sat down and reached an agreement over some coffee and a few croissants. If the 256 km distance between Nyon and Zürich felt too far to travel, they could have settled with one or two domestic calls.
I can easily accept that the Champions League final is played on Sweden´s National Day, but it will be much harder to overcome the lack of decency in not caring for the top athletes of the World Cup. FIFA and UEFA have a lot of work to do if they want some credibility in this matter. For starters UEFA could celebrate Easter by announcing major changes in the prize money structure and the choice of venues for the Women´s Champions League 2015-16, but that´s a totally different sad story.
Friday, February 06, 2015
2015 - The Big Breakthrough for Women´s Football?
In July 2013 more than 41,000 people gathered in Solna, just outside Stockholm to watch the final of UEFA Women's Euro 2013. In November 2014 England and Germany attracted a record attendance of 45,000 to Wembley stadium.
In France, the first division is dominated by Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais. In England´s Super League Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea struggle. In the top of the tables in Germany and Spain you find household names like Wolfsburg, Bayern München, FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid.
Perhaps the time has come for women´s football to take the next step towards more attention. The big clubs seem to see the potential value to their brands. If the clubs work together with FIFA and the continental associations in highlighting the achievements of top female players, it could result in more young girls playing and following the game (and buying jerseys and calendars).
I think football can strengthen girls and that girls strengthen football. (Read here about the project "Futebol dá forca" to get an idea of what the further implications can be.)
It´s not that strange that women´s football doesn´t get as much attention as men´s. Whatever the issue is, I think that it usually takes at least two generations to really achieve a change in general attitude. Women´s football has of course been around in some form as long as men´s, but it was not until the 1970´s that it began to wear a somewhat more modern costume, with semi-professional teams in Italy. The first World Cup was arranged in 1991 with just twelve teams. Now another 24 years have passed and we are looking forward to the World Cup in Canada. With a record number of 24 teams the tournament promises to be a success, judging from the U20 World Cup last year which attracted tens of thousand spectators.. Could it be that in the future we might look back at 2015 as the year women´s football got a real breakthrough? I repeat the last lines from my post during the U20 tournament, aiming at Canada 2015:
Hopefully, the media attention will be bigger than ever.
The players deserve it.
Young football-loving girls all over the world deserve it.
We all would benefit from it.
In France, the first division is dominated by Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais. In England´s Super League Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea struggle. In the top of the tables in Germany and Spain you find household names like Wolfsburg, Bayern München, FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid.
Perhaps the time has come for women´s football to take the next step towards more attention. The big clubs seem to see the potential value to their brands. If the clubs work together with FIFA and the continental associations in highlighting the achievements of top female players, it could result in more young girls playing and following the game (and buying jerseys and calendars).
I think football can strengthen girls and that girls strengthen football. (Read here about the project "Futebol dá forca" to get an idea of what the further implications can be.)
It´s not that strange that women´s football doesn´t get as much attention as men´s. Whatever the issue is, I think that it usually takes at least two generations to really achieve a change in general attitude. Women´s football has of course been around in some form as long as men´s, but it was not until the 1970´s that it began to wear a somewhat more modern costume, with semi-professional teams in Italy. The first World Cup was arranged in 1991 with just twelve teams. Now another 24 years have passed and we are looking forward to the World Cup in Canada. With a record number of 24 teams the tournament promises to be a success, judging from the U20 World Cup last year which attracted tens of thousand spectators.. Could it be that in the future we might look back at 2015 as the year women´s football got a real breakthrough? I repeat the last lines from my post during the U20 tournament, aiming at Canada 2015:
Hopefully, the media attention will be bigger than ever.
The players deserve it.
Young football-loving girls all over the world deserve it.
We all would benefit from it.
Monday, December 29, 2014
New challengers - or...?
Lately AFC Bournemouth have continued to impress in the English second tier The Championship, with five straight victories. They will celebrate the new year as league leaders. In the German Bundesliga FC Augsburg are upsetting the top teams, now in sixth place. I love to see new clubs breaking ground. But hey, are these REALLY new clubs in top football?
For most of us our childhood experiences defines normality, whether it concerns sports, politics or technical gadgets. I still think it's a bit odd that the Swedish parliament consists of eight parties and not five. After 25 years, a united Germany is still kind of a new concept to me, since the wall stood my whole childhood. Streaming services aside, I'm amazed by the more than 13 or 57 channels to choose from on television.
When IFK Göteborg were promoted to the Swedish top tier in 1976, I saw them as a new team that probably wouldn't challenge the likes of AIK and Malmö FF. I later realised that this was one of the big clubs with seven championships, and that they only quite recently had been relegated. Of course they stayed up and later won the UEFA cup twice.
Many youngsters today probably look at my favourite English team in the same way. It was only a few years ago that Stoke City reached the Premier League. However, if you read your football history you'll learn that the club was founded back in 1863, and was one of the original league clubs (I'm sorry to say that great victories are scarce, to say the least...).
We need to make our young ones realise that by learning about history, you understand more about the present. As a Stoke fan I can read about the decline of the pottery and mining industry, partly coninciding with the club's years in the third division. Then I can reflect on the success of gambling giant Bet365, coinciding with the re-establishment of The Potters as a PL club.
If you read about Spanish history (e.g. in Jimmy Burns' excellent "Barça - a People´s Passion") you get a better understanding of why FC Barcelona is so much "more than a club". You can read about the shipping trade to get clues on the origins of many of the great European football clubs.
What about Bournemouth and Augsburg, then? Well, Bournemouth would actually be a new club in the top tier if promoted. Augsburg currently play their fourth season in the Bundesliga, so they have to be considered a new challenger. I will welcome Bournemouth to the Premier League and will be happy to analyse the importance of the fact that their hometown´s population has grown by 15% percent since the birth of the Premier League, and that their stadium is sponsored by a "lifestyle concierge services" company.
For most of us our childhood experiences defines normality, whether it concerns sports, politics or technical gadgets. I still think it's a bit odd that the Swedish parliament consists of eight parties and not five. After 25 years, a united Germany is still kind of a new concept to me, since the wall stood my whole childhood. Streaming services aside, I'm amazed by the more than 13 or 57 channels to choose from on television.
When IFK Göteborg were promoted to the Swedish top tier in 1976, I saw them as a new team that probably wouldn't challenge the likes of AIK and Malmö FF. I later realised that this was one of the big clubs with seven championships, and that they only quite recently had been relegated. Of course they stayed up and later won the UEFA cup twice.
Many youngsters today probably look at my favourite English team in the same way. It was only a few years ago that Stoke City reached the Premier League. However, if you read your football history you'll learn that the club was founded back in 1863, and was one of the original league clubs (I'm sorry to say that great victories are scarce, to say the least...).
We need to make our young ones realise that by learning about history, you understand more about the present. As a Stoke fan I can read about the decline of the pottery and mining industry, partly coninciding with the club's years in the third division. Then I can reflect on the success of gambling giant Bet365, coinciding with the re-establishment of The Potters as a PL club.
If you read about Spanish history (e.g. in Jimmy Burns' excellent "Barça - a People´s Passion") you get a better understanding of why FC Barcelona is so much "more than a club". You can read about the shipping trade to get clues on the origins of many of the great European football clubs.
What about Bournemouth and Augsburg, then? Well, Bournemouth would actually be a new club in the top tier if promoted. Augsburg currently play their fourth season in the Bundesliga, so they have to be considered a new challenger. I will welcome Bournemouth to the Premier League and will be happy to analyse the importance of the fact that their hometown´s population has grown by 15% percent since the birth of the Premier League, and that their stadium is sponsored by a "lifestyle concierge services" company.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Congrats Føroyar!
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