FRANKFURT, Germany - Whoever wins the World Cup, one definite loser will be
soccer's battered image of fair play.
English referee Graham
Poll holds yellow and red cards during World Cup soccer game Australia
against Croatia in Stuttgart, Thursday, June 22, 2006. Poll awarded three
yellow cards to Croatia defender Josep Simunic's, second caution was not
followed by a red card, Poll, who was among the top candidates for matches
in the knockout phase, will no doubt be embarrassed by his mix up and may
lose future assignments during the
tournament.[AP] |
A record number of red cards, including four in one game and three in the
first 46 minutes of another, suggests there is something fundamentally wrong
with the world's most popular sport, although FIFA president Sepp Blatter has
ripped the referees for mistakes and inconsistencies.
"I've noted that instructions aren't being followed consistently from one
match to another," he said Wednesday. "When a coach complains to me that
shirt-pulling earned his player a yellow card one night and nothing for his
team's group rivals the next, how am I supposed to respond?
"And then there are the tackles from behind I've seen go unpunished and the
violent conduct that has escaped sanction, not to mention the serious errors
made in applying the rules."
Referees will again be in the spotlight at the World Cup quarterfinals —
Germany-Argentina and Italy-Ukraine on Friday, England-Portugal and
Brazil-France on Saturday.
It's not just the scything tackles, deliberate handballs, flying elbows,
players feigning injury or diving to get penalties or opponents sent off.
There are all the other ugly components of foul play: shirt tugging, sly
trips, ankle taps, body checks made to look like accidental collisions. A
sinister recent trend is a player going down, apparently injured, while his
opponents are attacking. The attacking team is honor bound to kick the ball out
of play while the downed player gets treatment.
The pushing and shoving that happens at free kicks and corners also suggests
the game is getting out of control.
Usually, such tactics don't warrant a yellow card. But they still happen and
many critics say they are poisoning the game.
Maybe there's a way of weeding them out.
One suggestion is for a team to automatically lose a player when it reaches
20 fouls in a game. It would be up to the coach to decide who goes. At 30 fouls,
another player would leave the field.
While that may seem unfair to a player who has been scrupulously clean and
has not made a single foul, how about this for making up the coach's mind: If an
individual player has made five fouls, he gets a yellow card. That puts him on
warning that the next time he commits a serious foul, he will be off anyway. If
the coach has to make up his mind who should be ejected, he might be more likely
to choose his dirtiest player.
FIFA says such an idea has been considered and rejected, never getting as far
as the international board, soccer's rulesmaking panel.
"We have had proposals of this type, but they just don't add up," said
spokesman Andreas Herren. He said it would put even more pressure on the referee
to keep count of all the fouls, then decide whether the next one warrants a red
card for a player.
The persistent foul play at this World Cup — one called every 2 1/2 minutes —
may prompt soccer's governing bodies to look at the laws and clean up the game.
But FIFA says the rules already are good enough. The players were warned long
ago and don't seem to be listening.
Portuguese striker Pauleta, who saw two teammates and two Dutchmen sent off
in a 1-0 victory over the Netherlands, said official statistics for fouls in
that game did not justify the wave of cards on his team.
"I think the referees have been excessive in showing yellow cards because of
FIFA's pressure on them," he said. "They're feeling a lot of FIFA pressure
because, if they don't do what they're told, they go home.
"We committed 10 fouls (against the Dutch) and got nine yellow cards. That
explains a lot."
