Beautiful Game ?

The recent tribulations on and indeed off the football pitch must force us to reflect on what was once called ‘The Beautiful Game’

It was the great Edson Arantes do Nascimento or Pele, as he is better known, who called his auto-biography ‘My Life and the Beautiful Game’ but with the way the game has been allowed to deteriorate to such terrible levels, one wonders if he still thinks it is still such.

Proponents of the game will say it is a beautiful game when it is well played well – but that could be said about any and every game/sport by its followers ! that’s why we like some sports over others.

Not to put too fine a point on it but it seems that at the very top of the game, in the hallowed halls of places like Old Trafford, The Bernabeu and the San Siro, the aim of the modern footballer is to win AT ALL COSTS – and if that means by cheating then, so what. 

What makes this all the worse is that it is taken as the norm now among, not only the supporters, but, by their lack of ability to deal with it properly, also by the games’ governing bodies. No other game on the planet suffers this behaviour – why does Soccer.

Now readers will be saying ‘rubbish – the referees are dealing with it !’ Not harshly enough says I.

Can you imagine Tiger Woods or Ronnie O’Sullivan accidentally touching the golf/snooker ball and trying to get away with it – no ! They play the game in the spirit it is supposed to be played – “May the best team/player win”

The ability of players to dive in the area, hoping to get a penalty, is becoming an art form. If it wasn’t so sad it would be funny.

Again, at the top level, where some of these guys are getting paid the equivalent of a small nations debt every week, act around so much, they should be getting an Oscar.

Picture a leading ‘star’ racing into the opponents box (and it doesn’t even have to be in the box), an opponent tries to take the ball off him, and in a dishonest effort to get a foul awarded, act like he’s been shot at point blank range by Harry Callaghan's 44 Magnum – and yet a few short moments later he’s running around like a march hare, with quite obviously nothing wrong with him – make no bones about it, that player is a cheat – some even now wave their invisible card at the ref, hoping he will book the tackler or even send them off.

And don’t let anyone brush it off by saying ‘ah sure they’re all at it’ – they are, because they have been allowed to !

We can all remember incidents where disgruntled footballers confront the referee in no uncertain terms, and without leaving anything to the imagination, telling them of their displeasure of their decision – who remembers Jaap Stam and Roy Keane venting their spleen so much to one referee, that he had to run backwards at rate of knots, being told how he was an effin this, and an effin that – what other sport tolerates this behaviour ? and of course a lot of the managers if not encourage, then also tolerate this behaviour. What do the 10 and 12 year olds now learning the game, think ? and what message is it sending out to them.

The FA and UEFA and the other governing bodies have simply to give the referees power to deal with this problem – and the clubs should back them up with real and hard fines. 

If a player on the pitch is rolling around in agony, then quite obviously he is pain – so get him off the pitch. If wants to come back after he has ‘recovered’ he has to wait 10 minutes – and he can not be substituted unless he has left the pitch for the duration of the game.

If a player starts screaming blue murder and using bad language to a ref, first give him a yellow card (this actually does happen now and again) and if he persists then give him a red one, and let the club fine him one month’s pay.

It may seem draconian, but soon you would see the sport improve beyond recognition and the game improve no end. Of course not all cheats can be rooted out, but if the Associations (and the Managers) give the refs the back up they need, then we might be able to call it the beautiful game again.