A Restless Mind

For some years now, football websites and newspapers have been moaning about the slow death of football. Some complain about it not being in touch with the man on the street anymore. Others see an alarming dip in level of professionalism on behalf of players and sometimes managers, coupled with mounting player power and selfishness. Another recurring moan is about low refereeing standards ruining the game. There is also a worrying trend setting up in most Europeans countries, of elite clubs (especially in England) which seem to dominate all the competitions year in year out and use their financial power to make sure no-one else can aspire to even the titbits. The role money plays in football has been a huge gripe for most fans out there. Of course, no-one complains when the club they support is riding on a financial crest. The influence of money has also led to a slip in the quality of football in the Premiership recently due to teams being too cautious because of the huge implications of losing a match (escaping relegation is worth around £30m). I have read a few articles here and there online about changes that could be brought to ‘repair’ football. Let’s see how we can do it.

Video technology
This is probably the most significant of the changes. With the advent of TV replays, we can now analyse each decision and make out if it’s the right one or not, in most cases. I hate the notion that video technology would kill off the banter in the pub on a Saturday afternoon when you are sipping your pint of lager with a group of mates. Surely it’s more important that match-changing or perhaps season-changing decisions are made correctly. With the immense amount of money riding on title challenges and relegation dogfights, it makes sense to eliminate mistakes in making decisions for crucial events, like a goal for example. This has worked so well for cricket and tennis (Hawk Eye technology). It can improve the overall quality of football and also stamp out simulation (‘zet lekor’ in creole) and generally make football fairer. But I do believe we need a structure in place so that not all decisions are made using video technology. Football could learn from tennis here and introduce a challenge system whereby each team could be allowed to challenge a fixed amount of times. This will avoid matches stretching to well over 90 minutes and ensure video technology is used wisely and only for big decisions.


Sin bins
This is a brilliant idea in my opinion. It involves a player sitting out part of a game if deemed guilty of a professional miscreancy on the pitch. Sin bins are used in the rugby world whereby a player sits out 10 minutes of the match if he commits a serious foul or demonstrates indiscipline. This could replace the yellow card (with the red card being a stand-alone card) or it could be something in between a yellow card and a red card. This could help cut out reckless tackling which don’t always warrant red cards. This could also be useful for players who pester referees *cough*Rooney*cough*. Players have really lost a lot of respect for referees, not only because sometimes referees do not deserve any respect but also because players these days have grown bigger than the referees. You can understand the frustrations of players sometimes, given the pressure on them, but this has to be curbed.

Salary caps and caps on transfer spending
This is very important for the future of football, especially English football if we don’t want Manchester United (although I wouldn’t mind if Man Utd do), Arsenal or Chelsea to win the league every year (Is a certain team missing from this list? I wonder...). The so-called Big Four have been spending money like no-one else in the Premiership (except maybe Spurs who keep on being a joke of a club) and have first option on world-class talents. The beauty of football lies in every team being given an (almost) fair chance at a trophy. I agree that the big clubs (except the moneybags at Chelsea) have built their domination on the foundation of their history for years and years. Rome was not built in a day. But other clubs like Everton don’t need to be obliterated by the Big Four season in season out. The big clubs will still attract big names, because hopefully players would want to win trophies rather than a big fat pay check – which wouldn’t be that big anyway given the restrictions on salaries- but atleast there will be players like Arteta around, willing to stick with their non-Big Four team and help them to challenge for honours. There needs to be a fairer distribution of resources to make competitions more competitive. These measures will also keep clubs away from going bust by spending beyond their means.

Return of terraces
This applies to the Premiership mainly and I know this is quite controversial given the history behind terraces. But these days, stadiums are more secure and people are a bit more conscious about violence (apparently). Terraces would increase the capacity of stadiums and could lower ticket prices which will be a great boost to the football fan who nowadays have to occasionally dip into their pension fund (which are eroding in value anyway with the current market conditions) to pay for season tickets. Fans are the soul and blood of football clubs. Distancing them from the club can only herald the death of football.

Extension of the football season
The amount of matches in the 9-month season is staggering. We know players earn millions and therefore should not complain about playing 10 matches a week, but football suffers as a result of too many players getting injured and players being rested for several matches during the course of the season. This is also detrimental to ‘small’ clubs which don’t have a huge squad to rotate around. I think the season could be extended by a month or so. Or maybe have a winter break like in some European leagues. Of course that means every 2 years, football fans don’t have to remain idle for over 3 months...

Okay, I have run out of ideas. Do give me a shout about what you think of the above measures (which like all measures have their pros and cons) and also if you have any ideas about how football can be ‘healed’ or given a new impetus. I do think a lot of measures could be taken to make sure football preserves its sanctity but also evolves with the flow of time so that it doesn’t become obsolete and ultimately dies out, although if the sheer passion that has been generated by football for over a century is anything to go by, football could well live an immortal life.