FIFA ruining football

MisterAnarchy

I had to post this to get a few things off my chest.
I feel soccer is being ruined by the bureaucracy of FIFA.
This World Cup has been marred by the most atrocious refereeing decisions and dishonesty of the players.
Every match has had at least one or 2 major controversial incidents .
The referee seems to be the most pivotal man in every match now as he is liable to do anything.
Players are being booked for the most minor incidents and other players are constantly feigning injury to try and influence the referee.

FIFA have sat back over the last few years as the cheating has now reached epidemic levels.
Something must be done before the next World Cup.

Anyone feigning injury or caught diving should be given a straight red card or punished after the match with a 1 match ban.
Cheating must be stamped out.

Everytime there is a corner taken players are wrestling with each other and grabbing each other round the waist.
This must be stamped out,its soccer not rugby.

FIFA need to allow the referees to use common sense and only book someone if it is deemed necessary.
Too many players are being booked/sent off for minor issues.

It has been a brilliantly run World Cup by the organisers and the football has been exciting.
A pity it has been spoilt by cheating and poor refereeing.

John_C

I think that it's very hypocritical of a player or manager to complain about a refereeing decision when their team has spent half the match trying to pull the woll over the ref's eyes.

The ref should be allowed review the video after a match if there is one and hand out punishments to any player who he thinks tried to trick him.

iregk

What I don't understand is why is someone who was sent off due to 2 yellow cards not allowed to appeal? Some yellow cards in that match last night were shocking decisions...

redspider

MisterAnarchy wrote:

Anyone feigning injury or caught diving should be given a straight red card or punished after the match with a 1 match ban.
Cheating must be stamped out.

Everytime there is a corner taken players are wrestling with each other and grabbing each other round the waist. This must be stamped out.

Too many players are being booked/sent off for minor issues.

Yes, I agree that diving needs to be stamped out, and I fully support the suggestion of doing post-match analysis and giving out 1-match bans (ie: belated red cards for all those offences). Cheating and not being caught, such as a hand-ball ala Drogba should get a post-match red-card. There has to be a deterrent to cheating. No deterrent and it just gets worse.

However, the amount of people getting carded, etc, will get worse initially and will take years to stamp out. Players have developed their skills at cheating and diving from an early age and it is endemic. I watched a replay of a match of the 1970 WC semi-final between Germany and Italy and they were at it then, 36 years ago, and no doubt it was in football 30 years before that.

The pulling and dragging at free-kicks, corner kicks, etc is terrible. Too many goals are scored because of a foul that didnt go punished. I think the way to make play better is to limit the no. of players in the penalty box, say to 3 defenders and 3 forwards. This is taking a lesson from Basketball (the 3 sec rule in 'the key') and GAA (the small parallelogram rule) and Olympic Handball. De-clutter the scoring zone and the sport will be better. Having 16 players jump up to head-in/clear a cross into the box is 'chance football' and low in skill really.

As for players getting yellow-carded/sent-off for minor issues, the rules need to be clearer. Maybe each foul is given a point. 3 pts and you get a yellow, depending on the viciousness, etc. But whatever system is in place, there will be referee judgement, there will be subjectivity and its difficult if not impossible to eliminate that completely. I dont think we can build robotic referees just yet. But the way forward is consistency and sticking with it for a long time. ie: tackle from behind, allowed or not, hand ball, automatic yellow or not.

And we see it in the NL/PT match yesterday. Blatter blaming the ref, yet he was quite consistent. C Ronaldo giving out about him for not giving Bhoularouz a straight red, and Maniche giving out about him for sending off Deco for a petty 2nd yellow. The fact of the matter was that Deco could have gotten a straight red for his first one. Players cant have it both ways. I dont think anyone would have envied reffing that match yesterday, but the players are to blame for it really. They did the kicking, the fouling, the hand-balls, etc. Not the ref.

I think there are many improvements needed in the sport and anti-diving/cheating and anti-pulling/dragging methods are needed.

Another one which vexes me when playing and it happens all the time with 'professionals' is the hand-off, ie: where a forward pushes the player chasing him away and keeps him away at arms length. This is a foul but its rarely punished so its endemic in the sport and players are doing so and holding onto shirts. If it happened in the playground the 'victim' would lash out and probably kick the other guy. So, it doesnt happen in street football yet it happens at the top-level - go figure!

redspider

BaZmO*

I think the problem with a Panel handing out cards after a match is that most people already think that the governing body of football is corrupt without adding into the mix a group of people tucked away in a room deciding who does and who doesn't get penalised retrospectively. It leaves it open to calls of inconsistency.

FIFA have already shown, with the Figo incident, their lack of consistency.

With regards to shirt pulling and the like when corners and free kicks are being taken, why don't they put extra officials behind the goal?

I think FIFA like the controversy that dodgy decisions cause.

Töpher

Sure, it keeps people and the media talking...

Can there be any other reason simplistic measures to rule out this cheating hasn't occured?

Revelation Joe

From the FIFA website:
Cautionable Offences
A player is cautioned and shown the yellow card if he commits any of the following seven offences:

1. is guilty of unsporting behaviour
2. shows dissent by word or action
3. persistently infringes the Laws of the Game
4. delays the restart of play
5. fails to respect the required distance when play is restarted with a corner kick, free kick or throw-in
6. enters or re-enters the field of play without the referee’s permission
7. deliberately leaves the field of play without the referee’s permission.
...
Decision 4
A tackle, which endangers the safety of an opponent, must be sanctioned as serious foul play (a sending-off offence - my brackets)

So I guess late tackles, handball etc. comes under 'unsporting behaviour' ?
I think the challenge on Ronaldo endangered his safety and should have been a red card.
Couldn't find any mention of the old 'charging fairly with the shoulder'. Has that been taken out of the Laws now?

Del

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Necronomicon

I agree with the OP, FIFA's "crackdown" has gone way, way overboard this World Cup. Some of the referring has been atrocious.

randomname

I agree with Ziggy there should have been more straight red cards, The ref had a shocker as well he should have sent figo off.

I agree with OP on divers, They should be sent off and punished as well its getting to a stage where its, lets see how many people i can get booked/sent off by rolling around on the floor.

Supercell

Excellant well thought out post redspider,and am in total agreement with you.

To be honest, I don't think the referee's are to blame, its the rule makers that are at fault.

Quite simply cheating needs to be punished more harshly. We often see the ref telling a player thats dived to get up and not allowing the medics on the pitch, imho this should be a straight yellow card and red if done in the penalty area where the consequences are much higher for the team the diver is acting against.

It is endemic, but if it was harshly punished, yes there would be plenty of yellow cards and sendings off initially with cries of ref's ruining the game,but the message would filter through and we would get a more free flowing honest skillfull game that we all would love to see.

So agree with the OP in that regards, basically the biggest problem in football at the moment is the cheating and the fact that the rulemakers don't seem to be prioritising it as they should.
There are of course poor refs - always will be,but when all the refs are doing the same thing - like at this world cup, then imho you have to look the rules they are enforcing - and thats Sepp Blatter and his cronies responsibility.

Ruskie4Rent

The refs are getting too tough a time. They are doing what they are told at the end of the day. At the start of each tournament FIFA always come up with certain things that the refs have to clamp down on or else, which is making the refs picky and not letting them rely on their own judgement.
The problem is the rules are made by eejits who think they are giving the people what they want and are ruining a good game which, in the end of the day is all that people want.

Dave!

MisterAnarchy wrote:

I had to post this to get a few things off my chest.
I feel soccer is being ruined by the bureaucracy of FIFA.
This World Cup has been marred by the most atrocious refereeing decisions and dishonesty of the players.
Every match has had at least one or 2 major controversial incidents .
The referee seems to be the most pivotal man in every match now as he is liable to do anything.
Players are being booked for the most minor incidents and other players are constantly feigning injury to try and influence the referee.

FIFA have sat back over the last few years as the cheating has now reached epidemic levels.
Something must be done before the next World Cup.

Anyone feigning injury or caught diving should be given a straight red card or punished after the match with a 1 match ban.
Cheating must be stamped out.

Everytime there is a corner taken players are wrestling with each other and grabbing each other round the waist.
This must be stamped out,its soccer not rugby.

FIFA need to allow the referees to use common sense and only book someone if it is deemed necessary.
Too many players are being booked/sent off for minor issues.

It has been a brilliantly run World Cup by the organisers and the football has been exciting.
A pity it has been spoilt by cheating and poor refereeing.

Hear hear

bonkey

Revelation Joe wrote:

So I guess late tackles, handball etc. comes under 'unsporting behaviour' ?

Late tackles can come under that category, but more generally when the lateness is large enough to suggest the player knew they weren't gonna get the ball but went in anyway.

My understanding of the wording of "unsporting behaviour" is that it covers any and all deliberate infringements of the Rules of the Game.

I accept that FIFA may be dictating how the refs interpret certain situations in a tournament, but my attitude would be generally in agreement with the OP - that a deliberate late tackle, hand-ball, dive, even shirt-pulling etc. in the box should all be tackled with a zero-tolerance yellow card.

It may not be possible or practical to get hard on all of them straight away, but when FIFA tell refs to crack down on one type of foul, this usually means that they shouldn't be as harsh on other types. This is where the fundamental mistake comes in. Yes, if something is a particularly worsening problem, clamp down on it. But don't let up on this when the next tourney comes around and another type of foul is the new focus.

Make it "clamp down on this as well", and one-by-one all the stupidity thats ruining the game become zero-tolerance policed, rather than there being one at a time.

Unless FIFA are instructing the refs (implicitly or explicitly) to lighten up on certain rulings, their clamp-down "requests" do not force the referees into an impossible corner.

Couldn't find any mention of the old 'charging fairly with the shoulder'. Has that been taken out of the Laws now?

I seem to recall hearing the BBC commentator make a comment to exactly that effect (i.e. that it has been taken out) during the England Ecuador match.

Pepe LeFrits

I must say I like redspider's suggestion for limiting the number of players at corners.

- The yellow/red card system is a poor one and should be scrapped. A player who picks up a yellow in two seperate games gets suspended for the following game, which only serves to give the team in the following game an advantage, while the two teams who suffered the foul previously get no compensation whatsoever. It's crazy. A sin-bin system would be much better. If a player persisently fouls or commits a serious foul, he has to stay off the pitch for a length of the referee's choosing (up to and including full dismissal).

- Diving etc as has been already mentioned should be punished by video with heavy suspensions.

- Goal-line technology should be brought in.

- Matches should be reduced to 60 minutes with an additional official stopping the clock every time play is stopped, eliminating time-wasting. Matches at present only have the ball in play for an average of 55 minutes.

- All the senior officials at FIFA should be exiled to the moon.

MisterAnarchy

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

I must say I like redspider's suggestion for limiting the number of players at corners.

- The yellow/red card system is a poor one and should be scrapped. A player who picks up a yellow in two seperate games gets suspended for the following game, which only serves to give the team in the following game an advantage, while the two teams who suffered the foul previously get no compensation whatsoever. It's crazy. A sin-bin system would be much better. If a player persisently fouls or commits a serious foul, he has to stay off the pitch for a length of the referee's choosing (up to and including full dismissal).

- Diving etc as has been already mentioned should be punished by video with heavy suspensions.

- Goal-line technology should be brought in.

- Matches should be reduced to 60 minutes with an additional official stopping the clock every time play is stopped, eliminating time-wasting. Matches at present only have the ball in play for an average of 55 minutes.

- All the senior officials at FIFA should be exiled to the moon.

I like those ideas,think it would make the game far better and easily improve it.
The 60 minutes idea may be a bit hard to implement at amateur level though.
Redspiders idea about the corners is intriguing too.
I expected the farcical refereeing performances we have seen in this World Cup.
If you want to give new directives to referees ,the World Cup stage is not the place to do so.

cooker3

MisterAnarchy wrote:

I had to post this to get a few things off my chest.
I feel soccer is being ruined by the bureaucracy of FIFA.
This World Cup has been marred by the most atrocious refereeing decisions and dishonesty of the players.
Every match has had at least one or 2 major controversial incidents .
The referee seems to be the most pivotal man in every match now as he is liable to do anything.
Players are being booked for the most minor incidents and other players are constantly feigning injury to try and influence the referee.

FIFA have sat back over the last few years as the cheating has now reached epidemic levels.
Something must be done before the next World Cup.

Anyone feigning injury or caught diving should be given a straight red card or punished after the match with a 1 match ban.
Cheating must be stamped out.

Everytime there is a corner taken players are wrestling with each other and grabbing each other round the waist.
This must be stamped out,its soccer not rugby.

FIFA need to allow the referees to use common sense and only book someone if it is deemed necessary.
Too many players are being booked/sent off for minor issues.

It has been a brilliantly run World Cup by the organisers and the football has been exciting.
A pity it has been spoilt by cheating and poor refereeing.

I couldn't have said it better myself, great post.