After watching the first
round of matches in the Euro 2012 I thought that I would scribble down a few
thoughts on what I think would improve this great game.
1)
Eliminate Diving.
Basically a form of
cheating that has crept so far into the sport that reasonable people shrug
their shoulders and say, “It’s part of the game.” Part of the game? That’s like
saying cancer is a part of your body. If you want to ruin a perfectly beautiful
game then sit back and continue to allow this horrible behavior that has
become—for some—a team strategy. Faking an injury should be punished with
immediate expulsion.
2)
Keep Time.
The clock in football has
become an absolute joke. If you aren’t going to respect the fact that the game
is divided into two, 45 minute halves then why bother with a watch? I propose
that there be not a second of injury time. When the clock hits the 45 minute
mark the game should be over unless the ball is sailing towards the goal. If a
player is injured then he should either walk it off like an athlete or they
should haul him of the pitch. The game should never stop except for
penalties.
The Sweden-Ukraine
match was a good example of the need for sanity in time-keeping. They tacked on
three minutes of injury time at the end and then it ended up being almost five
minutes. Even the injury time is a joke.
3)
Off-Sides and Goals Should Be Monitored Electronically.
Period. I doubt that I have
ever watched a match that didn’t have at least one horrible off-sides call.
Denying a team a goal because a referee was asleep at the wheel is completely
unacceptable. The human eye is incapable of watching two separate points
simultaneously. On television they already accurately call off-sides
electronically so it would be easy enough to implement during games.
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