The Beautiful Game?…An Epilogue to Germany 2006

One of the many people who appreciated my unbiased perspective on this year’s World Cup matches recently emailed me to ask if I thought that Germany 2006 could be deemed a success. I’ve had a few days to think about things and I must say, my opinion is pretty mixed.

First of all, how does one really measure ’success’? Because if we’re merely talking about raw numbers - global viewership, gross receipts, advertising revenue, etc. - I suppose it could be argued that the tournament was a great success.

However, if we’re talking instead about more subjective things like ‘were the games exciting?’, ‘did FIFA’s directives to officials reduce foul play and moments of controversy?’, ‘were new fans attracted to the game of football?’, and ‘has FIFA’s commitment to fair play and the elimination of racism taken root on the field and elsewhere?’, I would say that results are probably quite mixed.

But to keep things within the realm of referees, the rules they enforce, and the fair play that they are commissioned to promote, I would argue that it’s probably time for FIFA to consider making some radical changes if they have any hope of ensuring that football is now and forever more known as ‘the beautiful game’.

At times throughout the tournament, the scenes on the pitch were anything but beautiful - and I’m not only talking about Zizou’s reaction to Materazzi’s shit-talking or the free-for-all that we witnessed when Portugal defeated Holland. I’m also talking about great players like Andriy Shevchenko - who deliberately tripped himself in order to win a penalty kick that he did not deserve. And I’m talking about controversially-awarded penalties like the one that Italy was awarded in the dying moments of their match against Australia (a call that I agreed with). And let’s not forget about Adriano’s goal when he appeared to be offside against Ghana. Or the French goal that never was against Korea.

The list could go on and on, but I think you see what I’m getting at.

The point is that when game-breaking decisions are on the line, it might be worth taking a second look so that we can be as sure as possible that we get it right. People who are afraid of video replay technology because they think it will slow the game down need to realize that the game already has plenty of stoppages. That’s why we have stoppage time. Plus, if we take the time to review close calls, at least we’ll be comforted with the knowledge that every effort was made to ensure that the decision was correct in the end.

And if each team only has a limited number of times that they can ask for a video review - perhaps three or four per game - it shouldn’t really slow things down that much.

Now, for those of you who don’t like that idea, then maybe you’ll like this instead - adding a second official to the pitch while still utilizing the two ARs for their existing duties as well. This could perhaps cut down on simulation and other deceptive tactics (including trash-talking) since there will always be a trail and a lead official. A potential down-side to this system is that it could lead to disagreement between the referees as their styles and tolerance for physical play might not be exactly the same. But perhaps it’s still worth exploring.

However, another modification I’d like to see happen at the highest levels of the game would be the introduction of post-match reviews by league officials to investigate actions which might not have been observed during the regular course of play. This might not be quite as necessary if video replays are used by officials during the match, however, it could still be useful in some circumstances.

On another front, and maybe I’m biased here, but until the announcers’ booths include people who REALLY know the rules of the game (i.e. people who’ve read the rule book and actually know how the rules are applied…which I guess might only be referees and the most astute students of the game), our sport will suffer. Because many viewers actually believe the sportscasters have an intimate knowledge of the rules - either because they use to be players themselves as is the case with Marcelo Balboa, Eric Wynalda, and Alexi Lalas, or because they have interesting European accents in the case of Tommy Smyth, or because they happen to have a mirophone in the case of baseball-cum-soccer analyst Dave O’Brien - it’s vitally important that they actually understand what is happening on the field when the referee makes a decision. And having watched almost every game of the tournament, I was completely blown away how confused and/or flat out wrong the announcers were in explaining the rules to the viewers.

And frankly, having read about the match commentary and post-game opinions from other countries, I’m not entirely convinced that this is solely an American phenomenon. In fact, it seems that no matter where you go, there seems to be a great misunderstanding about the rules of the game and the decisions of the referee. And unfortunately, I think this lack of understanding leads to the xenophobic, hate-filled, venomous bile expressed by countless people on this website and elsewhere.

“The Italians are all cheaters and killed Jesus”, “Cristiano Ronaldo caused England’s loss and the Portuguese are all a bunch of divers”, “The referees are all biased and a bunch of idiots”, “The Americans got screwed”…and the list could go on and on with much uglier language of course.

The bottom line is this people - football or soccer or whatever the hell we call it is JUST A GAME. Nothing more, nothing less. The fact that Italy beat France means very little in the grand scheme of things. So enjoy the month-long diversion from reality while it’s going on and learn to root for everyone in the hopes that maybe we’ll all actually see a beautiful game.

Because all too frequently, we’ve seen unattractive, cynical games expounded upon by people who seem to have forgotten what this whole grand experiment is supposed to be about - BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER.

For quite a few years now I’ve held the belief that football actually holds the key to uniting the people of our planet. And while this might be true symbolically, it appears that too many of us don’t understand this…and it’s hurting the game.

I don’t really know what the answer is. Maybe there isn’t one.

It’s quite possible that human beings are not evolved enough to accept the relative meaninglessness of this tournament in comparison to issues of much greater importance - like poverty, famine, disease, environmental well-being, human rights, promoting peace, etc. But if each one of us cared about our fellow man and the issues previously listed nearly as much as we care about the relavitely banal game of football, the world would be a much better place.

I applaud FIFA’s efforts to ‘Say No to Racism’. It’s a step in the right direction. But now it’s up to you and me and the rest of us to take that message and build upon it.

Enjoy the beautiful game of football. Be passionate about it, but keep the ugliness out. We must all learn to band together both on the pitch and beyond. There can be no other alternative.

Good luck out there…and do what you can to make a positive impact in our troubled world.

Until next time…

peace,
ac