by Innovation is key to business success, and football is no different. New ideas are meant to bring things forward, but the latest proposal to introduce blue cards and bins for dissent and tactical dirt is a step backwards for the game.
We need to eradicate dissent but this is not the way to compromise the quality of the shows. Referees should not be abused and players must learn to control themselves in a pressured environment where one decision can change the course of a game or a season. But if they exceed the mark, officials have the power to punish them with a yellow or red card. These methods can be used more often to assist referees. It doesn’t seem worth introducing another option because it’s too complicated.
Related: Goalkeepers would not be exempt from blue cards under new sin bin protocols
It is often said that wasting “ruins the game” because it will make one team desperately want to waste time. Next to a player in the bin could sit in a low block, which makes the period rather tedious for the audience. No one wants to pay good money to watch a game – in person or on TV – and end up seeing a team using every trick in the book to waste time allowing their teammate to come back without a goal. to surrender.
The irony is that when we want to stop wasting time, this would be pushed to the limit with the blue card. Also, tactically it would make the game boring. If the referees used yellow and red cards as a standard course on dissent and cynical tactical fouls it would force players to learn.
Things have improved for dissent at the highest level; gone are the days of having 10 players around the referee. One thing that VAR has helped is that trying to influence the referee is almost redundant as teams know that key decisions are reviewed away from the pitch.
Arsenal’s Women’s Super League clash with Manchester United this weekend is poised to break the league’s attendance record after the club announced on Thursday that the clash at the Emirates is an attraction.
More than 60,000 tickets and all hospitality packages have been sold for Saturday’s game, and Arsenal should break their own record of 59,042, which they set in December against Chelsea.
“We are grateful for the incredible support we have had all season,” Arsenal chief executive Vinai Venkatesham said. “The tireless commitment and following of our supporters, together with the performance of our team and the hard work of everyone behind the scenes at our club, has made this moment possible.”
This is the second time the stadium has sold out for a women’s match, following last season’s second semi-final of the Women’s Champions League against VfL Wolfsburg, when 60,063 people attended the match.
When Arsenal won the Champions League in 2007, then known as the UEFA Women’s Cup, a crowd of 3,467 turned up for the second leg of the final at Meadow Park.
The highest attendance for a women’s club game in England was set at last year’s FA Cup final, where 77,390 watched Chelsea v Manchester United at Wembley Stadium. Reuters
I appreciate the difficulties referees face, especially at community level. Previously I coached a boys under 11 team as a volunteer and once when the referee was not present I had to perform or we wouldn’t be able to play. I was a player at the time, I would coach on a Saturday morning and play on a Sunday but I didn’t expect the vitriol I faced when making decisions in a children’s game. My aim was to make the right decisions, keep the players safe and create a pleasant environment. But on the sidelines some of the parents were restless, yelling at me, and I quickly learned the challenges of being a referee at any level. It changed my attitude on the pitch and where before I could have criticized a decision, I became more understanding, helped by the culture that our manager had set in not wanting us to be a team that would always crying the referee.
Such an experience opened my eyes and it would be beneficial for players to learn about refereeing from a different perspective. Perhaps anyone guilty of refereeing barracks could be sent on a course and made to spend time officiating a community game – which would help them learn the intricacies of refereeing. Education is just as important as hindrance.
Bins were used in the Sunday series and are a great incentive for players to be more courteous to the referee as no game is without officials. However, it is necessary to distinguish between popular and elite football on certain aspects. At the youth level the focus is mainly on the education of the players to allow them to learn the rights and wrongs of football, whether that is how to cross a ball or respect an official, so I can reap the benefits of see use.
The most significant change in elite football in recent years has been the introduction of VAR and despite that becoming part of the norm at the top of the men’s game, it is full of issues that have yet to be resolved. Blue cards and bins could probably be seamlessly integrated with the people coming up with the ideas.
The blue card is also to be tried in women’s football. I understand and agree that you want the rules to be the same, because football is football. However, the women’s game doesn’t even have goal-line technology let alone VAR as the norm. I’m sure people will say that the cost of implementing a new card is a factor compared to goal line technology but goal line technology in the women’s game is much more important in the near future. Cost should not be an excuse – this is the highest level of women’s football and the stakes are too high not to have it.
As Tottenham head coach Ange Postcoglou said the bins are “going to ruin” football. The authorities are coming up with new ideas for the right reasons but the means will be harmful. Football is still a simple game and the answers are often much simpler, too.
