The Football World Cup

Picture caption:Why Brazil beat Turkey

One of the most memorable occasions in my life was when England won the World Cup in 1966. (however, another was when they lost it in 1970, but I have had therapy for that, and I'm almost over it!) The football World Cup kicks off in Germany on June 10th, and although I look forward to watching a bit of the game that played such a large part of my earlier days. At the same time I have become extremely frustrated at some of the more annoying aspects of the game that have got gradually worse and worse over the years.

My biggest disappointment and frustration is the diving and play-acting drama, or pretending to get or be fouled in order to get a free Kick, and the most annoying is the appealing to the ref for a decision, when they know damn well the decision should go the other way. All this crap slows the game down so much and makes it almost pathetic, and a parody of itself, when there is so much genuine skill and excitement just waiting to be seen I would really really like to see a time-out brought in to the game. For example. The petty fouling. FIRST OFFENCE a yellow card, or warning. SECOND OFFENCE a GREEN CARD, which would mean going to the sin-bin for 10 minutes. This means that team is down to 10 men for 10 minutes. This means 3 things. ONE: The other team has an extra player, so there is a good chance they can score (which is what the game is all about right!) TWO: The team with only 10 men cannot afford to make any petty fouls, as they could lose another man, and that would REALLY give the other team a chance to score. SO What it does is STOPS the amount of petty fouls, AND diving and play-acting (all green card offences), and ALSO opens the game up to MORE GOALS, which ALSO means LESS draws of 0-0 etc. THREE: a large reduction in the amount of professional fouls and niggly, stupid on-going, petty stuff that really slows down and detracts from this amazingly skillful, exciting game. THIRD OFFENCE: Red Card - permanent sending off. There is nothing more pathetic than seeing somebody writhing on the ground in agony, clutching their ankle after being pushed over, or on some occasions, not even touched.