RUBBISH RULES FOR A GREAT GAME

Morning all, Can you believe some of the refereeing decisions that we see week in and week out, i for one cannot. I was led to believe that football is run on a set of rules, where offside is offside, handball is handball and so on. But those rules have been tampered with, so that a simple rule, has now put two different meanings to them, and that the officials have now got the power to interpret them any way they wish. Take for instance the offside rule, a simple rule, which stated that any player standing in an offside position when the ball is kicked is deemed to be offside and a free kick to the defending team, would be awarded from where the player stood. Now that is so simple that everybody can understand it. But the football federations have seen fit to change that simple rule. Now the offside rule is. You are offside, if when receiving the ball you are in an offside position,but anybody else is not deemed offside unless interfering with play. Now that has caused many controversial arguments, and has put the deciding decision in the hands of the officials. So from changing a simple rule to a complicated rule has thrown everything up in the air. My view on this is, match fixing, yes match fixing, any rule that can be interpreted two ways is open to abuse, and i have absolutely no doubt in my mind, that the rule was changed to fix the result of the game. The handball rule is another controversial subject, when is handball handball, the rule states from the shoulder down is deemed handball, unless its accidental, who determines if it was intentional or not, yes the officials, another way for the officials to fix results, another rule that can be interpreted two ways. how can we have a rule that is not clear cut, if a ball hits the arm from shoulder down it must be classed as handball whether accidental or not, it should never be left up to the officials,if it is the same for all, it must be fair. When looking at the offside rule, we need to be aware that the defending back line is trying to keep the line straight, and playing encroaching players into an offside position, they are doing this deliberately, so you can understand that when encroaching players who are in an offside position are deemed not offside is totally against what defenders are trying to achieve, this rule has to be changed back to the simple explanation, so that it takes it out of the hands of officials. The Professional foul, When a player is through to a scoring position, (which we all know is between the goalkeeper and the striker), and is taken out of the game before he has a chance to shoot, is in my eyes a professional foul, and punishment for that offence is a red card. but the rule interpreted by officials is, the last defender takes a player out of the game where classed by the official as a scoring opportunity, and the defender should take a red card. The trouble with that interpretation is this may happen on the halfway line, this is not a scoring chance so a red card should not be given. this rule needs to be defined so everybody knows at a glance what the ruling should be Today the game of football is orchestrated by the officials, they determine who wins by the decisions they make, the football federations are in charge of the officials they appoint them to whatever games they want. . Officials should be rotated so they are not in charge of more games than any other officials. We have in the Premier league to often, the same officials for the same clashes which i find unacceptable. At the end of the day we only want the best team to come out on top, fairness has to be the main aim with no bias, rules need to be simplified, so even the new supporter can understand the rules of the game. It is in everyone's interest to make the game of football interesting and fair. With technology we can make the game even fairer by eliminating mistakes, the onus is not on officials. As in Tennis Cricket and Rugby where seeing is believing, this makes for better relations between fans and players alike, but above all the right result at the end of the game. Many rules are changed for other reasons, either to give the supporter more excitement with more goals, or as a way of speeding up the game. Some of these changes may have achieved this but at what expense. has the pass back to a goalkeeper actually speeded up the game, maybe for making the keeper kick it straight back out, but when he receives the ball from the opponent, he can run all round his area with the ball and then drop the ball at his feet and dribble it before he kicks it out. put these two together and i don't believe that overall this has speeded up the game much at all. The rules of football was introduced when the game became competitive, and those rules survived for many years without the interference from anybody, since the changes we have had controversy from every corner and also many strange decisions, you may think the game has changed so the rules have to be updated but i believe if we make changes they should be for the better of the game, but with the emphasis on fair play and not for orchestrated games dictated by the governing bodies I personally' like the old ways of play, but what's your views, and can we improve a very old game. Written by Steve Palmer an ex player that played the old way.