Football
"Football is not a matter of life and death, it's more important than that" — Bill Shankly
Football (or soccer) is a sport where the aim is to put a ball in the goal without using your hands. Please do not confuse it with American football 'cause that ain't played with the feet, it's played with the hands. I haven't figured out why Americans call that football.
| My right knee: so far it has failed to end my football career, but it keeps trying. |  |
Essay on Football Rules
Football has the most outdated, ineffective, and inept rules among professional sports. Firstly, football rules do not protect players well enough. Creative, technical players can be fouled constantly with little or no prejudice for defenders. Free kicks and yellow cards, the most usual punishment, are little deterrent. In fact, most times defenders get away with it. On the other hand, red cards and penalties are extreme punishments. A penalty shot has over 50% chances of being converted in goal while a red card, depending on the time left to play, can put a team in a huge disadvantage. Therefore, the rules are designed to punish harshly or almost not punish at all.
This would not be such a big problem if rules were strongly enforced. Unfortunately, that does not happen and football refereeing errors abound. The limited number of referees and the lack of professionalism by many referees implies that errors are common in football. Unfortunately, referee errors in football can be extremely costly because games are often decided by a single goal. In basketball, for instance, an error by a referee may cost one or two points. In football, an error may cost a goal or make a team play outnumbered for half a game.
Other professional sports such as basketball, rugby, futsal, and ice hockey have already evolved to deal with these situations. On one hand, some sports already feature video referees and benefit from new technologies. Moreover, most of these sports have balanced punishments such as blue cards, free throws, etc. Certainly, all of these sports lack the nearly "orgasmic" nature of football, which is part of football's passion. Nevertheless, the laws of football must evolve in the same way the rules in other sports have evolved in recent years.
Here are a few ideas for rules I would like to see changed or adopted in football. This is not an exhaustive list.
- Allow for players sent off to be substituted.
- Severely punish players whose intentional actions endanger the physical integrity of the opponents. By "severely" I mean heavy fines, lengthy suspensions, and even bans from the game.
- Introduce a video referee, not to be used for every throw-in but for evaluating dubious decisions that have the potential to alter the course of the game.
- Award teams whose player is through on goal with a penalty kick even if the foul is committed outside the box.
Federação Portuguesa de Futebol
Federation Internationale de Football Association
Massachusetts State Soccer League
NBA.COM; I like basketball and my favorite team in the NBA is the Utah Jazz.
SL Benfica; official site.