First of all, I’m sure anyone and everyone reading this would like to join me in congratulating Leicester City on what is probably the biggest team sporting success in history.
That is no understatement. What they have done surpasses Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest in my opinion. Football now is a different animal to what it was back then. There was no set top four. Yes, there were bigger and smaller sized teams, but clubs couldn’t grow to the massive levels seen by the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea, with income being generated worldwide.
Income came primarily through gate receipts meaning a much more level playing field, now that source of income is insignificant in comparison to television money and sponsorship deals, clubs like Leicester City should not be winning the league, and certainly not with two games to spare.
I had to laugh a few weeks ago, reading back the piece I did before the season began, predicting where each team would finish. I thought Leicester City would go down and Ranieri would probably be sacked along the way. Luckily so did everybody else!
Leicester’s title success was confirmed on Monday night when Tottenham failed to gain all three points away at Stamford Bridge. With the eyes of the world watching, both Chelsea and Spurs embarrassed themselves.
There is a lot at stake, even simply money wise, but not so much that you allow yourself to behave like members of both sets of teams. That for me, was proof that the title this season really had gone to the team most deserving of it.
We enjoy football for many reasons, but we cannot be accepting of or advocating violence and pure confrontation. A competitive edge, yes. A battle to win, not backing out of tackles, physical strength, but not what we witnessed at the home of the Blues on Monday.
The state of the game at grass roots level is already struggling to convince people to give up their time to referee matches, without the top level of football giving a message to youngsters that it is considered normal to behave in such a way. If it were up to me there would be more than a financial penalty for both sides.
It is about time that the governing bodies started making the game much easier for officials. With the assistance of a video referee and new powers regarding the behavior of players, the game would be much more focused on football as opposed to the pathetic sideshows that often come with it. Players like Diego Costa would be forced to clean up their act, or else they would spend more time in the stands than on the field.
I would propose that any confrontation of a refereeing decision would be a bookable offence and encroaching inside a referees personal space or touching and grabbing them, as we are increasingly seeing, would be punishable with a red card. Now I hate to compare our great game with that of our egg chasing favouring cousins, but one thing they do have right is their behavior towards officials. There is respect, and respect should be the key word for anyone wishing to play the game. Respect for opponents, respect for fans, respect for management and respect for the referee. Let’s play football, not spend half our time discussing pathetic exchanges of words and throwing arms around.
Coming back to Leicester City, now that is how you should behave as a club. Ranieri does not whinge and moan at the press every week, captain Wes Morgan leads like a complete professional and Jamie Vardy has shown that true English fighting spirit is just as valuable as having a natural gift to be able to play.
I am certainly not suggesting we should all be friends, start applauding the opposition and blow kisses at the opposing fans, but there is a way to do it. You can go in hard to win the ball, you can bark instructions at your team mates, and you can fight your opponent for every yard of ground at set pieces, but we all know where the line is. It is being crossed to the point where it is becoming as blurry as my eyesight.
For the good of the game, bring back some discipline. For the good of the country even, but that is a debate for another time!
Have a great weekend Palace fans, I know I will as I am joining the Baggies fans on a trip to the seaside for Bournemouth away and another pathetic showing of Pulis-ball!
As this is my first piece since the Eagles reached the FA Cup Final, congratulations and I wish you good luck against Manchester United.
1 comment
Didn’t they try this before by importing Rugby’s 10 metre penalty for dissent and it failed / was removed partly due to ‘cultural differences’ internationally – i.e. cheating (for tat is what it is) is not perceived as an issue in more places than not.
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