I HAVE long sympathised with the proposition that the world would be a much-happier place if a minimum of half of each of the members of any graduating class at any law school was immediately taken out and shot - in short, we have -many lawyers and too-many laws.
In the "old" days when Members of Parliament were rawn from a proper cross section of society - where left-wing former coal miners sat beside former soldiers or journalists, the House of Commons had status. Today, with the major parties increasingly drawing their representatives in the House from the ranks of former student rebels who have gone on to become "career politicians" or from lawyers who cannot cut it in the cut-throat world of the English bar, the House is a by-word for incompetence and corruption.
Westminster is apparently awash with people with LLB after their names, who keep framing and passing bad law - which keeps their erstwhile colleagues with the legal profession in work because of the fall-out from the inadequately-framed laws passed.
What's this got to do with fitba? You ask.
Well, much of the fall-out from Rangersgate has burst around what are now seen as inadequately-framed rules within Scottish football. "Old" Rangers, apparently, got away with not filing accounts on time, being less than scrupulously honest in terms of filing contracts - as well as killing the first-born of Roman Catholic football families, setting fire to various grandstands, raping and pillaging, starting World Wars I and II, the Famine in the Horn of Africa and imprisoning Nelson Mandela.
The SFA was implicit in all these crimes and is not fit for purpose.
Now, when it comes to criticising the SFA and pointing out that body's imperfections, count me in - it comes with the territory. However, for all their many imperfections and failures, we cannot be too-harsh on the SFA and its army of "blazers".
Unlike the pigs with their snouts in the Westminster trough, the guys who make the decisions inside Hampden do so in their free time from their more-important duties as business-men, accountants, yes lawyers even, school teachers and so-forth. There is a secretariat, headed by Stewart Regan which keeps the wheels turning. Few of these employees have professional qualifications, and it could be argued that those who have might well be better-paid within the mainstream of their profession. But, they are in football - because they love the game and want to do something for it.
Football, in spite of the words of my kinsman Bill Shankly, is just a game, a pastime, a means of diversion from the travails of real life. As such, in the grand scheme of things, whether or not England's third "goal" in the 1966 World Cup Final actually crossed the line matters not a jot. Yet still, we get het-up about it.
The football associations such as the SFA are mere instruments for organising professionally what is still, at heart, a pleasant way of passing 90 minutes. The SFA and the other similar associations around the world are basically big clubs, gatherings together of like-minded people.
Football doesn't need many rules (or in the case of the code of conduct for playing actual matches: "laws"). It is one of the simplest of all games to play - a mere 19 laws, most of which refer to the playing field and equipment.
It should be easy to organise and run - provided we keep the lawyers away. Yes, the SFA have got in the past, and will again no doubt in the future, get some rules wrong - but, in the past the occasional mistakes in rule-making and application which were made were sorted-out in-house and life went on.
Today, with social media and the internet, trolls with too-much time on their hands are increasingly highlighting minutaie and finding nits to pick -this is not good for the game.
Can we please get back to concentrating on the basics, which are: the game is played between two teams of 11 men, of whom one on each side is the goalkeeper and is allowed to use his hands within his penalty area. The object of the game is to score more goals than the opposition, within the 90 minutes of playing time - which is divided into two, 45-minute halves - by propelling the ball past the opposition goalkeeper and into the net, which is stretched behind an 8 foot by 24 foot, three-sided wooden frame, stuck into the ground.
The referee is the sole judge of fact, accept his decisions and get on with it.
Maybe if we went back to that, and remember, when organised football began, there was no referee, the two captains settled disputes between them, the game would be a better one.
And, for a start, let's keep the lawyers, certified and barrack-room, out of the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment