I ADMIT, I have been silent for almost a month, the reason is simple – I think I got a wee bit fed-up wi' fitba; well, maybe not fitba, perhaps the stagnant hole into which the game in Scotland has got itself, at least at the top level.
The VAR team at work during the World Cup
But,
the World Cup has got the old brain cells tingling again; to quote Ko
Ko from 'The Mikado': “My brain it teems with endless schemes.”
Some of the innovations of this World Cup have certainly provided
food for thought.
Principal
among these has been VAR
or to give it its Sunday name: 'Video
Assistant Referee', which
is being tried for the first time in this World Cup. Of course, as we
already know, VAR is not perfect – it cannot be, because there is
still, rightly in my view, a human element to its use, and people
make mistakes.
However,
in general, thus far, VAR has been a success – whether that will
still be the considered opinion once we get into the knock-out phase,
and things get serious, remains to be seen.
One
thing where it has singularly failed to convince is among all the
jostling, pushing and holding at set pieces, particularly corner
kicks. In the England v Tunisia game, Harry Kane was twice wrestled
to the ground, without getting a penalty for his troubles. I can
accept, he was maybe having his twopenceworth, to the Tunisian
defender's sixpenceworth at the first incident, but, in the second –
in Rugby Union, the Tunisian defender's challenge was a penalty and a
yellow card every day of the week, and twice on Sunday – yet
nothing was given.
No penalty - my arse!
I
know, the two “dummies” - the almost-useless additional goal line
officials we see in European games are not in evidence at the World
Cup, but, I have felt since they were introduced, they ought at least
earn their match fees by getting involved at corners, and watching
the all-in wrestling, and ruling on penalties or free kicks.
In
American Football, there are additional referees, looking out for
holding offences, who when they see one, drop a flag to indicate they
have seen it. That decision is then reviewed and acted on. What I
have seen in American Football is (and here I use the team names for
clarity, not to suggest any particular team is more-guilty than any
other): say Green Bay has possession, on the “snap” to the
Quarterback, a bit of pushing ensues between the Green Bay offence
and the Cowboys defence and the officials spot it – down goes a
flag, play is stopped and the offence reviewed.
Now,
it might be there are five pairs of players grappling illegally, the
decision might be, two of the “bouts” were started by Green Bay
players, two by Cowboys – so, they cancel-out each other, but, the
fifth struggle was initiated by a Cowboys' defender, so, Green Bay
get the foul awarded to them.
I
reckon, if footballers thought the same system might apply to them
and penalties followed, we would see a lot fewer wrestling matches.
With
VAR, unlike in Rugby Union, when a decision goes to, or is subject to
a review by the intervention of the TMO (Television Match Official),
we do not hear the conversation between the match referee and the guy
in the TV booth – it might be illuminating if we did. Generally,
however, I thin VAR is working well.
Another
innovation I would like to see football bring in from Rugby Union, is
the Citing Officer, the guy who can decide, if a referee misses
something, or if he feels a player got off lightly, harden-up any
punishment – upgrading a yellow to a red card for instance. I
think, if they knew they weren't automatically in the clear at the
final whistle for offences they got away with, players would soon
moderate their behaviour.
I
have been saying for a while, Association Football, being the most
free-form of all the different forms of “Football” really should
have a zero tolerance attitude to foul play, but, it is perhaps the
most-lenient in how it treats miscreants.
THERE
IS another
hardy annual about the World Cup Finals, or the European Championship
Finals for that matter. This is the manner in which BBC and ITV have
become cheer-leaders for England.
Nothing
against this, if they want to forget journalistic neutrality and get
right behind their team, fair enough. But, I do not see why the Scots
should have to suffer such insufferable bias. If Danny Murphy, or
Glenn Hoddle wants to go on about “we” or “us” to an English
audience, no complaints – we get it in coverage of Scotland games
from our own talking heads. However, it is long past time the English
media realised, “England” is not “Great Britain” or “The
United Kingdom”.
Bill McLaren - could give today's commentators lessons in beng neutral
For
instance, Bill McLaren showed absolutely no bias as he commentated on
his Son-in-Law, Alan Lawson, scoring two tries against England at
Murrayfield in 1976. He was equally even-handed as he described Tony
Stanger, a boy he taught to play rugby as an eight-year-old in
Hawick. Indeed, one of my all-time favourite sports writers, the late
Frank Keating, paid tribute to “The Voice's” ability to treat
Scotland the same as any other nation in commentary, in poetic form.
We
could do with more Bill McLarens and fewer Clive Tyldesleys, we might
enjoy the games more. And,while I am offering a critique of the
personalities involved in the World Cup coverage – can I just say,
he might have been a terrible manager of Rangers, but, as an analyst
and talking head in Moscow, Ally McCoist is playing a blinder. His
partnership with Jon Champion is every bit as good as his on-field
pairings with Mo Johnston and Mark Hateley.
Ally
wasn't on-duty for the Germany v Sweden game, more's the pity. I
feared for the sanity of the ITV team when it looked as if Germany
might lose and go out at the group stage, but, that fantastic goal
from Toni Kroos didn't half put their gas oot o' peep.
It
also produced the best World Cup crack of this tournament: “The
last time the Germans failed to get through the group stage was in
1938 – they didn't take that very well.”
