This World Cup Has Brought Me Back To Football

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.”