The FIFA Rules Are no Longer Enough

And then the world cup ends ... The last game between France and Italy is probably exemplary for the quality of soccer these days.

What should you make of this. The emotion about what happened has not faded yet, but whatever Materazzi said to Zidane, there is no excuse for his behavior. The only relief is that after such an incident you inquiry some more in the background of Materazzi and you understand why he is labeled "the animal" and "delinquent" in his home country (http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/060622/2/ksf4.html).

Work to do for the organizing party FIFA if they want to remain their credibility when uttering "fair-play."

Acting on visible actions alone is not enough. The stress of the game leaves no time for any referee to take the right action. The system of yellow and red cards is no longer enough. In order to increase to quality level of soccer the FIFA needs to introduce something like a point system that it also used for drivers licenses.

When a driver -- this has recently been introduced in Spain (but seems to function in France for example) -- neglect the rules, he will be penalized for each infringement with a certain amount of points. The accumulation of these point will finally make that the driver (read soccer player) will loose his permit to drive (play).
Little incidents like this would cost a player for example 1 point (out of ten):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gyu8W1g2co
And a series of incidents taken together like these: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpG4AHlZrL4) should make sure that the player is out of any future game. A red card wouldn't be of any help here.

We need a memory system to cover this kind of behavior.

If not such a memory system, I would like to know what FIFA will come up with. It is clear that they need to do something. Soccer players -- especially those top players that reach thousands of spectators (kids that stay up to watch a game) over the world -- are to set an example. Not only showing their talent to dominate a technique, but that they dominate their animal instinct. Or they should select a sport like kick boxing or free fight.

© 2006 Hans Bool

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