The beautiful game

I told Dave that I wasn’t going to stay up to watch the cup final because I didn’t have anything invested in it. I didn’t really care who won. Of course I was supporting France, of course, how could I not, but that was more out of spite and a desire to see Zidane go out in style than anything else. Well, he certainly went out in style, by head-butting Materazzi in overtime, getting a red-card, and watching France lose on penalties from the changing rooms. The Azzuris have it for the fourth time and I wished I’d stayed up.

But for now, rather than that final game, let’s talk about supporting the team that beats you. A week or so ago, Kana was taken aback when Nick and I exploded in disbelief after she suggested that the normal thing for Australia to do would be to get behind Italy and hope they made the final. I think my reasoning was that, yes, while it’s generally great if the team that beats you goes on to win and you know you’ve been beaten by the best, all that hinges on fair play: if there’s a perceived sense of injustice (regardless of whether it’s justified or not) it’s very hard to get behind that team and rally them on. So I couldn’t support Italy. Not by a long a shot.

A very similar thing happened in England. After being knocked out by the Portuguese, a lot of people are shaking their heads at some of the bullshit they tried to pull against the French. Luckily, in that game, the refereeing was good, France prevailed, and Scolari was left to fume on the sidelines.

When the English are supporting France to win a World Cup, you know it’s time to do something about the diving and refereeing problems that are plaguing the world game. It’s time to modernise the sport. Time to institute limited access replays for contentious decisions, time to think about a post-game tribunal with real consequences and time to put another ref on the field for A-level games. If umpires in cricket can call on the 3rd umpire for a run-out decision, so too should a ref in soccer be able to confirm offside. It’s time to shift the focus away on what the players shouldn’t be doing, and back to what they can.

It’s time to make football about football again.

Posted in Locomotion on Monday July 10, 2006.