10 men an advantage

By KJ
May 26 2003

10 Men a disadvantage ? Do me a favour.
Years ago when I was a lad, when we used a pigs bladder as a ball, there weren’t many sendings off. Nowadays its nearly every game you see and with the new rule coming in for the World Cup about diving, its getting me down. Every time the opposition get someone sent off, as a fan, and probably as a player you instantly think, “we’ve got em now” and victory is assured. How wrong we are, for unless your already 3-0 in the lead, or 5 minutes have gone it doesn’t mean a thing. Even if 5 minutes have gone the only thing it means is that you’ve got a good chance of seeing a dour game.
Since the introduction of tighter rules on foul play over the last 10-15 years sendings off have become more common and consequently teams have had to learn to play with 10 men. So who are the losers? The teams? Well lately not always, the main loser once again is the spectator. You’ve just forked out your hard earned cash, which can be up to £50 in some games and the game can be ruined. The anger boils amongst fans and in some cases can fuel crowd trouble. Maybe this is part of the latest worrying trend with missiles thrown on the pitch and back again in some cases. Do we blame the referees? Well it’s the easy thing to do isn’t it and to be fair some deserve it. But there will always be human error and years ago you had to practically be fighting to get sent off. So may I humbly suggest a few rule changes to help everyone involved in the game.
Bookings
I would now introduce a three card system to the game. Maybe a green card to start with, then follow on with the traditional yellow and red. If the first offence was bad then the ref could still give a yellow straight away or a red of course. Video evidence should also be used without holding up play. A player could always return if he was found to be innocent, teams can play easily with 10 men it wouldn’t affect them and it would humanise referees.
The Professional Foul.
The forwards clean through on goal, his team is losing 1-0 with 20 minutes to go and he is brought down outside the area. What happens ? the defender is sent off, another defender is brought on in place of striker and you get a free kick 40yards out. Its okay if you’ve got Beckham but even he misses, and for the rest of the game you will play a 10 man defence. It looks a bit like the game “Wembley” played on schoolfields. I would give a penalty, then it is an advantage. If it was in the area I would either introduce another penalty spot closer in or give an “open goal penalty”.
Foul Play
Obviously this I suppose must be governed by the cards system and if someone does use repeated foul play then he must go. With the way the game is going with increased pressure and coupled with more tactical awareness and fitness of players one scenario worries me. What’s to stop a team after taking the lead deliberately taking out a key member of the opposition, forsaking a player in the process and holding out with 10 men? Maybe for a bad tackle a penalty could be issued as well as the cards.
Diving
There is no answer to this without the video and even then it is difficult. how can you tell if they are diving? Okay some are obvious but I suppose the key is not to appeal yourself then you look more innocent.
Ah well at least the game still has plenty of talking points and I’m not for wholesale change but I believe these would help. I will share more of this nonsense with you in future articles.