0021 Football's New Rules

I guess you read the news about the town – soon to be copied – which abolished traffic lights... what happened? Self-preservation, care, and courtesy have won the day.. while the soccer news this weekend was that everybody blames the referee.. who’s after all, just the traffic-lights to this game.. suppose we tried the same daring system on the soccer field.. any player who makes a bad tackle or an inadvertent trip (deliberate ones would disappear as a mark of shame) to apologise politely and offer a free kick to the other side.. the player who kicks the ball into touch immediately hands the ball to the other side or at the very least, runs away – both sides always knowing very well who touched it last.. shirt-pulling and diving would be such matters of shame that the player’s own side would stop playing and remain rooted to the spot until the culprit offered a free kick.. and any really doubtful events would be referred to the television cameras for a quick decision; and all the players might just feel the urge to applaud and clap a tricky moment fairly resolved? and at the end of the match, the players would line up and just like an international does at the beginning, shake hands down the line… while the managers would meet symbolically at centre-pitch, shake hands publicly on a game cleanly fought, and even – full on camera – look each other in the eye.. and we the supporters would feel damn proud that sport was sport once again, that football was and is the life-blood of the nation, and if not more important than life and death at least a happy occasion of skills enjoyed.. and that, win or lose, chivalry and the game’s the thing..