Let referees make mistakes

If you are Irish there is no doubt about the political question of the week. It is should Ireland have a replay with France for a place in next year's world cup? Not only do the Irish have the question of the week, they also have the answer and it is yes. Politicians have become involved even if they are all Irish so I will continue with this blog as the heading is politics for novices, not sporting cheats for novices.

Henri says he didn't cheat, as it was just instinct that made him touch the ball. If that is instinct then he has carefully honed his instincts to look like cheating. He must have trained hard to put the ball in front of his feet with his hand. In my book this is called cheating. However, in other chapters of my book there are all sorts of football cheats. There are those who roll over four times to get their opponent sent off. If you are seriously injured then you don't move. There are the cheats who back into opponents and then fall over. Some cheats pull shirts. I was once asked which upper limb muscles are useful in football. I replied those that are used for pulling shirts. You only have to listen to the comments on Match of the Day to hear many ways in which players may cheat.

So now that we have established that football is full of cheats we can't really blame Henri because the same commentators often tell us that players should go down to get a penalty. They often tell us how the referee was wrong. The crowd are even quicker in telling us how wrong referees can be, and if you don't respect the decisions of referees then you open the flood gates for questioning every decision.

The answer is to respect referees. In rugby the referee is right even when they are wrong. Wouldn't it be nice to go to a football ground and not hear abuse from the crowd. If we want to clean up the game and get rid of cheats we have to start by allowing referees to make mistakes.

Change the world