This is a long overdue up-date protest on what can make a legitimately claim:
"That Soccer-Football be put at the top the list of the"World's Worst Management."
risking further damage to the reputation of the Worlds best referees and of course to the sport as a whole.
In current times of financial and economic crises... upon crises, that is saying a lot!
I suppose we are awaiting more incidents during the World Cup in RSA, in-spite of having the best refereeing available?
I am writing this protest because violence in and around football grounds continues to increase, at least here in France. Governing bodies, National Federations, European Federations and World Cup Governing Bodies refuse to see the obvious (Video it)- that through video assisted refereeing a better refereeing system can improve the game and help take the sting out of Soccer-Football, once a sporting activity.
As in any field of human endeavour, a sense of justice and correct management is a basic tenet. (May our politicians and top management take heed for this applies universally, cf. reference to crises upon crises above also contenders for this Top Award)
Greatly improved refereeing and refereeing management is now absolutely possible in soccer-football, thanks to video techniques which are highly performant and of proven efficiency in many sports: tennis, american football and last but not least, RUGBY- FOOTBALL, indeed, a most difficult sport to referee. In Rugby no major decision can be faulted thanks to the referee's use of slow-motion video, where doubt exists, before awarding tries and drops goals.
Like the rugby referee, every football fan (spectator) in front of his TV set, TV journalists at the ground and eventually all the supporters seeing large screen video replay in slow motion at the Stadium can see details of any rule breaking, doubtful views of action in the critical areas around the goal;
I personally suggest that this area be chosen as the penalty area, the 18 yards (16.45m)x 44 yards (40m)wide. such is the extent of foul play with serious consequences for all on the pitch, players, teams, the mid-field referee , better known as the man in the middle, incidentally the lowest plaid job on the field!
Causes of useless misunderstanding continue. In the worst cases the game can be ruined by bad refereeing.
Ramifications clearly affect the fans and their behaviour even if refereeing is not the whole story but where the eventuality of bad refereeing, in at least in the most critical area, the penalty box, can be eliminated immediately.
Mid-field play can be monitored and relayed by 4th or even 5th referees (clean job creation) If serious sanctions taken on the spot. Warnings should be accompanied by time-out as in Rugby. (further details are subject to debate) .
Even the ordinary football fan is highly opinionated, to say the least, but disagreement does not necessarily and usually does not lead to physical violence and after match destruction. But the rather large fringe of hooligan-elements mostly attracted to the big clubs is another story or more precisely the usual old story of group behaviour well documented in the world of sport.
However, in my long experience as a sports fan, I believe the sports press guilty of under playing the extent of hooliganism particularly soccer-football type. In this there is most probably a dearth of investigative crime-sports press. (But in the Social and Economic Sciences these are most certainly well and impartially documented, but do they have the bite of the investigative press?)
MY PLEA
Give the game every means for good clean refereeing as all sports lovers wish. And cut the grass (and maybe more) from under the feet of the hooligans.
The Cost of Security: could it be less than the cost of a good video system?
Obviously, if the much indebted public foots the bill, by all reports, cf. allusion to crises upon crises above. NB. for budget comparison Soccer & Rugby, cf.below
A rapid google search gives a few figures for reinforced policing of games (250 000 Euros, I gather three time that of the average match- (80 000Euros) Then against the salary of a few stars this may appear to be chicken-feed? So why do Club managers refused both to insist in proper video-refereeing and also refuse to pay the global cost of football, "organised sport or a blood sport?"-For example, PDG of Olympique de Marseille-OM, refuses to foot the security bill Ref 1 below. cf. Provisional Budget for League1 clubs in France Ref.2, Le Monde Satuarday 29 May 2010. All clubs Ref3 Wikipedia. For a Big Club such as OM the budget is 105 MEuros; Budget/security 105MEuros/250KEuros=>420 time the Security estimate or 250KEuros/105MEuros=>0.24% of Top Club Provisional Budget)
Who is in charge here? Who is responsible for the organisation? Who stands to make money from this? Who pays? Is it TV coverage or ticket holder, and to what extent? No fan-crowd, no hooliganism! These question and more must be answered and the general public money saved.
By comparaison, budgets for video refereed Rugby are, by and large very much smaller except Toulouse and Stade Français,Paris. The spread vares from 28,10MEuros max (Toulouse) to 8.7MEuros mini (Albi) Ref 2.
Removing these two
Rugby Av Budget = 14.4MEuros
Similarily, Av Budget French Soccer L1 = 48,2MEuros (3 times higher )
(Ref 2, 3 & 4)
VIDEO PLUS - SCIENCE?
It is conceivable to introduce finite element analysis to measure and display physical forces at play during the course of the game. This will heighten knowledge and could possibly reinforce the laws of the game which are designed to protect the players and ensure that soccer-football remains a sport if that is the aim? or is it just one more cash generating machine for putting money in the pockets of the few (more contenders for the World's worst management cf. Nobel Prize winner 2007, J.E. Stieglitz latest book:
Freefall : America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy,
(French title: "Le Triomphe de la Cupidité."
VIDEO ASSISTED REFEREEING, A MUST FOR SOCCER-FOOTBALL. IT WILL PROTECT THE REAL PLAYERS,THE SKILLFUL ONES. THUS IT PROTECTS THE GAME ITS SELF AND MAY REQUALIFY THE GAME AS A TRUE SPORT MANAGEDE AND PLAYED BY SPORTSMEN .
Some of you may remember my earlier poem written before video became a regular refereeing support tool in so many important sports (ie more important than football, guilty of outlawing itself from the "WORLD OF SPORT". Market gits Spice.
(To Mr. D. Footham and friends).
(revised version of foot and mouth disease).
Ye git’s! Ye bunch o’git’s,
ye mak’ me mad, blin’ daft.
Market gits Spice. (gits-gets also in slang a”git” is an idiot )
David Bootham, or is it back’m?
No enough cash, I’d brand ‘im!
Tae squander on spice and the likes, bluster!(buster?)
The kind that wid gae the strangest an ulcer. (wid-would)
I’m doubled up in shear pain.
‘Must be market’s shear strain.
The gits, wid they feel ony shame? (gits-idiots)
We’ve heard how much he’s worth but to whae?
But does ay ken hoo much ‘e-costs an’ to wham?
REFRAIN: Ye git’s! …
The pair wean’s the pair wee weans.
Yur daddy ponded yur wee toy train
Yur fired! Yur a’ damned fired by goad!
Naebuddy wi’ sense wid gae yeese a joab.
Is it Boab or Alex that sets the wage?
The slate’s a nae Start, richt Salty gage
Doon richt stupidity has nae boun’ or age
Busby’ s babbes must turn in their graves
A-spire,
Their weans waited near forty years save
REFRAIN: Ye git’s!
Fig’s guid, Zizou, and king ‘Enry too
Emperor Eric a’ways did his team true
Ryan presses the wick, victory he riggs Homage also to Ryan Air that flies Beauvais Fr to Prestwick
Glides like the white ghost*, a fine Gigg. *The late John White of Spur’s & Scotland .
But a’ this dope, incense an’ spice? .
It’s lawfu’ but no’ a’ quite nice.
I’ve got it, thanks tae a day’s thoucht (Thought for the day, BBC4)
That’s richt, a chap broadcast oucht
“In auld Britannia a man is mare concerned
Wi the inequalities in horsies, race banned
REFRAIN: (Ye git’s!…
Market gits Spice)
Than awe the inequalities in blessed mankind”
A man’s a man fur a’ that an’ a’ that”
So whit’s the trouble, lay me alain ye top hat
Tae win the price o’ a packet a coffin nails
Or a pint o’ bitter tae pit wind in ma sails
Fur company, while a canter hame. ( a=I Canter, today= drive)
Yur no gonie put on me ony blame?
Fur ‘a that an’ a’ that it’s coming yet
That man to man the warld o’er
Shall brothers be for a’ that
So listen tae yur brither noo
REFRAIN: Ye git’s!…
Market gits Spice
J A No-Holds-Bard
(29/03/2001).
REFERENCES
1. Jean-claude Dassier, PDG, Olympique de Marseille (refuses to pay) refuse de payer - Football-sécurité(security) - France 3 ...
Football-sécurité. 26/11/2009 | 15:32 par Provence Alpes ... pour mettre au point des modalités de tarification mieux adaptés à la réalité des coûts". ... mediterranee.france3.fr/.../Jean-claude-Dassier-refuse-de-payer---59194321.html
2. Le Monde 29th May 2010 in French.
3.
French League 1 Club budgets-Wikipedia (in French)
4.
French Rugby Club Budgets, Wikipedia (in French)
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