[jambutty]

But junetta penalties are already taken in front of a crowd at the end of a match and I don’t recall any major crowd problems. In fact before a match actually starts most crowds are docile with anticipation of what is to come.

Yes I am sure that it would encourage more cheating and diving etc from the team that lost the penalty shoot out in an attempt to win so that the penalties don’t have an effect on the result but that is a different issue, which needs to be addressed.

Maybe a ‘Sin Bin’ like is used in Rugby and Ice Hockey for fouls that warrant a yellow card would make players think twice before tugging at someone’s shirt or diving to gain a free kick or penalty. The fourth official would control the ‘Sin Bin’. Until the notion sank in there would probably be some farcical matches with 7 playing 9 for a while. But once a team starts to lose players for 10 minutes or so and probably going behind because of it coaches and captains would re-think the team’s strategy.

However a yellow card can only be issued if the referee or assistant sees an incident so maybe we should have two more assistants so that all angles are covered. This would make flagging for off side a bit of a nightmare as raising the flag is based on an assistant’s judgement and both assistants might view a possible off side differently. Of course there would be a need for two more match officials and this may not be practical for the lower leagues and non-league football but what are problems for if not to be solved. Start with International matches and the Premier league of each country and take it from there.

I’ve been a football fan for more than 60 years and seen some of the best play, like Stanley Matthews, Raich Carter, Stan Mortensen, Tommy Taylor, Duncan Edwards, Tom Finney, Bert Trautmann to mention just a few and Cyril Briggs. Who? Cyril Briggs Accrington Stanley’s centre half back in the late forties and early fifties but there were no indiscriminate fouling then. There were some tough and hard tackling but none of the modern shirt pulling and badgering the ref waving imaginary cards. When a player went down he did so because he had been knocked over sometimes with a fair shoulder charge. Players accepted the referee’s decision without question. Players didn’t try to pinch 10 yards when taking a throw in or free kick and didn’t argue with the referee about going back 10 yards. They just got on with it.

Whatever happens FIFA and the various football authorities need to bite the bullet and take real action against the cheats before the wonderful game becomes a farce.