IAN LADYMAN
DISSENT POISONS FOOT BALL AND WE MUST TACKLE IT
AT The end of the Cricket World Cup there was one image I struggled to get out of my mind and it was of the england batsman Jason Roy refusing to leave the field after being incorrectly given out against Australia.
On social media, people were quick to tell me I was a killjoy who didn’t understand sport or who couldn’t possibly have played it to any decent level. They were right about the second bit but not about the first.
I do understand sport. I understand its joys and its all-consuming nature. I understand how, at times, it can feel as though it really is all that matters in life.
And because of this I understand its frustrations and its capacity to feel very unfair.
But I also understand that this is part of it and by extension the way you deal with injustice is part of it, too. This is where Roy failed. By saying — quite clearly — to the umpires that his dismissal was ‘ f***** g embarrassing’, he crossed a very clear line of what is acceptable on a cricket field and I was surprised by how little comment his actions prompted in the media and indeed that he was subsequently allowed to play in the final.
And then I started to think about football. I started to think about how abuse of officials goes on all the time, how it has been normalised and accepted over the years simply because nobody seems to tackle it.
At least Roy’s behaviour at edgbaston was unusual. On a football field it would not have been and as we head into another season, it is appropriate to ask just why that is.
A look at the laws of the game is revealing. Law 12 covers ‘Fouls and Misconduct’ and states clearly that an indirect free-kick should be awarded if a player is ‘guilty of dissent, using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures or other verbal offences’.
So there we have it. It could not be more plain. Unlike a new directive regarding yellow cards for coaches, this is not one of the 12 laws introduced this season. No, this one has been around for a while and has been ignored.
To that end, we are all guilty. Players for doing it, referees for not punishing it and the media for not making a fuss about it. Some feel it’s not important. They say an emotional outburst shows ‘passion’ and ‘commitment’. But it doesn’t. It shows a lack of self-control, an inability to focus on what really matters — the game — and a dreadful lack of respect for the laws and those brave or stupid enough to try to implement them.
Dissent poisons football at the top and is in danger of killing it at the bottom. Find a park game, if you can. Watch how the referee is treated. It is no wonder that the numbers of officials are falling. All of this can change but that must begin at the top. Referees must have courage to use their powers and the media must stand in line with them when they do. Will it happen? It’s unlikely. Modern football is obsessed with changing things around the edges of the game but habitually terrified of tackling things that matter. Football also tends to think it occupies some kind of sacred ground that makes it different from other sports. It doesn’t and it isn’t. All of us must look in the mirror from time to time, all of us are responsible for what we see staring back.