- We don’t need Fifa = and the sooner they are thrown out, the better
- These days in football, cheat and you pay damages: Everton ordered to pay £40m
By Tony Attwood
From this summer onwards, goalkeepers are able to hold onto the ball for eight seconds before releasing it to another player. Previously, the amount of time was six seconds. And as a punishment for any goalkeeper who goes beyond the eight seconds, the opposition will get a corner, not a free kick.
There is a double point in this. First, the six seconds were felt to be that bit too short given that the keeper not only has to pick up the ball and look around, but also the players who were attacking need a couple of extra seconds to get back out of the penalty area and be ready to defend or receive the ball from the keeper’s kick out of defence.
Second, referees were very reluctant to call an offence of holding onto the ball for too long given that it resulted in a free kick from within the penalty area. Two seconds extra might not seem much, but in effect, it does increase the amount of time the keeper has to hold the ball by a third. And then there’s another point….
The other point – the giving of a corner as a punishment for an offence – has been brought in because referees reported that they did not penalise keepers for holding the ball for too long for the penalty (an indirect free kick whjich could be taken within a yard or two of the goal line) was too harsh and led to ludicrous jostling in the penalty area – which other changes have been deseigned to avoid.
So a corner it is for holding onto the ball for too long, and I rather suspect we might see a few of these given in the early weeks of next season before either referees get fed up with the idea or keepers become more alert.
Of course, what would also be fun would be for the crowd to start counting down the eight seconds, which could also get at the visiting goal keeper. But I am not sure most members of most crowds actually do keep up with the changes to the law.
And especially in this World Cup, where for people in Europe some games are happening partway through the night.
Now of course, this is a problem for audiences, for although there are some who will stay up through the night to watch their country play, for the most part, this is only something that relates to their own country. So yes, I suspect a lot of Scottish fans would have stayed up to 4 am to watch their match all the way through, but I am not sure that many people in Europe who have no Scottish heritage will have done that.
This awareness also combines with the fact that, quite obviously, the number of people attending the games has been massively lower than Fifa predicted, or, much more worrying, reported. And the Fifa excuse about them all being in the bars has just made a laughing stock of the Americans who used it, trying to suggest that all football fans were drunks.
And there is a further worrying point here. If FIFA is seriously telling us that the reason the seats were empty was that all the fans were in the bars, then the next step is that they will be saying the seats are empty because the Europeans were all drunk, and respectable supporters did not want to sit next to drunks. So it is, as ever, the fans’ fault. Which is what we always get with Trump and Infantino. IT IS NEVER THEIR FAULT.
The problem the organisers of the tournament now have is a multiple one: obviously low crowds in some games generate utterly silly excuses coming from the Presidents and their cronies, and a schedule for the games that fits in with American but not with the rest of the world. And not to labour the point too much, most of the potential audience is in the rest of the world.
Now the Telegraph has a headline that reads “If you cannot get excited about a World Cup, what’s the point?” and really that does raise a point. I occasionally watch international matches on TV but really only to see how Arsenal players are doing – and to make sure a) they are not getting injured and b) if they are injured, they are taken off, not allowed to play on because the international manager knows the long-term fitness of the player is not his concern.
Maybe I am alone in not having much interest in international games, but my lack of interest doesn’t affect everyone else – I simply don’t bother to watch. But international games do affect my enjoyment of watching Arsenal if an international game results in an Arsenal player getting injured and not being able to play at the start of next season.
Maybe it is not everyone’s view, but it still seems a logical and reasonable view to me. Sporting News listed 17 players who will miss the World Cup through injury sustained before the competition began. There will be another load of players who will miss the start of next season because of injuries sustained during the World Cup. That’s the problem we get with all the year-round football.
Same here. I only care about the Arsenal players and hope they are not injured. I couldn’t be bothered who wins the world cup, how much people are in the stadiums… I don’t care at all..
It was nice to see ex Arsenal youth player Folorin Balogun score two cracking goals for the USA against Paraguay. A shame he left us!
Tony, perhaps a poll would enable us Gunners to see the level of interest in the world Cup from an Arsenal supporters perspective.
I’m in the doesn’t give a monkeys category
NEW RULES
It’s throw ins as well. This from the BBC:
“Countdowns for goal-kicks and throw-ins (five seconds): If a player deliberately delays the restart of play, a goal-kick could become a corner or the throw given to the opposition. The count will not begin when the ball goes out of play. A referee will choose to activate it if a player is taking too long. Like the eight-second countdown after a goalkeeper has caught the ball, the referee will visibly make a count by moving an arm up and down.”
When it comes to throw ins this could become really problematic for a team. You have a throw in 10 yards inside your half and you are ‘pushing up’. the player exceeds the 5 seconds and the referee indicates the throw now goes to the opposition.
With everyone pushed up this could be catastrophic.
Not only will you not be ‘set’ defensively, the opposition can throw the ball immediately AND of course they cannot be offside. Does the punished team have to immediately literally HAND THE BALL to the opponent? If he throws it away is he yellow carded for ‘kicking the ball away’?
Assuming you cannot see a good target to throw to, surely the preferred lesser of 2 evils will be to just launch it down the line to anyone.
It’s going to be messy!!!
INJURIES
I mentioned recently that William Saliba has gone to the World Cup carrying a persistent back injury. Rather than have it treated during the summer, the plan seems to be that he will ‘play through the pain’ at the World cup, then it is likely he will have back surgery afterwards. Arsenal have apparently agreed to this.
WTF!! He is OUR player. WE PAY HIS WAGES
This is just one media report out there:
As it stands, and has been the case for a while now, Saliba is expected to continue to play through the ‘pain barrier’, but a treatment plan will be needed after the World Cup. Arsenal could continue to try and take a conservative approach to the management of his injury, but the option of surgery has not yet been ruled out.
Just imaging if Gabriel gets injured as well?
Personally i think it’s a joke.
LeMmy – I think many Arsenal supporters are with you on this one – I certainly am. The problem is the mass media are committed to covering the WC and of course it gives a lot of coverage on the TV channels (in the UK) that are avaialble free to watch if you have a TV licence. So with no Arsenal games on, I do tend to watch some WC games, if ther is nothing else to do.
Nitram ,
This , stopping time wasting on throw ins and goal kicks will as ever only be partially applied. As we know the ball may only actually be in play between 50 and 65 minutes .
So how about that 4th official is given a proper job by actually counting all those delays and adding it on at the end of each half .
Right now we regularly see matches go on to 100 minutes
but perhaps a tweak :
For example in the first half Arsenal might waste 10 minutes and Wolves say, waste 15 minutes the difference is the added time played. I haven’t worked out the procedure re ‘injuries’ or actual injuries yet . but that might be a start.
As to your and my major concern over Saliba’s injury and subsequent treatment I’m with you 100% a players parent club should be given the right to say ” Our doctors have reached the conclusion that our Bill should not and cannot play , failure to comply will mean a £100million fine will be imposed.
These international teams need to learn its no privilege turning out for any international side its a stupid anachronism and a waste of Arsenal’s primary resource.
While I’m on a roll , I’d like to plagiarise David Dein’s suggestion that penalty shoot outs be played at the end where the clubs supporters are . Therefore if we’re at the Emirates Arsenal will always face the Northbank and the opposition face the clock end. I rest my case m’lud.
LeMmy
“So how about that 4th official is given a proper job by actually counting all those delays and adding it on at the end of each half ”
I’ve said this for years. Or one of the small crowd of VAR guys, who lets face it sit there doing nothing for best part of the match?
But as you say, whatever they do, it will as always be applied in a their very own special way!!!