Let’s change the rules of football as we go along; it’s more fun that way.

 

 

• Transfers: 6 July. Arsenal signing 33 players!
• How transfers are manipulated to help everyone find something to say

By Tony Attwood

If you are a regular reader of this site or its companion from the Arsenal History Society, you might know that we are often critical of refereeing and the PGMO.   But even we have not seen anything like the recent issues in the World Cup.

But now it seems that Folarin Balogun got a red card in the game between the United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and by all the normal rules of the game and the competition, that red card comes with no right of appeal.   That “no appeal” is normal since otherwise it would mean that each and every card for a foul or something similar would be appealed, bringing PGMO and its committees to a standstill.

And while most of us involved in this website would think that rather fun to have PGMO brought to a standstill, even we have not gone so far as to call for that.

But of course our set of moral standards is nothing like that of Fifa and those that circle around it.  For in a move the likes of which none of us ever seem to have come across before, a player has found the right to appeal removed.

And not only that, he has appealed without actually making an appeal (which of course he is not allowed to do anyway under the rules).

So Fifa, that glorious upholder of all things consistent, right and good in football have, without any holding of a meeting or waving of the rule book, suspended the ban for the next year.   So Balogun can play in the next Belgium match.

Now those of us involved in Untold Arsenal have a few friends dotted here and there in the football world, and we’ve been catching up with them as best we can since the news broke and those we got to didn’t know of any precedent either.   But there it is.  The President of the United States says cancel the red card charge against an individual player, and it is cancelled.   Which means after each match now we will be saying “well the score is 2-1, but we are waiting for the President to tell us the final score.”

Of course we would love to know the precedent for this move, but the only information we can pick up from our usual unreliable sources is that a certain Donny Trumple who claims to be the president of something or somewhere was involved.

Now of course, if this sudden rule changing during a competition is what actually happened, what all the players and their entourage should do is simply stop playing, pack up and come home, because if they play on then two things are implied.

The first is that they approve of this move of changing the rules to suit the occasion, and the second is that they think other events can be investigated as well.   We therefore expect a queue of players, retired players, coaches, retired coaches, and (because they never like people to think they are not part of the show) pundits.

So France apparently want Michael Olise’s ban overturned and England fancy having Jarell Quansah’s ban knocked out.

But such moves are indeed rather petty.  What should be happening is that the entire two hundred and whatever it is countries involved should now, immediately vote for the disbandment and Fifa and rule that no one who has ever served in an Fifarian position should be barred from football for life.   Then, in due course, the clubs of the world should get together and think exactly how they would like football to be run in the future and what punishments they would like to hand out to the present President of Fifa (and if they feel like it, the President of the United States).   Then they set it up the way they want it.

And that can that.

Of course I don’t think that will work, but the media, which is currently making a huge fuss about this event, does have power.  They could refuse to recognise this move and the rest of this World Cup, and simply record the event as “not concluded.”   The Telegraph behind its pay wall, however, says, President Trump delighted Fifa cancels Folarin Balogun’s ban”.   The Guardian which is free says  Uefa accuses Fifa of ‘crossing red line’ over Balogun/.

The England team and other teams left in the competition should withdraw at once, pending a clarification of who runs football – is it the rule book or a bunch of cronies on Capitol Hill?

But here’s the sign-off thought.   If the major footballing countries of the world let this event pass, that is the end of world competitions, because it means that in any world competition any previously laid down rule can be changed at a whim.   What next?