What nationality are you? Or more importantly which nation can you play for?

I read a recent article in World Soccer, one of my favorite soccer publications, that covered a recent change in the rules regarding players and national teams. In the recent past players had the ability to change national teams, up to their 21st birthday, if they had not yet started for the Senior National team in what is considered an "official" match.

The new language:

"Change of association (art. 18 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA Statutes)
58% of the Congress members approved an amendment to the current article. So far, players eligible to change associations in order to play for another national team could only do so until their 21st birthday. The Congress has now decided to lift this age limit, but has maintained all the other provisions of art. 18."

Of course this allows players much more freedom to decide later on whether they want to switch national teams. The thesis of the article, which I tend to agree with, is that it will make African national teams that much stronger. For the most part I believe that to be true. You already see players such as Meghni and Bassong who both were developed at Clairfontaine, played for the France youth national teams, in the case of Meghni, winning the 2001 U17 World Championships with France, and who have now switched their national team allegiances to nations their parents came from but where I doubt they have spent more than "tourism" time in.

Players should be allowed to switch their national team allegiance, within reason. Why? Because in the modern world we live in players, families, people are no longer anchored to one nation for their entire lives. Players themselves might move to two or three different nations during their playing careers, spend more years in country than they do their native land. FIFA should allow the players to make the choice of which nation they want to represent. However it is up to FIFA to make clear how a player can qualify for a nation. This is where FIFA must be strict and must enforce the rules. Otherwise we will start seeing national teams being "bought." To me the rules should be simple:

• If the player's parents carry a passport or were born in a country you can play for that nation.
• If the player was born in a nation he is eligible.
• If a player has played or lives in a nation a specific amount of time, long enough to acquire that nation's citizenship via normal process (so no fast tracking as had happened with olympic skaters and other atheletes)

In the end, it is the player who needs to want to play for a specific nation. Freddy Adu opted for the US over his native Ghana, Pat Vieira played for France even though he was born in Dakar, Rossi was born in New Jersey (a few towns away from Sam!) but wanted to go play for his father's homeland of Italy, Neven Subotic lived and played college footie in America but wanted to play for Serbia, Deco and Eduardo are 2 more well know Brazilians who could not break into the famous national side so opted to adopt the European nation where they were plying their trade (Portugal and Croatia respectively) the list goes on. None of these players' decisions need be scrutinized (although Keano famously yelled at Vieira that he should have played for his native country...). If a player feels a draw towards another nation, and has the right according to FIFA to play for that nation than so be it.

Least we forget that in early times players would switch senior sides, usually due to political upheaval in their original nation - the Italian team that won their first world cup received much help from Argentines (players such as Guaita and Orsi had already played a number of games for their native Argentina before headlining Italy's world cup title), Puskas who lead the famous Flying Magyars (I would argue that Hungarian team might be the best team never to win a World Cup...hmmm I smell a blog post subject for later) played for Spain (granted only 4 times) after he escaped communist Hungary. Obviously as the game grew as well as the money, FIFA and other governing bodies recognized that they needed to put in place rules to avoid having players end up showcasing for two different nations in World Cups or other tournaments.

The game has come a long way from the 1930s with regards to determining which nation a player can represent. Removing the time limits on when a player needs to decide is a good move. However FIFA and the governing bodies must continue to monitor and enforce the rules. As nations such as Qatar and Equatorial Guinea cannot be allowed to simply buy players from other nations to give themselves a leg up against their opponents. FIFA cannot allow nations to go out and spend money to blatantly purchase talented players...countries such as Qatar should spend their sport's money on developing youth programs for players and coaches, upgrading facilities, and putting resources into the programs to develop and nurture home grown talent.

The world we live is grows more culturally diverse every day, the modern world allows greater freedom of travel, work and living. Nations such as France, England, Germany, the United States, to name a few, have had tremendous influxes of immigrants from a variety of nations. If talented players emerge from these groups the player needs to be able to decide what nation they want to represent and not be forced to make a decision by 21.

The Future of Footie Part II

Ok so I did more thinking about some rule changes that would help footie, again nothing radical but some simple changes that will allow the game to be less dominated by the defenses and allow the offensive creativeness of players to shine.

• Allow teams to have more than 3 substitutes per match, maybe there should be 4 or 5 substitutes per game. Originally teams were not allowed to replace players, then they were allowed one substitute (but only due to injury) and eventually the rule we have today where teams are allowed 3 substitutes in official games. However, I would argue with the packed calendars - league, league cups, FA cups, internationals, and national team - teams need more ability to turn over some of their squad during matches. Teams would be able to bring in more fresh legs during a match ensuring that players a)don't save themselves so they can run for 90 minutes b)the last 20 minutes can see just as much action as any other 20 minutes. Players are asked to play too many games, not sure you can cut that number down due to the associated number - money. So if you cannot play fewer games, allow more players to play!
• Take a lesson from rugby - only the captain or a designated player can speak with the referee. Why would this help the game? While this might not directly lead to more goals what I think it will do is allow the refs (again based on my post from last week I think you need at least two full referees on the pitch) to make calls without the fear of being berated by teams. I think there is no doubt that some referees get intimidated by the fact the entire team might descend on them if they make the "wrong" call. In addition, the rule would speed up the game, rather than having 5 players chase the ref around to berate him the call can be made and enforced. If players other than the captains speak to the ref, you can penalize the team as they do in rugby - accord another 10 yards. Granted field position is not as crucial as it is in rugby, but the difference between a free kick 35 yards out or 25 yards out is huge.
• Make every free kick direct, coupled with moving the wall back another 5 or 10 yards, the free kick will become much more dangerous again. In addition, if every kick is a direct kick, teams might be more cautious at hacking down players anywhere on the park. Make the free kick a real scoring opportunity, while the wall moved back and all kicks being direct will not give you 8-6 games, will allow teams more scoring opportunities. Some may argue that too many goals are scored off set pieces already and not enough from open play, but is that a result from teams being more willing to concede free kicks? While more goals are scored off set pieces, the percentage of set pieces that render goals might have gone down over time. Therefore, make the set piece more dangerous, force teams to defend properly rather than resort to fouling tactics.
  

Again these are not radical changes, but I think taken together you will see improvements in the beautiful game. In the end what is needed is to free up offensive players from what has become the defensive shackles managers have leaned on. Make fouls more costly, allow teams to stay fresher during the game, and allow the rules of the game be better enforced.

The Future of Footie

I was reading an article in World Soccer about the future of footie and how things will need to change to continue to improve the game. The usual complaints were aired - defenses are emphasized, teams do not score any more, coaches are too cautious, ugly football is abound, referees do not penalize players for fouls, and overall the game has taken on a bad turn. Of course the usual solutions are discussed - larger goals, no off sides, points deduced for fouls, sin bins, smaller penalty areas, and so forth. Those of us who have been fans of footie have heard these ideas thrown around for years now, and while some are not completely outlandish, I think that there is a much simpler solution - call the game the way it is suppose to be, and in order to do so put another set of eyes on the pitch.

I do not accept the argument that World Soccer put forth about the game being called as it is suppose to be, that teams and players will complain and then the refs will swallow their whistles again. NFL fans recall when the league said they would call pass interference and hand checking on wide receivers tighter, there was some low level moaning but in the end teams adapted and the game improved. Why is this not possible in footie? Would managers, teams, players and fans not want to see players like Messi ,Kaka, Ribery or Ronaldo have more freedom to demonstrate their skills rather than constantly watching them get hacked down? I have a feeling that team owners and managers, who spend a tremendous amount of money on players such as Eto'o, Messi, Kaka, Ronaldo, and the Rooneys of footie would want these assets to be able to perform at the highest level. So here are some simple steps to take:

• Add an extra referee to the pitch. I realize there are two assistants that manage the lines, but they are really watching off sides and are stuck to one side of the pitch. Footie is one of the few sports that only employs one referee. I cannot even count how many officials there are in Football - referee, back judge, umpire....etc. Hockey, technically, used only one referee, but have since gone to 2 (and if you include the linesmen you really have 4 officials on the ice). Rugby might be the only other sport that has one official on the pitch, however I would argue that the game, while very fast, does not change field position as rapidly as it does in footie. AND in rugby they will use modern technology aka video, when it comes to scoring decisions! Many times in footie, the plane of the game will change so rapidly that the referee could not possibly position themselves properly, therefore missing some of the action. A two referee system could alleviate much of this issue. You would always have one official behind the ball as well as one in front of the play. Could you even go to a three official system??? One official that is the head official and follows the play from the center of the pitch, the other two officials responsible for their halves.
• With the additional referees, ensure that the laws of the game are enforced! Referees have understood how to crack down on tackles from behind (granted they can still do a better job of this) so why can refs not take a mandate from the powers to be to crack down on hard fouls, elbows, and the clutching and grabbing. With the additional eyes on the pitch these fouls would be easier to see and to police. This would be ever more important during corner kicks where the hand checking and wrestling that takes place in the penalty area is close to professional wrestling standards.
• Extend the free kick wall distance. I have heard some call for the wall to be phased out entirely, not sure how that would work. Would defenders be able to stand between the ball and the goal? Or would just need to mark the opponent, or could they just walk around on the goal line? So rather than abolish the wall, why not push it back to 15 yards. I think this would make going for goal much more appealing than when the wall is only 10 yards out. Or maybe the wall could be placed half way to the goal line.
  
• A final change...use technology that is available. How hard is that??? If tennis can have a machine that can tell whether or not a ball is in our out on a serve, how can you not have a technology that tells the referee is a ball has crossed the goal line? While the situation does not happen every match, it happens enough. Hey FIFA already has used video...rumor is the referee did not see the infamous Zidane headbutt during the World Cup finals and the 4th referee seeing a video feed informed the referee of what had occurred. At least we would avoid embarrassing non calls like this one...
  
  
  
  

I realize none of these are radical, and there could be more that can be done to allow the offense more freedom. However I do not think radical changes such as larger goals, smaller penalty boxes, no offsides, counting fouls like in basketball....Footie is a flowing, fast paced, beautiful game. While the game would be better if there were more scoring, and when I mean more scoring I do not mean 6-4 games, but more 3 0r 4 goal games rather than 0-0 draws. If the governing powers would mandate that the games be officiated properly, with additional referee resources and leveraging some modern technology I believe the game will improve and return to the glory days when the offense was on level to the defensive efforts. While some teams will find another way to swing the momentum to the defense, the ability to properly referee the game will prohibit teams to resort to constant thug like tactics to slow down a superior offensive team. This will only improve the game.