Tony Becca
FOOTBALL World Cup 2006 is now history. Certainly here in the West Indies the attention of everyone, or hopefully everyone and at least those involved in putting on the show, is now focused on Cricket World Cup 2007.
Before closing the book on World Cup Football, however, there is one thing which needs looking at and that is the referee and the yellow card.
Once upon a time, there was no yellow card in football. In those days, there were simply fouls and if they were vicious fouls, players would be sent off.
Today, however, players are blown for fouls, they are issued yellow cards for, among other things, dangerous tackling and by way of a red card, they are sent packing for vicious tackles - among other things.
As a penalty for being sent off, players automatically miss their team's next match.
As happened on many occasions during the World Cup, however, players were banned from playing in their team's next match, not because they committed a vicious foul or had done something which brought the game into disrepute, but simply because, like Deco of Portugal, they had picked up two yellow cards.
YELLOW CARDS ISSUED TOO FREELY
A player with two yellow cards in separate matches is forced to miss the next match and a player with two yellow cards in one match is sent off the field and is forced to miss his team's next match.
Something does not seem right with either one and something should be done about it.
Referees, it appears, are dishing out yellow cards too freely. Instead of blowing their whistle for a normal foul and simply awarding a kick to the opposing team, referees seem to be handing out yellow cards for any and every thing and with two yellow cards leading to a red card, that means that players are being banned for a game for doing nothing, but playing football.
In other words, a player should be forced to miss a match for doing something vicious and for bringing the game into disrepute. They should not, like Deco, be barred from playing for doing something as silly as taking up the ball after the referee has blown his whistle for a foul against him.
In other words, if a player, for example, tackles an opposing player from behind, that deserves a yellow card - and depending on how dangerous it is, probably even a red card.
WHAT CAN THE REFEREE DO?
As unsporting as it is, however, is it fair to a team if one of its players is banned for a game because he has picked up two yellow cards - one for foolishly kicking away the ball after being blown for a foul; and one for, again foolishly, picking up the ball after being blown for a foul?
No, it does not seem fair.
Behaviour like that deserves some form of penalty, however, and after already blowing him for a foul, the referee cannot then blow him again for something else.
The referee cannot, for example, give one free-kick for the foul and then a second free-kick for what, to many, is a misdemeanour.
What can the referee do? Faced with such a situation, he may not have an alternative, but to issue a yellow card.
That, however, is the reason why, in other situations, the referee should not be so free with the use of the yellow card and instead of abolishing the yellow card, that is the reason why, in an effort to have the best players on the field all the time, FIFA may be well advised to look at baseball.
In baseball, it is three strikes and you are out. In football, it should now be three yellow cards and you are out.
