Occasional Ramblings

Yesterday On BBC Final Score Garth Crooks was one of the pundits commenting on the various English football matches as they happened. Anyone who watches the programme regularly will know that he could start an argument with himself because he is always of the opinion that he is right even when he is clearly not.

Yesterday he decided that the rules of the game should be disregarded so as not to ruin the game as a spectacle. He was commenting on the incident which saw a Blackpool player sent off for what is called stopping a goalscoring opportunity. What Mr. Crooks ( as an ex-player ) conveniently forgets is two important points. Firstly, the referee did not ruin the game as a spectacle it was in fact the player who broke the rules of the game by committing the foul. Secondly it was because of players of his time in the game that that particular rule was brought in.

Prior to the introduction, if an attacking player was heading for goal the defender would deliberately go for the man instead of the ball to stop him in any way he could. Therefore Garth Crooks should remember that it was because of players cheating that the rule was introduced. So it is they who ruined the game as a spectacle not the referee who was doing his job correctly.