Punitive measure for dissent scrapped
Sunday, 27 February 2005 11:07Players will no longer be penalised for showing dissent towards referees by having free-kicks moved forward 10 yards, after football's law-makers claimed the rule is not understood outside rugby-playing nations.
The punitive measure, copied from rugby, has been in use in England for four years - but the International FA Board (IFAB) have consigned the rule to the dustbin.
The English FA are understood to view the decision as a backwards step in efforts to improve players' behaviour on the pitch.
FA executive director David Davies said: "We have been a lonely voice on this. The rule is apparently not understood in non-rugby-playing parts of the world and in fact was not supported by most of the other home nations."
Meanwhile, the FA believe cost will not prove to be a major problem for introducing a new hi-tech ball containing a microchip which sends an electronic message to the referee when it crosses goallines or sidelines.
FA chief executive Brian Barwick, who attended yesterday's meeting of the IFAB in Cardiff with Davies and FA chairman Geoff Thompson, said: "There is a cost issue. We don't know how much it will cost, but the history of technology shows the prices go down rather than up.
"In comparison with some other experiments, this would appear to be significantly more cost-effective - which has been one of the problems in the past."
FIFA have been given permission to experiment with adidas' prototype 'smartball' at the under-17s world championships in Peru in September, but Davies concedes that introducing the ball to the leagues would run into problems where there are existing contracts with rival manufacturers.
Davies said: "That's a concern for people who have ball contracts in leagues around Europe with other companies.
"But no one wanted to hold this experiment up, because it's a technical experiment aimed at improving the referees' lot."
