The game against Man U. for once included an incident that did not go United's way. Excuse my celebrations but it's a small victory to redress some of the appalling decisions Spurs have suffered over the years when this match comes around. No need to remind anyone we are all too familiar with the infamous happenings, but it does lead me to speculate over the lottery that penalties are. The invention of the penalty kick is credited to the goalkeeper and businessman William McCrum in 1890 in Milford, County Armagh, Ireland. The Irish Football Association presented the idea to the International Football Association. No Irish jokes here please! In the hundreds of years that I have been playing/watching football the penalty is nearly always surrounded by controversy and ill feeling and it's not surprising is it! Players spend hours and years honing their skills to take part in a match. The match for arguments sake is an even contest but then bang! a player goes down in the penalty area a goal follows and the match is turned around to the advantage of one and the big disadvantage to the other. What makes it worse is that it's almost arbitrary whether it is a correct decision or not. Take the example of the Rooney/Caulker incident. PNP found a video of it so that we can all study it over and over. I was quite convinced Caulker had kicked the ball before Rooney made contact. PNP pointed out it was Rooney that made ball contact I looked at it again and thought bloody hell he's right how could I not see that. Now bear in mind that the ref has to make this decision in a split second it is so easy to get this wrong. Incidentally I can still see Caulker get that ball first depending on my mind set. The Penalty award is so hit & miss and has such an impact on the game it needs to be looked at again it's a decision made a 113 years ago ffs. In my view if we are going to have it needs to be made more difficult to score from it, unless it is a blatant hand ball off the line or a career threatening tackle in which case just award the goal. Otherwise how about two defenders being allowed to stand on the goal line with no goalkeeper and being allowed to move when the whistle blows to stop the opponent scoring. No use of hands of course and if they bring the attacking player down it's retaken with only one defender and if that player brings the attacker down it's retaken with nobody in the goal at all. Could be fun! I'm sure you can come up with all sorts of ingenious ways to re make the penalty laws how would you do it?
Blimey! I didn't realise I had gone on so long. Sorry about the length of the post. I'm stuck indoors snowed in.
I'm happy with the current rules. The only things that I'd change are the introduction of a little more consistency, which is not really something that you can legislate for, and the simple award of a goal if a defender blocks a goalbound shot. Nobody should be able to benefit from a Suarez-style save, as the Uruguayans did against Ghana.
See what I mean it's difficult to spot these things without the benefit of a replay. I seem to be doing an awful lot of this evening.
There's nowt wrong with the penalty kick. There has to be a severe sanction for fouls in the penalty area, otherwise we would see fouling, cheating and gamesmanship on an even more unacceptable scale in the attempt to save a goal at all costs. The real issue is standard of the officiating of the game. To be fair to refs, it is extremely difficult to police our fast paced game effectively. It's impossible to spot all the shenanigans which go on at corners and free kicks; it's very hard to call fouls correctly when they result from slightly mistimed contact or involve high speed collisions (as we know from Sunday); it's unreasonable to expect anyone to understand and properly apply the rules on "last man" fouls and handball (and offside, but that doesn't result in penalty kicks). TV often gives us an incite into these matters after the event although it's not always conclusive. However, the time for some technological aids for refs has surely come.
As much as I hate the idea of technology in football, perhaps with such a game changing decision as a penalty award it has a place. Convince me people!
How about taking the penalty kick from the spot where the foul was committed? No wall. In fact, no one in the 18yd box apart from the goalkeeper and he must stay on his line. If the foul was on the goal line, but nearer the corner flag than the goal post, tough. You were never going to score from there anyway. Any foul or handball within the 6yd box is an automatic goal. Although automatic goals sound so wrong to me... guess it needs more thought.
I like the idea of taking the penalty from the spot where it happened there is a logic to that. The angles would be narrowed in certain positions and therefore more difficult. Rugby does this to good effect. Perhaps we should increase the size of the penalty area along with this change. Good idea Inda.
Instead of a penalty, make it a one-shot chance of red arse. Hitting a "bullseye" will be classed as a goal, anywhere else and it's a goal kick. Lets be honest... It'll make it a little enjoyable if the opposition player manages a strike!
To make it harder, instead of a penalty, the recipient of the award could be given a task to do which they are not particularly good at. If they succeed, a goal is given. For Arsenal, Giroud could try to hit a cow's arse with a banjo. For Utd, Rio could be asked to take a piss test. For Spurs, Bale could try to stay on his feet <joke> For Chelsea, their manager could attempt to avoid the sack for the rest of the game. You get the idea.
For Man Utd, the referee has to remain unbiased. So infact, you probably wouldn't get a penalty anyway.
It was an idea. I suspect their are too many traditionalists on here... Running up from the half way line and having a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, was an idea touting around in the past. I can't see that ever working in professional football. If you have the ball, and the only thing you need to is beat the keeper, you should score 99 times out of a 100. If you can't, you shouldn't be earning 100k a week. It would be easier to score than it is now.
I've no doubt you are right about traditionalists Inda, but the more I think about it the more I like it. It's a great idea. When a free kick is awarded it is taken from where the foul took place so why change it in the penalty area. It adds interest because some of the angles would be very difficult to score from. It would produce innovation as players developed methods to overcome the problems. Just making that one change would be consistent with the game of football and would place the chance of scoring more in line with what it would have been if the foul had not taken place. Yes I would go with it, I think it would add to the game.
For international games, they should settle the game by playing 15 minutes of whichever sport the home team are noted for, and let that settle the game. For France, boules For Ireland, hurling For Wales, rugby For Canada, ice hockey For Japan, the captains compete at sumo For Thailand, the captains compete at Muay Thai For the USA, a sport nobody else in the world plays For Scotland, a bar argument where the first one to raise an accusing finger loses
Stick the bloke who committed the foul in goal for the penalty. Someone said Rugby, what about 15 mins in a 'sin bin' for every penalty, saves ruining a whole game early with 10 men.
