10 of the most ridiculous rulings in football

Getting booked for taking off your shirt – Or any kind of booking for over-celebrating. Surely that’s what we want in football for the players to care a bit when they score and so mean it when they celebrate. I agree that deliberately celebrating in front of the opposition fans is not how players should behave, but getting booked for leaving the playing arena to celebrate with the fans or removing their shirt is ridiculous. It seems to me a rule bought in by the power of the sponsors and makes no football sense. As obviously when a player scores, he will be shown on camera and the sponsors want their company name to be shown too.

Insistence to leave out goal line technology – Although not strictly a rule I feel it belongs in this list. As recently as last month UEFA President Michel Platini ruled out the possibility of introducing any kind of technology based on the hawk eye system used in cricket and tennis to assist referees in goal line incidents. Citing what he describes as an introduction of PlayStation football. Certainly we wouldn’t want technology on every aspect of the game as that would be too disruptive. Surely though being able to see if the ball has crossed the line or not would aid the referees.

Pointless fifth and sixth officials – Following on from the lack of goal line technology, these extra officials are UEFA’s alternative in order to help the referee around the penalty area, in the belief that more eyes mean better decisions. However I have failed to see them greatly add to the game and more eyes on the pitch will not always result in correct decisions as you are also increasing the potential for disagreement amongst the officials and people still getting decisions wrong.

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Unclear offside ruling – No-one seems to be entirely sure or in agreement about what being in ‘an active position’ entails when deciding if a player is offside. The rule states that a player is not offside until they become active in the play. For some this means that a player is not offside until they touch the ball. But players can gain advantages from being offside and not touching the ball by being in the goalkeepers line of sight or causing an unfair distraction and this is not always called up for being offside.

The Bosman Case – Has transferred too much power in contract negotiations to the players, who are effectively now able to hold their club to ransom for the wages they desire, leaving to clubs that offer better wages when they feel like it. Previously this only affected smaller clubs who were forced to tie players down on longer contracts to ensure they wouldn’t leave on a free when their contract ended. But as the Rooney saga demonstrated not even clubs of Manchester United’s stature are free from this.

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The lack of a salary cap – Following on from the implications of the Bosman case having no salary cap for players’ wages ensures that simply the richest clubs are allowed to pay over the odds for players. Manchester City is the most recent and obvious example of a club being able to pull in players from other clubs simply by offering that player a much bigger pay check than his current club could. Also surely it is simply morally wrong for footballers to be earning five or six times the national average wage in a week.

Acceptance of ‘Professional fouls’ – When say a team are counter-attacking and a player on the defending team deliberately fouls a player so a free kick is given in a relatively harmless position and they are able to get numbers back to defend. This is often glazed over by commentators as the defender ‘using their experience’. But I feel it gives an unfair advantage to the defending team through cheating, and more should be done to ensure the attacking team kept the advantage of numbers that they had.

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If a player’s been punished on the pitch he cannot be suspended retroactively by the governing body – Even if a player is seen afterwards to have severely broken the rule to the extent that everyone is agreement they should have been sent off, if the referee gave say a yellow card for the incident. The governing body is subsequently powerless to reassess the incident and decide if a more severe punishment is required.

The January Transfer window – Has been an odd addition to the game since it was introduced in the 2002-03 season. It encourages panic buying, leads to an inflation of transfer fees therefore hindering smaller clubs and allows big clubs that had perhaps faltered an unfair advantage to add to their squads. Its main appeal is not for football reasons but from media who love to sell rumours and feed of the excitement of transfers, along with fans who are encouraged to be excited by who their club could bring in during the window.

Having to leave the field of play before returning if you pick up an injury – The thinking behind this law was to ensure the game could flow as an injured player wasn’t being treated on the field. Yet how it is carried out in today’s game ensures an advantage to the team who have usually been in the wrong by injuring an opposition player. There are countless examples when this man advantage, however brief, has led to goals.

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Compiled by Joe Walsh for FootballFanCast.com – view the original HERE