CBC-Sports

Forget sportsmanship and play to the whistle

January 26, 2009 02:12 PM | Posted by   John Molinaro  

People complain about how diving is ruining soccer, but for me the game's bigger problem is the infuriating act of what I call "unnecessary sportsmanship."

It annoys me to no end to see a player kick the ball out of bounds in order to get a stoppage in play so that a player on the other team who appears to be hurt can receive attention from the trainers.

This past weekend, Fiorentina was pressing for a tying goal and swarming around the Juventus penalty area when Juve midfielder Claudio Marchisio crumbled to the ground after being on the receiving end of what the referee deemed was a clean tackle.

Sure enough, all of the Juventus defenders immediately flailed their arms about in the air in a wild and desperate fashion, pointing to their fallen colleague and imploring Fiorentina to knock the ball into touch, which it did.

The referee did not blow the whistle after Marchisio went down, so why did Fiorentina feel obliged to kick the ball out when it clearly had Juventus on the ropes?

Referees have been instructed by FIFA to halt play if they feel a player is hurt and needs immediate medical attention, especially if they've suffered some sort of head injury or if they are bleeding. Otherwise, they've been told to let the action continue.

But the players have taken it upon themselves to become pseudo officials and wrestle power away from the referee and decide when the game should be stopped.

Not a game goes by when this doesn't happen, and it bugs to me to no end because almost always the injured player gets up immediately and is no worse for wear.

That was the case with Marchisio. I have no doubt he may have been hurt, but it wasn't necessary to stop play, as evidenced by the fact he was up on his feet pretty quickly after a visit from the trainer.

If Juventus had possession and wanted to kick the ball out of bounds, I would have little problem with that, and I would have expected Fiorentina to give the ball back to Juve when play resumed.

But Fiorentina, who ended up losing 1-0, was pressing and through no fault of its own the Juve midfielder went down, so it shouldn't have felt compelled to halt to the game when it had the advantage.

If the referee thought it was a foul, or if he thought Marchisio needed attention, he would have blown the whistle. He didn't, so play should have continued and Fiorentina should have continued to attack.

Instead, they kicked the ball out, out of fear of appearing unsportsmanlike.

This silliness needs to an end, because it disrupts the natural flow and rhythm of the game. Players need to remember what their coaches taught them when they first started playing the game - play to the whistle.

Changing the mentality of players won't be easy, so I have a simple solution. The referee should give the offending player a yellow card whenever he kicks the ball out of bounds.

Beckham scores his first goal for AC Milan

On another matter, I would be remiss if I didn't comment on David Beckham's splendid outing in AC Milan's 4-1 win over Bologna on Sunday. Beckham looked solid and scored a fantastic goal, and Milan is now 3-0 with the Englishman in the lineup, so full credit to him.

But let's not get too carried away and give him the FIFA world player of the year award for 2009 just yet. Becks' performance against Bologna merely confirms that even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while.

Beckham has mastered the art of mediocrity, and has successfully built an entire career out of playing average soccer most of the time and occasionally doing something that makes everyone forget about the rest. It's funny how Beckham supporters fondly remember his goal against Greece in the World Cup qualifiers, and conveniently gloss over the fact how England floundered and never came close to winning anything with him as captain.

His terrific goal against Bologna should be enough for him to avoid his mediocre play getting critical press attention for at least another month.

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