A pack formation like this one around referee Maria Ferrieri Caputi could soon be a thing of the past in league football thanks to the captain’s rule.
Foto: imago/Norbert Schmidt
The experts still disagree on one thing: the name. Is the new refereeing regulation at the European Championships now called the captain’s rule or the complaining rule? The latter would be a better fit for football, but thanks to that rule, perhaps not anymore; because the endless complaining about referees’ decisions seems to be coming to an end. Anyone who is not exactly a team captain but still wants to tell the referee that he is wrong sees yellow. And lo and behold: With the exception of the Turks, who recently had problems breaking through long-standing behavioral patterns, there were far fewer discussions with the referees. This makes football faster and more attractive. Officials, referees, fans and journalists all think it’s great.
The fact that Europe’s football association Uefa is now being praised for this is too much. In rugby, volleyball, hockey and some other sports, rules have been regulated for decades about who is allowed to talk to the game officials and who is not. It has been known for just as long that this works. Just not among footballers, whose lack of interest in other sports is usually drilled into them as early as the usual sayings: “Don’t play with him!”, “Upper body over the ball!” and “Throw-in forward!”
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It’s worth taking a look behind the edge of your own plate when there are many more annoying things than just the pack formation. The best example: the video referee. This was also successfully introduced in other top sports areas long before the football grandees followed suit. Only to then invent their own version of it, which to this day has more critics than praise speakers. Nobody else lets other referees constantly monitor their own referees in some basement, only to then maybe, but maybe not recommend, stare at a screen again themselves. Why not adopt what has long worked wonderfully in basketball, baseball, volleyball, tennis, American football, hockey and so on and so forth: give the coaches one challenge per half to request a review. If they are correct, they keep the challenge, otherwise it is gone. From then on, every wrong decision counts.
Even better: Equip the referees with microphones, like in hockey, who immediately relay the explanation for every decision to the audience. It would be nice if we could listen to Daniel Siebert tell a seasoned Bundesliga professional, “Get up!” Det was nüscht” shouts as if we were in the district class. Above all, these role model footballers would then know that every insult and disrespect they gave would be broadcast live. This could have a cleansing effect right down to amateur football, where verbal abuse is far too often the case.
The referees would certainly welcome these changes as well as the new captain’s rule. If you still want to continue complaining about them, you still have the regulars’ table.