For those among our fairer sex who are not quite up to scratch on their footballing knowledge, here are a few points to help make sense of the action both on and off the field…
The Offside Rule (Never let a guy explain it to you again!)
Prevents one guy standing near the goal all game and waiting for a long-field pass up to him to knock it in. Remember: when the ball is played forward, the furthest attacking player cannot be positioned beyond the last opposing defender. Forget about the goalkeeper!
Sportsmanship
Abuse of the referee in football is common place because there arenât the sanctions in place that exist in rugby or tennis, for example. In rugby, only the captain can speak to the referee and if anyone else does so in an abusive manner, the team is marched back ten yards – effective given that territory plays a huge part in Rugby. In tennis matches, if a player abuses the umpire or a line judge, they will receive a warning. Further dishonourable play leads to the perpetrating player forfeiting a point to their opponent and so on.
In football, however, abuse of opponents, referees and linesman is a feature of the game that can be found up and down the country at all levels of the sport. FIFA rules stipulate that if a player âshows dissent by word or actionâ, they receive a yellow card. This is enforced so lackadaisically by officials at all levels however that this sanction carries no clout within the modern game. Efforts to improve this through the Respect campaign started by the Football Association (FA) have arguably improved matters to some degree such as the introduction of handshakes at the start of the game but this has caused further problems in dealing with the issue of sportsmanship.
The John Terry and Anton Ferdinand racism case is the clearest example of the lack of sportsmanship in football. Ferdinand of QPR attempted to provoke a reaction from Terry about his alleged extra-marital affair leading the Chelsea captain to respond using racist language. This has now been deemed to not have been used in an abusive sense but was used in conjunction with a highly offensive swear word. Naturally, the two players did not shake hands in the recent match between QPR and Chelsea in September 2012.
Commentators
Aside from Match of the Day host Gary Lineker, these are the main pundits in English football. Youâre most likely to hear them say…
- Alan Shearer describing a goal: “He hit it with his right foot and it hit the back of the net, he has scored a good goal. The grass was green today as well, Gary.”
- Alan Hansen:Â “The defender has had an absolute mare there; back in my day at Liverpool…”
- Mark Lawrenson talking about a last minute winner: “As Liverpool werenât playing, I couldnât care less if he scored a forty yard stunner that nestled right in the top corner just as the refereed had his whistle to his lips.”
- Robbie Savage answering a question about Alex Songâs performance, notorious for his poor choice of barber: “Iâve definitely got better hair than him. But yes Gary, there was no better player on the pitch than him today.”
- Roy Keane:Â “I tâink it was a fe-ine tackle and if anytâing, the lad should have gone in with more aggression there, not less.”
Income and Wealth
Finally, Premier League footballers are some of the top earners in sport. Their salaries vastly outweigh rugby players, cricketers and other professionals that compete in team sports. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2012, footballers or those in the footballing industry account for 47 of the top 100 richest British sportsmen. The top three earners are David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand, who have all played or play for Manchester United, the third richest club in the world.
The main driver of their vast salaries is the ability of clubs across the world to sell worldwide TV rights for the broadcast of games. The Premier League recently agreed a TV rights deal that nets the organisation ÂŁ3 billion over the next three years. This is filtered down to teams in the form of winnings dependent on the position they finish in the league and ultimately, playerâs wages.
Another factor behind the inflation of salaries in recent years has been the selling of merchandise and expansion into different markets that have a huge appetite for Premier League football. Asia, particularly China, Japan and Thailand, are big consumers of the English league and therefore clubs have embarked on pre-season tours in recent years to gain supporters in this region. The ÂŁ1.4 billion the PL receives from foreign broadcasters is testament to this international desire to see arguably the best league in the world.
Lastly, the British footballing industry is the wealthiest in the world. Of the top twenty richest clubs in the world, British football clubs occupy six of those positions (Manchester United: 3rd, Arsenal: 5th, Chelsea: 6th, Liverpool: 9th , Tottenham Hotspur: 11th, Manchester City: 12th).
So when Ashley Cole nearly crashed his car because he was only offered ÂŁ55K per week by Arsenal, he may have had a point…
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