Kicking penalty habits

Press, 14 February 1986, Page 16

Kicking penalty habits

From ‘The Economist,’ London

Rugby football is being harmed by too many penalty kicks. Soccer is being ruined by too few. Why not change the rules?

In rugby, of the 15-a-side variety, the penalty for any but trivial infringements is (typically) a kick at goal, from the scene of the crime, for the other side. If it succeeds, as about half do, that is worth three points: as against four for a try — when a player grounds the ball beyond his opponents’ goal line — and a further two if the try is successfully “converted” into a goal. Rugby is supposed to be about tries, the fierce shoving and footwork, the elegant handling and passing of the ball that lead to them. But it has become dominated by penalties. Recently in Europe, in the two opening matches of this year’s fivenations tournament, 74 points were scored in all; 51 of them came from penalty goals. Every single point of the 18

that gave Scotland a one-point victory over a better French side came from penalty goals; so did 18 of England’s 21, in their three-point defeat of Wales. Solution: cut the value of the penalty goal. Rugby’s world body has in fact been under pressure to do that. It has not accepted even the modest cut suggested, from three points to two. It should go further: bring the penalty goal down to one point. Soccer’s trouble is just the opposite. Professional footballers are playing with an increasing disregard of the rules: holding, pushing, illegal and often physically dangerous tackling are no longer exceptional but commonplace. Why? Because players are paid to win, and -the price of cheating and foul play is normally nil: a free kick which, unless the crime occurs very near the offender’s goal, seldom has any value for the other side. Seldom, but not always: the

same crime committed inside the offender’s penalty box, the 44-yards-by-18 rectangle in front of the goal, is punished with a kick from the penalty spot, 12 yards out, which only the goalkeeper can block and which nearly always brings a goal. Result: within their own penalty box, the foulest footballers suddenly become perfect gentlemen. So why not invent the semipenalty? A similar kick taken from whatever distance is shown by experiment to produce one goal in every two attempts. Apply this new punishment to the more ruthless kinds of cheating anywhere on the field (outside the offender’s penalty box, where the present rules would apply). Foul play would no longer pay, and on-the-field soccer violence would be lessened overnight — with good effects, quite possibly, off the field as well.

Copyright — The Economist.