38 Sports Issue 12 July 2024 The RGS Gazette How Can We Prevent Football Scandals? I have been playing and watching sport since I was three years old. My parents before me grew up in the same way, surrounded by sport. This is what has allowed me to pick apart each of the largest sporting scandals that we know of, and cut this large group down to what I believe is the most significant sporting scandal in history. How can we aim to prevent future scandals whilst maintaining the level of excitement that all sports bring? Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard the term, “The hand of God”. This refers to Diego Maradona’s infamous goal against England in the quarterfinals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Allow me to paint the picture. It’s the 50th minute of the quarterfinals of the biggest sporting event in the world. 22 players from Argentina and England are on the pitch. 114,000 are watching from the stands, as well as an estimated one billion people around the world, watching from home. Games do not get much bigger than this. Half time has come and gone, with the score remaining level at nilnil. And then, in the 51st minute, a mistake from an English defender left the ball travelling toward the England goal. Maradona leapt high into the air, and flicked the ball, using the outside of his left hand, over the goalkeeper Peter Shilton, into the back of the England net. It felt as if time stood still. No Argentina players went over to embrace the celebrating Maradona, and the English players were sure that it would be disallowed. But, the referee, Ali Bin Nasser of Tunisia, declared that he saw nothing wrong with the goal, and awarded Argentina a onenil lead. Then, four minutes later, Maradona scored again this would be voted as the ‘Goal of the Century’ in 2002. England were only able to score one goal in response, and ended up losing, and being knocked out of the World Cup, continuing their then 20 years of hurt. Argentina later went on to win the World Cup, with Maradona captaining them to the victory. So how do we prevent this from ever happening again? This is why the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) feature is so important within the modern game, and despite all of the controversy surrounding this subject, I am without a doubt that it has been a positive addition to the game. Sky Sports analysts claim that 96% of the decisions made by VAR have been correct, and Manchester United legend Paul Scholes thinks that it is almost always a very effective tool in removing human error from the game. This in turn makes for a fairer. Premier League. Clubs evidently agree with this when given the option to remove the tool from the game, the decision was nearly unanimously in favour of keeping it, with Wolverhampton Wanderers being the only team who voted to have it removed. I get it the elation, the chaos, the euphoria of your team scoring a goal, removed by the ominous presence of the three officials behind their screens, who have the power to take this away from you. A recent example of this was when Manchester United played Coventry City in the 2024 FA Cup semifinal. Coventry play in the Championship, where VAR has not yet been introduced, so when Victor Torp turned the ball home in the 121st minute, after completing an epic comeback from 30 down, there was pandemonium in the Coventry end. Yet, they were blissfully unaware that VAR officials were about to snatch the FA Cup final place out of their hands. This is why we must find the middle ground on this topic. A solution where the game can be fair, yet still have the instant jubilation when your team scores a goal, or at least some explanation as to why the goal has not been awarded, similar to the NFL, where the referee has a microphone attached to the stadium's speakers. This would not only make the game more enjoyable to watch as a fan, it would also decrease the level of hooliganism at games, as there would be less controversy and more understanding. Another way that this balance could be achieved is by having a clear, consistent, coherent set of rules for the whole sport, not just one league or competition, or part of a competition. There probably will never be a solution that everyone can be entirely happy with, but we must find a way that’s fair. Zebedee Pearson (Year 10) discusses football scandals and how we can prevent them 'Hand of God' (1986)
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