The behaviour and subsequent delight of Luis Suarez in the match against Ghana was shambolic and set a terrible precedent to youngsters watching the World Cup. He should be ashamed of the fact that his intentional handball is the reason that Ghana were knocked out of the tournament. Instead he is unrepentant and has gleefully claimed his act is the new ‘Hand of God’.
Thierry Henry’s behaviour in the World Cup qualifying play-off against the Republic of Ireland was a similarly instinctive piece of gamesmanship, but at least Henry had the dignity to apologise. He realised that his behaviour was wrong, whereas Suarez seems to think he is a national hero.
Suarez’s tears as he walked off the pitch were not borne from shame, as his celebrations when Asamoah Gyan missed his penalty with the last kick of extra-time revealed. The rules should now be changed to prevent children all across the world from imitating his behaviour and/or thinking it is ok to do so in the future.
At present, Suarez’s behaviour is not technically cheating. It is a straight red card and a penalty offence. Fortunately this kind of incident is rare as most people’s instinct is to try and defend a shot with any part of their body but the arm, but it may not be after this World Cup.
People may see the light punishment handed out by FIFA, who declined to extend Suarez’s one-match ban, weigh this negative against the positive, which is that Uruguay ultimately went though to the semi-final of the World Cup, and think that may be a worthwhile exchange.
The only alternative punishment for a blatant handball rather than a penalty would be to award a goal. For this to happen the referee would have to be absolutely sure that a. the act was undisputedly intentional, b. that there is no way anyone else, including the goalkeeper, could have stopped the ball entering the goal had the handball not taken place and c. that the ball was definitely goal-bound in the first place.
In the heat of the moment, with the limited perspective of one referee and an often crowded penalty area, the three requirements alone would be too much for the judgement of one man. Therefore my suggestion is this: for the rules to be changed along with the introduction of technology.
The referee is by definition susceptible to human error and while technology cannot be used at all levels of the game it should be used when as much is at stake as it was in this incident. After Lampard’s goal that never was and Tevez’s goal that shouldn’t have been this is the third different major mistake that could and should have been easily resolved with a simple video replay.
It is almost as if the first World Cup in Africa is telling us that it is time for the game itself to move on as well. Listen up Mr Blatter.
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