A gentleman’s game

THE other weekend I settled down to watch Super Soccer Sunday (the Merseyside derby between Liverpool and Everton followed by the top-of-the-table clash between Manchester United and Chelsea) a couple of hours after seeing Peter Hanson hold off Rory McIlroy to win the BMW Masters in Shanghai.

The events that followed in the Premiership really highlighted how healthy the game of golf is compared with the circus that is modern day football.

Earlier in the day, Hanson and McIlroy had competed in a battle for the title in China that came right down to the last hole. 

On the final hole, McIlroy played his approach to around 15 feet whereas Hanson’s ball landed just short of the green above the lip of a bunker. When he arrived at his ball above the bunker, the world number 25 called a referee for a ruling, as he believed his ball was plugged.

After a quick conference, the referees decided that the ball was not plugged and Hanson had to play the ball as it lay. Hanson duly obliged, played an excellent chip to 10 feet and two-putted for the win. Tension? Yes. Drama? Yes. Nonsense? None!

On the other side of the world, two unbelievable football matches took place, one after the other. In Liverpool, the two city neighbours drew 2-2 in a game full of brilliance, drama, tension, blatant cheating, poor refereeing and an incorrectly disallowed 93rd minute goal (yes, I am a Liverpool fan).

A short while later in London, a similarly amazing spectacle took place. The game was poised at 2-2, Manchester United slight favourites with a one-man advantage, when a refereeing blunder effectively ruined the contest.

The referee wrongly judged Fernando Torres to have dived to win a free kick, sent him off and then Manchester United went on to score a questionable winner. Tension? Yes. Drama? Yes. Nonsense? Absolutely!

Obviously, golf and football are two different sports played at completely different paces played by sportsmen of completely different mind sets.

In football, players are rewarded with free kicks and penalties for successfully conning the referees by diving and cheating.

In golf, players call penalties on themselves, even if it costs them victories, to maintain the integrity of the game. In golf, when the referee is called in to make a decision, they take their time and their decision is far less subjective as the rules are very matter-of-fact. As a result, the correct decision is usually made and the best man tends to win.

In football, the poor referee has got a split second to make a decision based on what he has seen, normally whilst being accosted and abused by both sets of players. Diving is so commonplace at the moment that Torres’s sending off is a little like the boy who cried wolf.

Sadly, until footballers start competing with a little more integrity, referees are going to struggle to get it right all of the time and as a result, matches are going to be decided by bad decisions.

As a professional, it is great to be involved in a sport where cheating and controversy are so very rare and the best player generally is the winner.

As a football fan, I can only hope that the governing bodies work hard to outlaw diving and perhaps take after rugby by introducing some video refereeing for the big decisions. That would certainly have helped my blood pressure in the 93rd minute of that Liverpool game!