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Time for a big tweak in the rules Readers are probably sick of me writing about the rules violations that get ignored all the time in football, the constant petty fouls at corners, pulling and dragging, blocking players from moving, timewasting, even hitting players when the ball has gone, giving players verbal abuse, and yes, kicking the ball away. This is generally called shithousery. Lots of fans love shithousery Shithousery is praised by the fans and Ben White is the Arsenal hero of this. But not to me. Ian Wright was famous for insulting players all the time, hoping to get them angry and make mistakes. So much so that when BBC fans voted the 10 worst shithousers ever, they didn’t include Ian Wright and Gary Lineker put him in as number 11 because Alan Shearer, his co-panellist agreed that their friend was a serious shithouser. The final order was decided by Alan Shearer, Micah Richards and Lineker, and despite not being in the original list, Wright finished fifth. But truly, it is nothing to be proud of. Is football really a sport? Football is a sport. To be the best at a sport, you must follow all the rules and come out on top. They have specific rules to be adhered to and if you don’t, you are cheating. If you cheat you are not the winner. But football has long since left that world behind. Now, it is simply what you can get away with. Only one guy gets punished? The controversial moment on Saturday against Brighton was when Declan Rice and Joel Veltman tussled near the corner flag. I found it difficult to say who was fouling who as they were both pulling and dragging (which is against the rules). It seems the referee Kavanagh decided that Rice was the offender. So he walked away and Veltman kicked the ball after him. Rice saw the ball and tapped it out of his way. Then Veltman kicked him leading the Arsenal fans to believe that he would get a red card for violent affray. Instead Rice got the yellow card which, coupled with his previous one for a low foul earlier, meant he got a red. Veltman, bizarrely didn’t even get a talking to for lashing out at a player, a clear red card by itself. Inconsistency is not the only problem And so we all saw it several times but unless Rice actually admitted that he was trying to delay a restart by tapping the ball then we don’t know his intent. Now, intent shouldn’t matter, if you break the rules you get punished. However this particular rule is most often ignored by refs and was several times in the same match. Pedro very intently had done it earlier and when Arteta protested he got spoken to. Pedro got nothing. Kavanagh could argue that as Arteta was calling for action on that offence, he was being inconsistent in calling for it also to be ignored when his own guy had done it. The only difference between the two was intent, Pedro deliberately did his and Rice maybe didn’t do it deliberately. Pedro can do what he likes? I agree that if there is a rule then all players should abide by it. This is one of the easiest offences to spot, whether deliberate or not. A referee has no excuse for ignoring it and, in my opinion, even if the ref doesn’t see it, any official or VAR who do, are entitled to tell the ref and the player gets booked. Players would stop kicking the ball away and the opposition could have a chance of an exciting quick breakaway. Can anything be done? It is hard , however, to truly justify a yellow card for such an offence as to me kicking a player, pulling and dragging, knocking players to the ground and so on are worse. However, if there is no punishment, then the ref can do nothing as he has given a foul and the opposition have kicked the ball away. Perhaps it is time for a tweak to the rule. How about giving a player a pre yellow card for this offence only? By this I mean that he gets away with it once except for the pre yellow. This pre yellow card stays effective until the player kicks the ball away again even if it is two or three seasons later and the player is with a different club. I certainly would have no objection to this as long as every time someone kicks the ball away it is recorded, punished, and everyone knows about it. Fabian Hurzeler says his players did nothing wrong. Really? My point about only complaining when the opposition does it is another bone of contention. If it is wrong then it is wrong and it is cheating. It doesn’t matter who does it. Arteta, nor anyone else, has no entitlement to complain about a decision if they are going to complain when the decision they asked for is given against them. As I have said this decision is an easy one to spot and the officials and cameras will certainly spot it. The referee should be forced to give the yellow card even if, like Chris Kavanagh, he has decided to ignore it like he did Pedro, or, in another scenario, didn’t see it. Accidents get punished in most sports Cameras, as the last resort in this instance, will not get it wrong. Hawkeye technology gets goal line decisions right and we all accept it. Refs opinions have nothing to do with it. Let’s use it in this instance as well. Kicking the ball away would become a thing of the past as have disputes over balls going over the line. A foul is a foul in snooker even if there was no intent Now, you may say that Declan Rice was not aware of whether he was stopping play but rather tipping away a ball that has come into his path. Only he knows that. In many sports accidents are still punished, if you touch a ball in golf or snooker you get punished even if totally accidental. It probably isn’t fully fair but that is the rule. I think fans could live with that if that is the rule and it is applied all the time. No-one admits to anything The problem with modern day football is that no-one admits anything. Veltman did not admit to deliberately kicking Declan Rice and Fabian Hürzeler, the Brighton manager also did not admit to his players doing anything wrong including Pedro. They were both blatantly lying in common with virtually all modern football personnel. Liar, liar, pants on fire It is time for the culture to change. Players must be obliged to call foul on themselves, whether it is handball, a physical foul or kicking the ball away. Not doing so, when the cameras clearly show what happened, should mean a much more severe punishment for not upholding the rules of the game. It is sport, which implies sporting behaviour, and everything else is cheating and cheaters should not be allowed to win, as is the case at present. A harsh punishment for not being sporting, and to tell the truth is necessary. We are constantly watching players and managers lie, and we know they are lying, they know they are lying, and so does the questioner. But more crucially, the authorities know they are lying and do nothing. Can we put the good of the sport first? A good start is to stop claiming fouls unless you are also going to claim them for the opposition. As I understand it, it already is an offence to call for a card or a foul, but only sometimes is it punished. Punish it everytime and in tandem punish anyone not admitting to a breach. The culture of the game would change dramatically, fans would no longer get so many bad decisions and crucially, referees would have an easier time as long as they are consistent. Taking the referee out of the decision-making worked great with goal-line technology Will it happen? Will everyone start putting the good of the game first, put sporting behavior first? Will it heck as like!