Radical steps must be rejected

Last updated : 28 October 2002 By Kevin Smith

As Max Moseley and co. ponder such suggestions as handicapping top teams and forcing drivers to change teams mid-season, I am concerned that those in the driving seat of football will also bow to commercial pressure to make the game more exciting.

We've already had a loosening of the offside rule, virtually abolishing a law that was introduced to erradicate another negative tactic - goalhanging.

Will FIFA follow F1's lead and propose that lower clubs start matches with a 1-0 lead, will Michael Owen, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Thierry Henry be forced to ply their trade in the Conference for the second half of the season, or will shots that hit the woodwork be classed as a goal?

The businessmen who latched onto the commercial opportunity to promote their products through the world's most popular sport are keen to change that sport for the benefit of the companies who invest in it.

Sky Sports' demand for goals at the expense of other aspects of the game are sickening. A 0-0 draw on the Sunday televised game is seen as an anti-climax among the pundits in the studio, regardless of the quality of defending and goalkeeping.

Any true Liverpool fan would tell you that they would happily see the Reds win every game of the season 1-0 but that is not the style of football that encourages Mr and Mrs Smith of Milton Keynes to go out and by a Satellite System with Sky's Sports package.

The media's infatuation with attacking play has already rubbed off on some less ardent supporters, who have already showed signs of unrest when Liverpool have failed to annhilate lower class opposition.

While Arsenal's 'sexy football' is starting to look limp, it is the sturdy, confident and clinical game adopted by Gerard Houllier that keeps Liverpool at the top of the table and no businessman should dictate the manager's tactics or the laws of the game.