Blattered

Can't quite leave the World Cup – not just yet. I keep tying to, but Sepp Blatter won't let me.

Not content with his outburst regarding the officials running onto the pitch and pointing out errors made by the referee, he now thinks maybe more referees on the pitch may be a good idea. At least that's what the EDP reported on 6 July. The headline seems to imply that Sepp is throwing his not inconsequential weight behind this idea. The article does not actually say this – but, why let the facts get in the way of a good story.

According to the article, experiments with dual referees have taken place in Malaysia (that hotbed of footballing expertise and home to the world's most fanatical fans?) and Brazil (perhaps on the beach?) with “encouraging results”. Unfortunately, there were unsatisfactory reactions in Norway and Italy. Intriguing.

Has anyone noticed? These experiments have either been held very recently or attracted nil publicity or reaction from the press. Certainly, I have never heard of them. Has anyone?

I'm intrigued. Could it be that FIFA is actually thinking about the absurdity of the game as it stands? I'm not convinced. We already have a referee, two assistants and fourth and fifth officials. Having two referees doesn't seem to be much of an improvement to me. Unless players are deterred from sharp practices and the game is, as a consequence, opened up providing more scoring opportunities and goals, providing another referee is probably pointless. It is the dearth of goals in the world cup that makes every decision by the officials a critical one. And, as an entertainment, football suffers because the point of the game, to score goals, is so seldom a feature.

For example, in the World Cup so far goals have been in short supply. In the group games there were an average of 2.41 goals per game. The round of 16 produced 15 goals at 1.85 per game. Quarter finals and semi finals produced only 1.5 goals per game – despite the extra time played in many of these games. England – Portugal played for 120 minutes and produced exactly nil. Result: the completely unsatisfactory penalty shoot-out.

It seems so obvious to say, games should be decided by goals scored. Most of the gamesmanship we see in games is a direct result of the scarcity of goals. Lack of entertainment is caused by no goals. Unless Sepp and FIFA are going to do something to try and get more goals into the game, nothing much is going to change. Players will try every trick in the book to get opponents sent off – simply to get enough room on the pitch to score a goal. It's all so sad.

Get goals back into the game and most of the problems will disappear. If they are honest, supporters will admit that what they really want to see are goals. If the authorities don't provide them with goals, they would be quite justified in voting with their feet.