LAW AND ORDER

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 39, 9 November 1938, Page 13

LAW AND ORDER

Extension To Playing Fields

In a world where some aspects of restraint by law rather than by violence seem "to be losing their hold with regrettable speed, perhaps we ought to be thankful for a glimpse of any field wherein the reign of law shows signs of advance instead of retreat. Oddly enough, it seems to be the football field that‘offers an example of that tendency, states a writer in the "Manchester Guardian.” In Italy, where representatives of sporting authorities were lately provided with police powers in order to deal with disorderly athletes, a referee at Lecco is reported to have arrested the entire local team for using bad language and endeavouring to upset by violence one of his own decisions during the course of play. The team, which protested that the disorder was caused by the spectators and not by the players, was ultimately discharged with a caution, but the precedent is an important one from which it would seem that Italian referees ought now to be equipped with eleven pairs of handcuffs as well as one whistle. News of more orderly but even more remarkable procedure comes from the Indian State of Bihar. There an aggrieved football club has applied in a civil court for a declaration that a certain goal recently scored against its team shall lie set aside as null and void, and apparently the court concerned has issued an interim injunction that the game in question shall not be counted in what amounts to the league tables until the suit has been properly heard and judgment delivered. Football under a system of injunctions and cases (part heard) sounds a most unexpected development. Will the goalkeeper presently be able to nourish a writ as he dances about between the posts, and. protected by injunctions and rulings from a judge in chambers, be in a position to threaten any forward who shoots from nearer than 30 yards away with attachment for contempt of court?