Modern Football

Southland Times, Issue 12007, 30 March 1892, Page 3

Modern Football

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(Field). Considering the incalculable amount of rl wrought, both directly and indirectly, the playing of football, it would be a great misfortune were the game ever to get into such bad repute as to call for State intervention, as in times long since past. That it has yet come within measurable distance of such a grievous condition of things we do not for one moment suggest, and that it will at any time do so we should be sorry to think possible. But we regret to say that ruffianism and unsportsmanlike play are greatly on the increase, and unless checked by vigorous methods, we may find that it will be necessary for magistrates, instead of football associations and unions, to deal with assaults arising out of what should be an innocent and healthful pastime. We have had it pointed out to us that an action at law will fie against a person who is guilty of wilful violence on the football field; and if striDgent rules and a free interpretation thereof be not sufficient to check the growing evil, it is only reasonable to suppose that a legal remedy may eventually be resorted to. It may be thonght that referees aud umpires ought to be able to deal with all breaches of rule ; but we are sorry to say that many of these oflicials, either with the fear of giving offence and so losing their honorarium, or with the natural dislike to being mobbed and maltreated at the close of a match, do not fully exercise the powers that are vested in them. When once the unscrupulous player discovers this reticence on the part of the referee—for it is the official who nowadays has to decide nearly everything—he will pursue his malpractices to the fullest extent. If all referees were like several we have in

s ! mind at the present time— men who fearless / I act up to the spirit of the rules framed f< their guidance — the governing bodies of t\ game would have less work to do, and t\ 'brutality' cry of the opponents of footba would no longer be heard. The time usually devoted to a game < football, whether Rugby Union or Associf tion, is sufficiently loug to test the mo* athletic player, even supposing the game b free from the hustling aud horseplay s common nowadays; aud therefore it is nc surprising that he who plays the game fo the game's sake, and the benefit to body an mind to be derived therefrom, should tak excepiion to the ungentlemanly, not to sa; dishonest, tactics so frequently pursued. 1 game ia no longer worth playing when th issue of it depends upon which side is th better acquainted with trickery, and th most opportune moment for resorting to fou play. It is small matter to the player who finding himself outpaced or outmanojuvre< by his opponent, deliberately trips or send him to the ground with a violent push, tha his side is mulcted in a penalty kick. H haa stopped a run which might have carrie< success with it, and though accomplished a the risk of injury to his rival, he is content and reckons that he has rendered good ser vice to his club; and what is stranger evei than this contentment on the part of the in dividual is the delight — certainly not proo of the Englishman's vaunted love of fair pluj — of the club's followers that the other sidt has been so robbed of an advantage which, ii only fair play had been shown, might have led to something tangible. Now, in som< matches the player who adopts this methoc is as well known to the referee as the habitua! criminal is to the police; yet, just as tht latter is allowed to go unmolested until caught red-handed, so the individual whe brings discredit on a most excellent game continues his nefarious practices, and brings opprobrium on an exercise which knows nc superior for imparting to its votary supple ness of limb, increased lung capacity, and general activity of the internal organs, to say nothing of the training he receives in the waj of pluck and endurance. Thia sort of thing should not be allowed tc endure, and prevention is, we think, in the power of the authorities. Let the referee send the guilty player off the field persistently, and either the latter will soon mend his waya or disappear altogether; for,whethei he be professional or amateur, the club t(j which ne belongs would soon tire of running the risk of having to play one short for some part of the game, and in many cases nearly the whole of it. There is small doubt that many of the undesirable elements of the game have been introduced eince the establishment of piofessionalism, and it is open tc serious question whether the improvement in the Association game scientifically, which has been brought about since the paid player was openly recognised, has not been purchased at too dear a price. Under the Rugby Union code, professionalism, which, according to some authorities, exists in a covert form, has not had such influence ; yet it behoves the guardians of the 'carrying 1 game to exercise to the full the powers vested in them, for unnecessary violence in the matter of tackling is by no means unknown — matches in the north, indeed, being continually associated with a style of play which is to be strongly condemned, and which should be put down with the utmost rigour. 'Mobbing the referee' is a matter for which clubs cannot be held wholly answerable, and j it is subject for gratification that, in the j majority of cases, the players of the side : against which the decision found fault with j has been given, invariably lend the insulted official their protection.