Every year the International Football Association Board meets to review and
make alterations to the Laws of the Game. The Board consists of
representatives of the FA, the Scottish FA, the Welsh FA, the Northern Irish
FA and of course FIFA.
In March, all 36 members of the Board met
in Zermatt, Switzerland. I think that they probably spent more time boating
on the lakes or climbing the mountains than they did at the meeting venue,
judging by the number of alterations that they made. Those that they
did make, almost have you wondering if it was all worth the airline tickets.
Not that I am complaining. In the past decade we have had substantial
alterations, including a complete rewrite of the laws. Time for a little
consolidation would be more than welcome by referees and players alike. To
be fair I'm sure this was uppermost also in the minds of the Board members.
There are only three changes to the
Laws this year and one of them is a minor alteration to correct an oversight, when they changed the
Law on offences by goalkeepers last year. What does seem to have exercised the
minds of the International Board this year, is clothing or more particularly
shirts, which in the laws are called jerseys, and vests, which the International
Board calls undershirts.
What the International Board has decided is that jerseys, must have
sleeves. I'm sure this will not worry many players in this country but if you
watched the African Nations Cup you will recall that the eventual winners,
Cameroon, wore a natty line in sleeveless shirts. Very welcome no doubt in
the heat of Africa.
I noticed incidentally that in the World Cup, which took
place after the ruling came into force, the Cameroon team wore shirts with
black sleeves, so you couldn't tell whether they had sleeves or not. It has not
been revealed why sleeveless jerseys are banned but of course sleeves can
be any length as long as you have them.
The new regulations also decree that advertising is only permitted on
players jerseys. No advertising may be worn on shorts, stockings or
footwear. Presumably, and I am only presuming here, this does not ban the
use by manufacturers of their prominent logos on footwear. Where would
the top players be without their lucrative boot deals? The Laws of the game stipulate that players must wear jerseys but they do
not make any mention of undershirts( vests). I have to say that in my
footballing days, you were thought to be a sissy if you wore a vest under
your shirt but that is another story.
However, the Board has decreed that players must not reveal undershirts
which contain slogans or advertising. This is of course aimed at goalscorers
who in pulling up or taking off their jerseys, sometimes have a message on
their vest which they try and parade before the television camera. In some
cases this might be a little earner for advertising a product or, alternatively,
some political message. You may recall that Robbie Fowler before he joined
Leeds, revealed a slogan on his vest showing support for the striking
Liverpool dockers.
Incidentally, this is not a cautionable offence, you won't see referees
showing yellow cards if any player breaks this new ruling. But it is
reportable to the competition organisers who are obliged to impose some
form of sanction. This is not something, I fancy, that is going to result in
many fines on the local Reading leagues.
Dick Sawdon Smith