There are many who consider Fabien Barthez currently the best goalkeeper in the world. Certainly Manchester United must have regarded the French national goalkeeper highly for the money they spent to obtain his services after his exploits in the World Champion's goal.
I think the jury is still out on how good he really is, but one thing is certain:. he is the most controversial, or perhaps I should say gets himself into the most controversial situations. He has given away goals by his desire to dribble when the ball has been passed back to
him. This year his eccentricity cost Manchester United two goals in one of their Champions' League matches, and who can forget his apparent gamesmanship in last year's F.A. Cup? He stood still with a raised hand hoping to convince Paolo Di Canio that he was offside. The West Ham player wasn't fooled and his subsequent goal won the tie.
Last Saturday Barthez was at it again. If you didn't see the incident in the now later showing of the Premiership on ITV, let me describe what happened. The referee awarded a penalty to Leicester. Having satisfied himself that all the players other than the kicker were outside the penalty area and the penalty arc, he blew his whistle for the kick to be taken. He then looked at the goalkeeper only to find that Barthez was not on his line but standing against the goalpost apparently kicking the mud off his boors. He quickly blew his whistle again but it was too late to prevent Muzzy Izzet kicking the ball into the empty net.
The referee Andy D'Urso didn't allow the goal and ordered the kick to be retaken. Not surprisingly, he received protests from the Leicester players at the time and from Dave Bassett, the Leicester manager, after the game, who said that he felt the goal should have been allowed to stand.
One of the panel on television felt the kick should have been allowed to stand, but the other agreed that it had to be retaken but didn't give an explanation. Wouldn't it be good to have a referee on the panel for such occasions, who could give the answer?
The referee admitted having made a mistake, in fact it was a beginners error not something you would expect at the top level, but he had no choice other than to have the kick taken again.
Law 14 says that the referee does not signal for the kick to be taken until the players have taken up position in accordance with the law, which is: all the players except the goalkeeper and the kicker, must remain inside the field of play, outside the penalty area, behind the penalty mark and at least 10 yards (9.l5metres) from the penalty mark. The goalkeeper (and here is the key point as far as this incident is concerned) must remain on his goal line, facing the kicker, between the goalposts until the ball has been kicked.
Clearly the conditions had not been met, for Barthez was not on his goal line between the posts, nor was he facing the kicker. The penalty kick was first introduced into the laws in 1891 but it was many years later that they required the goalkeeper to stand on his line between the post. In 1997 the law was further refined to say that the goalkeeper must face the kicker for which Monsieur Barthez is no doubt grateful.
One of the lTV panel suggested that Barthez was playing mind games and should have been cautioned for unsporting behaviour. Was it gamesmanship? The answer with his previous record is probably yes, but there is nothing to say that a goalkeeper can't clear mud off his boots before a penalty. At the end of the day, Muzzy Izzet hit a perfectly good penalty kick and Barthez pulled off a brilliant save. Perhaps confirming his ranking as the top goalkeeper.
Dick Sawdon Smith