Football Has Gone Soft

I’m going to sound like an old man here, but I can remember a time when footballers were allowed to tackle. When a player could go into a challenge without fearing repercussion for what has come to be known as the ‘follow through.’ Gone are the days of shouting “got the ball ref!” because even if they do, it will be given as a foul if they make the slightest contact after the event. The nature of football has been typified during the previous weekend (beginning 20th November 2020), whereby two of such incidents went in the favour of Manchester United and Brighton against West Brom and Aston Villa respectively; after-which fans took to social media to bemoan the refs for refusing them penalties. Each nicked the ball before a tap on the shin sent their man down; each had their given spot kick overturned by VAR.

Going through an opponent, over the ball and in a way that endangers them should never be a part of the game; but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Over the years, football has slowly but surely become more of a non-contact sport; with referees, and indeed lawmakers, being a lot stricter on challenges than ever before. I’m certain they’d say that it’s with an intent to lower the risk of injury, and I’m all for that, but they’ve gone too far and it negatively impacts the beautiful game from a competitiveness point of view. I haven’t looked into it and I’m not even sure that such stats exist, but I can confidently say that matches seem to be halted more often than they ever have; and some of the tackles in the 1990s were juicy! I’ve watched replays of Tony Adams, careening towards a player with two feet in the air and his studs up, akin to a small missile; without a foul being given. This is too far of course, but it shows how much the game has changed.

Something else I don’t remember happening too much 20 years ago is the way that players scream when a ‘foul’ is made. We’ll see players take off like a rocket and shriek like a woman whose been walked in on when showering as they’re touched. Then there's diving or, more specifically, more specifically, the pathetic nature of specific players to throw themselves on the floor when they’re brushed in the face, purely to get a player sent off; which is the biggest crime in football to me. I’m not claiming that this is a new thing, it has been around since I can remember (especially with continental players), but it seems to be happening all the more; refs seem to be more prepared to reach for the red card, too. There is a lot of inconsistency to it as well, which only makes it that bit more frustrating.

I’m not saying I want things to go back to the way they were; in fact, that is the last thing I want. I’ve seen replays of people like Souness, Ince and Neill Ruddock (heck, the entire Crazy Gang!), putting in the most barbaric of challenges that can only be described as an assault. To be fair, there’s plenty about the sport that I’d like to see changed before this, such as the way VAR is implemented, the media and a host of nonsensical rules (I’ll get into that in detail in a later piece); still, it contributes to taking the enjoyment away from the game, in the humble opinion of this amateur writer.

By Calum Dewsbury