Bigger role for captains?

[Dimmu]

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/10787671/ifab-to-discuss-greater-role-for-team-captains

 

Football lawmakers will discuss an enhanced role for captains as they aim to improve player behaviour and the image of the game.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) will meet at Wembley stadium on Friday to discuss a number of proposals involving the laws of the game, including a review of responsibilities for team captains.

IFAB is made up of representatives from FIFA and the four British associations.

"We want to look at how we can enhance the role and the responsibility of the captain to take some degree of responsibility for the behaviour of his or her players." David Elleray, IFAB technical director, told Sky Sports News HQ.

Former referee Elleray believes captains should have greater responsibility

"The captain should be more than somebody who has a piece of material on their arm and attends the toss [of a coin] at the start of the game.

"Can we say, for a major incident, [only] the captain may be able to talk to the referee? If that stops six players from each team going towards the referee that will enhance respect and improve respect for the game.

"We've been moved very much in this direction, not least by the players and coaches who say 'use the captains more'. So we're responding to that. We take a view, 'what does football want?' Football wants better behaviour and a better image of the game."

Football experts have already held talks with the game's participants around the world.

"All the indications we get from our consultations around the world is that this is something the game would like." said Elleray. "Part of the role of IFAB is not to dictate but to respond, so we have our expert panel of players, coaches, referees and in these sorts of areas, we've had discussions already.

"We want to work with the captains and this is the message we get across the world. Captains are people that respond positively to help. It's up for discussion but we could well get a decision. It wouldn't involve, necessarily, a law change. I think we would like to make progress in this area."

Elleray, who retired in 2003, is a former Premier League referee and current chairman of the FA Referees Committee.

"When I was refereeing a captain was somebody I could talk to, I could go to if a player was a bit of a problem," he said. "Sometimes you could say to a captain 'look, have a word with Freddy because he's getting quite close to a yellow card', can he calm him down?' A good captain you could explain decisions to, and you could pass that on.

"We see, in other sports, the captain does have a greater responsibility. If you look at cricket, the captain of the English team is almost more important than the coach. We wouldn't want to move in that direction but certainly we believe the captain could play a much stronger role.

"I don't know if we would go that far [as rugby]. What we would like to do is agree in principle that we want to enhance the role of the captain. We will then consult pretty widely, fairly quickly, to come up with some practical measures and then move to implement that fairly quickly if we can.

"I don't think we have very clear ideas to do what rugby does. Sometimes if we say what rugby does, football immediately says 'no, well don't do it'. I think everybody agrees the captain could play a better role in the image of the game and the behaviour of players in his or her team."

 

What do you guys think?

[Animal is a Ram]

I'd like to see a system similar to rugby - and Elleray alludes to it - the referee only speaks to the captain and the offending player.

[ramit]

Interesting, but i wonder how they intend to have a captain take responsibility for the behavior of players.  Say, a player gets red carded, will the captain get a yellow?  Sent off for 7 minutes?  Spanked on the halfway line?

[uttoxram75]

If it stops Man United players surrounding refs to get someone sent off i'm all for it.

[Dimmu]

8 hours ago, ramit said:

Interesting, but i wonder how they intend to have a captain take responsibility for the behavior of players.  Say, a player gets red carded, will the captain get a yellow?  Sent off for 7 minutes?  Spanked on the halfway line?

I guess they mean who is allowed to speak to ref. Responsibility of "defence council". (Strip captaincy from Keogh!!!)

Would be personal nightmare to write Youtube "players surrounding ref" and watch those...One of those things that pisses me of big time.

[G STAR RAM]

Hope this is as successful as the Respect campaign and free kicks being moved 10 yards forward for dissent...

[Van der MoodHoover]

1 hour ago, G STAR RAM said:

Hope this is as successful as the Respect campaign and free kicks being moved 10 yards forward for dissent...

Was about to write something similar about the "fair play league".

Initiatives are all very well but it's strong and consistent enforcement plus sanction that will achieve the outcomes. Personally I think low level dissent seems to be slightly more evident in rugby than used to be the case. 

But communicaton should be a 2 way street. Last week in the England Italy match the England captain and player discussed - reasonably,  without effing and jeffing - how the French ref was interpreting the laws. Football refs should be prepared to do similar. It sometimes looks to me as though some football refs are the worst kind of puffed up self-important little hitlers who just want to dispense arbitrary and unquestioned decisions. 

I think the whole structure of how games are officiated needs an overhaul including captains, refs and tmo''s. 

[ramit]

5 hours ago, Dimmu said:

I guess they mean who is allowed to speak to ref. Responsibility of "defence council". (Strip captaincy from Keogh!!!)

Would be personal nightmare to write Youtube "players surrounding ref" and watch those...One of those things that pisses me of big time.

Like I said ref it wasn't intentional

What the hell are you babbling about, we've never spoken before

Like I said ref

Get off my pitch!

[Ashz09]

I'd love this to happen too many times Refs have been influences by players surrounding them etc.

[TuffLuff]

Is this another ruling they'll bring in to be forgotten about in three months after its introduction? In fact I thought this was already a ruling from a few seasons ago? I always think these types of laws are impossible to implement effectively. They usually start out ok when then they first come up, but because it has to factor in a refs discretion then all it takes is for one or two not to book a player and it snowballs into obscurity. 

Football is played at a high speed and passions should always be high when two teams play. That's part of what we like, but if a player can't let out frustrations in that moment then isn't there more potential for it to carry over into the play? Sometimes the ref may get an earful in the moment but then it should be gone. Although 'crowding round refs' is a problem, I do think that's more to do with a respect angle. Where if refs could demand more respect you would see it less.

Id much rather a campaign brought in about respecting refs which isn't about 'not talking to them' but one which improves communication between official and players as the game goes on. In that if much rather have a campaign that tries to solve the problem at its source rather than putting in more things that puts imaginary barriers between the players and officials

[Rev]

5 hours ago, TuffLuff said:

Is this another ruling they'll bring in to be forgotten about in three months after its introduction? In fact I thought this was already a ruling from a few seasons ago? I always think these types of laws are impossible to implement effectively. They usually start out ok when then they first come up, but because it has to factor in a refs discretion then all it takes is for one or two not to book a player and it snowballs into obscurity. 

Football is played at a high speed and passions should always be high when two teams play. That's part of what we like, but if a player can't let out frustrations in that moment then isn't there more potential for it to carry over into the play? Sometimes the ref may get an earful in the moment but then it should be gone. Although 'crowding round refs' is a problem, I do think that's more to do with a respect angle. Where if refs could demand more respect you would see it less.

Id much rather a campaign brought in about respecting refs which isn't about 'not talking to them' but one which improves communication between official and players as the game goes on. In that if much rather have a campaign that tries to solve the problem at its source rather than putting in more things that puts imaginary barriers between the players and officials

As I believe @Mafiabob has said, mic the ref up, let the public hear how they're spoken to by the players, and dissent and poor behaviour would disappear within weeks, which would filter down to the grass roots in time.