Recently I came across my 1971/72 Laws of the Game, except its title was ‘Referees Chart and a Players Guide to the Laws of the Game’.
How many players ever read it is anyone’s guess, but it was freely available in those days. Published by the FA, it could even be bought from WH Smiths.
Today the book, now published by the IFAB, is not available in this country and can be purchased only from FIFA in Switzerland.
With various charges it cost over £30. It is of course available to be downloaded onto mobile phones.
It is, however, 210 pages long, against 53 pages in 1971 when not only did it give advice to referees and players but also to club secretaries, some of which took most of a page.
There was one advice to referees that caught my attention in Law 16, the Goal Kick.
It told referees to ‘show clearly the side from which the kick is to be taken’. The ball clearance by goalkeepers’ has been subject to many changes over the years, all in the great dream of speeding up the game and which if we are honest have failed miserably.
In 1971, the goal kick was taken from the side of the goal that the ball went out over the goal line.
However, the ball might go out on one side, but finish up on the other and goalkeepers would, sometimes, take a long time to get to the correct side.
The law became changed to say that the goal kick could be taken from either side, irrespective of which side it went out.
The truth is that goalkeepers, particularly if their team is leading by a slender margin, will walk slowly to the furthest side.
The latest change is that the ball is in play at a goal kick, as soon as it is clearly kicked and not have to leave the penalty area, which often leads to a lot of play in or around the penalty area.
Originally, when releasing the ball from the hand the goalkeeper could take as long as he liked, providing he bounced the ball or threw it in the air every four paces.
This was reduced to four paces only, but attacking players would stand in front of the goalkeeper after his fourth step, hoping to get him penalised. So now we have a time limit of six seconds.
I say no more except the real answer to getting the ball back quickly from the goalkeeper, has yet to be found.
