With some professional leagues having resumed and others set to pick up action soon, health protocols have been set and duly followed.
Spitting, the new offense in football, seems to provide endless debate. For instance, the Romanian federation has marked out a 6 to 12 game ban if players were found spitting.
To this effect, the World’s football governing body FIFA, on Wednesday, made its view clear, recommending the relevant competition organiser or member associations to enforce its own protocols regarding spitting, since it would be impossible for match officials to detect every incident.
“Where a competition (league) wishes to enforce protocols regarding spitting ( and other related areas), any displinary decision should be taken by the relevant competition organiser or member association after the match,” Chairman of FIFA Referees Committee, Pierlugi Collina, said in a letter to all member associations.
While some quarters have also felt that a booking was the most logical measure to help curb spitting on the field, Collina further addd that “it would be impractical to make it a yellow-card offense because it is impossible for the match officials to detect every incident; treating ‘general’ spitting as YC offense would lead to inconsistency and unfairness’.
“Spitting at someone” is a sending-off (red-card) offence under the Laws of the Game. However, where spitting does not fall into this category, as spitting can occur anywhere on the pitch, at any time and often away from play,” he said.
Earlier this month, as leagues mapped up their strategies to resume action and complete a stalled calendar, FIFA had announced a temporary amendment to Law 3, allowing a maximum of five substitutions instead of the regular three. The amendment stood for competitions scheduled to be completed in 2020.
FIFA has also left discretion over employing this temporary amendment to the respective leagues. It also left scope whether to extend the option to competitions due to completed in 2021 as well with a decision to be made later.
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Story by: Princeton Kwabena Wiredu | www.universnewsroom.com