I’ve always felt it’s a shame that rugby doesn’t get the same kind of viewing numbers globally, or even in the UK, (except during the Six Nations) that it deserves. There is no doubt that rugby players, despite often looking terrifying, are more well-rounded and respectful people than their dissenting, obnoxious, more-money-than-sense professional footballing counterparts. Forgive the sweeping generalisation, but it is arrestingly accurate when you watch the behaviour of players in the two sports.

There is so much wrong with football today that was diagnosed in rugby years ago and which the ruling bodies took swift, successful measures to stamp out.  However, UEFA and FIFA football unfortunately has two ruling bodies that are unwilling to put into effect the kind of ruthless changes to the game that rugby chiefs executed with little fuss.

Diving (euphemistically renamed ‘simulation’) is fast becoming an epidemic in all levels of football. Players have turned deceiving the referee by play-acting into a fine art and one which would not look out of place amid the footlights of the London West End. Equally, off-the-ball incidents are increasingly prevalent in football. Whether it is a flailing elbow or an off-the-ball scuffle, the referee cannot realistically be expected pick up on, all of these incidents and other such disgraces often become the story rather than the game itself.  A sad state of affairs.

The increasing frequency with which games are tarnished by off-the-ball incidents or play-acting seems to cement the case for integrating a form of sin-binning into football. In rugby, such a system works beautifully as players are denied the opportunity to help their team for a set period of time due to a transgression on the pitch. It also means that red cards are handed out very rarely in rugby because of the successful restorative effect of the yellow card system. Quite frankly I’m not sure what a red card is for in rugby, maybe murder?

That can only suggest that the sin-binning system is an effective one. I daresay that diving and other common misdemeanours would cease to be a problem in football, and referees would be far braver in convicting people of it, if a ten minute sin-bin system were enforced. 

 Frank Lampard’s infamous ‘goal that never was’ against Germany at the FIFA World Cup this summer started a furore surrounding the introduction of goal-line technology into football. FIFA President Sepp Blatter, as embracing to change and upheaval as ever, suggested that it would “ruin” football.  An overstatement perhaps. The reality is that if you are using goal-line technology, it will disrupt the game very, very little. Goal-line decisions are rare but the technology is nevertheless imperative in tournaments of the calibre of the UEFA Champions League. The stakes are so high that an inevitable mistake from a fallible referee shouldn’t decide a match.

Rugby has cutting-edge video technology integrated into games, and the smoothness with which this operates on big decisions means that the game is disrupted very little. While football relies on an unrivalled ebb-and-flow style for it to be at its most exciting, goal-line technology simply wouldn’t detract from the game. It is vital, despite the few occurrences of such injustices as England suffered, goal-line technology must be there for that one instance where such a call is needed. Just ask Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea side of 2005.

In addition, FIFA would be wise to take a lesson from rugby in introducing ‘miked-up’ referees. If a player dissents in rugby, a national TV audience can generally hear it and they can hear the referee admonishing the culprit also.  This would make football more transparent and would help fans to see the job that referees have got on their hands with some players. It is time that referees were given more support in what can become a heated environment.

The 2010/11 seasons of football and rugby have proven to me, once again, that rugby is superior to football in just about every way, except the game itself, of course. All the same, ‘the beautiful game’ is threatened with being tainted by the dark arts of those who perform it at the highest level of the game.

This is truly tragic, and those in the corridors of power in football must take ruthless measures to preserve the sanctity of the game. People like Sepp Blatter seem to be stuck in their archaic ways, but for the sake of everyone who loves football, those with the ability to change the game must exercise that power for the better. 

 Football chiefs should take a lesson from rugby’s governing bodies and act to ensure that from now on, after a football match, the football is always the story.