A Change to The Penalty Law – Triple Punishment to be Reviewed

A striker is through on goal and hares into the penalty area with just the keeper to beat.   The last covering defender though has a chance to make a last ditch tackle and prevent the striker from getting a shot off; they take a chance and dive in. The tackle is mistimed and instead of making a clean challenge the defender fouls the striker. The referee spots the infringement and has little option but to award a penalty and send off the offender. The punishment doesn’t end there, as the player who committed the foul would also be suspended for the following game.

The triple whammy for penalties may soon become a thing of the past according to a report the Independent. IFAB will be discussing the topic at the behest of former referee Pierluigi Collina.

Stewart Regan, the chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, said that the group would broach the issue next year.

“This will come back in March and there will be a recommendation for change. There are two ends of the spectrum. Either you reduce the automatic suspension or you adopt a more technical solution whereby the 18-yard box is deemed a special area and that denying a goal scoring opportunity becomes a yellow card since a penalty is awarded anyway.”

The fact that the law will be amended is something to be welcomed but which of the two options mentioned by Regan is the better one?

Reducing the automatic suspension makes sense. The punishment, it can be argued, should only hit the offending team in just that game itself.

Treating the 18-yard box as a ‘special area’ is an interesting idea. However the penalty box should only be treated as a ‘special area’ when dealing with fouls where there is only genuine intent at challenging for the ball.

One hopes that IFAB when discussing the will still allow referees to punish cynical fouls or in more extreme cases violent conduct.

The desire to introduce the professional foul into the laws of the football stemmed from an incident in the 1980 FA Cup final between West Ham United and Arsenal. West Ham was one-nil up with three minutes to go when Paul Allen was set clean through on goal with the opportunity to put the Hammers two to the good. Arsenal’s Willie Young had other ideas and cynically took him down. Under the laws at the time the most the referee, George Courtney, could do to punish Young was give him a yellow card.

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In the 1982/83 season, the Football League introduced a mandatory red for a professional foul. The practice was adopted by FIFA in 1990 and IFAB officially included into the laws of the game in 1997.

Crucially, the law it its current iteration does not allow the referee to take intent into consideration. Therefore it does not distinguish between cynical play and honest attempts at making a fair challenge.

If IFAB does alter the law, with respect to penalty decisions at least, then it is a welcome move. However whilst provisions should be made to limit the punishment of players who attempt to make honest challenges there must still be scope for the referees to fully punish cynical and serious foul play.

That may lead to referees having to interpret incidents thus adding another factor to their decision making process and making their job more difficult. Players on the other hand may feel empowered to dive in believing that the worst they could see is yellow. There really is no perfect solution.

Whatever the decision the current law seems unduly harsh as it effectively penalizes a single foul three times. Relaxing the law may not solve all ills but at least it’ll redress the balance a little so that the punishment truly fits the crime.