Dear FA; can we have our game back?

In 2011 I fell out of love with English football; the FA had pulled the final plastic rod and I kerplunked.

This week when Suarez missed lunch these feelings resurfaced and we now wait to see which moral judgement has been selected by our great Football Association.

The FA’s history is sporadically positive; the national team is treated as a cashcow, smaller teams at the top make up the numbers and teams outside the Premiership are expected to chase unobtainable, unsupported potential.

Changes in the last few years have given many hope but the issues of racism, hate and violence are still very prevalent. As we finally see goal line technology many might question why the FA cannot affect problems destroying our game on a more regular basis.

Below is the incident in 2009 which has shaped my desire for change; a despicable act that was not dealt with in any manner and is one of many incidents which show huge ineptitude on the part of our decision makers.

For those who do not realise; if a referee sees and reports an incident but no decisions on the pitch are made the FA is unable to retrospectively act.

Rooney’s elbow is not uncommon, it never has been, but media attention is constantly highlighting the very negative aspects of the game. Rooney wasn’t punished; in fact the FA barely paid any attention and he escaped from any real punishment.

These incidents are fairly common; violence is on the pitch as well as in our stands and our national sport continues to set poor examples.

Many solutions could exist; putting microphones on referees to exemplify bad behaviour and build cases, being more rigorous with identifying/affecting trouble making fans, better flexibility in decisions made on the pitch, stronger community responsibility (within localities and legislation) and a realisation that the referee can and will make mistakes; it does not exemplify ineptitude it points to human error.

Last week Sergio Aguero’s double studded stamp on David Luiz escaped punishment, yet his eyes told you aggression was his primary motive; when our fans see this, when our future players see this and when those outside football see these incidents go unpunished we effectively say football is beyond morality.

This is our beautiful game and we need to take it back; in incidents relating to violence only an independent body can make these decisions, clearly the pressure on the FA is too large and they are unable to make sound judgements.

Safety in our game needs to be independently judged; the pitch, the stands and the community would all benefit and there must be some control established in order to keep our game positive.

This could begin with an independent group making decisions on pitch incidents and in the future stretch to input from organisations such as ‘Kick it Out’.

Creativity and flexibility needs to exist in our game, especially in the FA, for example after violence during a Fenerbahce friendly the Turkish FA changed their initial decision of 2 closed door games and only admitted women and children to the fixtures.

An independent body could be creative; our FA is under too much pressure.

In my opinion Suarez deserves an 8 month ban; it is positive the FA are offering him anger management classes as it illustrates they are taking their players personal development seriously but the game is hurt beyond short term repair and only a strong change will improve its fortune.

A truly independent body dealing with pitch incidents and ignoring nonsensical regulations must exist and is the only way we can start to recover our beautiful game; without it the incidents below will continue to go unpunished and violence, deplorable actions will remain a ignored example of our game.