My tips to improve the World Cup

So we will have a new World Cup winner on Sunday night – Spain or Holland – probably the best two nations never to have lifted the trophy.
There have been some real surprises in South Africa – Germany’s amazing goalscoring performances, rank outsiders New Zealand remaining unbeaten and Uruguay reaching the semi-finals. England were rubbish (no surprise there though), Brazil imploded in shocking fashion against the Dutch and world champions Italy looked like a pub team.
The tournament was not a classic however and I believe FIFA has to make some changes to the game if we are to see an improvement in Brazil 2014. These are my tips for Sepp Blatter:
1 SCRAP PENALTY SHOOT-OUTS – it is not a fair way of deciding a crucial match. It is a lottery which examines the psychological make-up of a player rather than his skill. Instead the referee should count the number of corners each team wins and if that is level it should be down to the number of shots on target. We must reward the team which attacks more.
2 AWARD A GOAL IF A DEFENDER HANDLES THE BALL ON THE GOAL LINE – this would prevent any repetition of Uruguay profiting from stopping a certain winning goal with a hand ball on the line against Ghana. A penalty was given and the offending player red-carded but the spot kick was missed and Uruguay went on to win on penalties. Referees should give the goal and yellow card the offender.
3 RETROSPECTIVE YELLOW CARDS FOR PLAYERS WHO FEIGN INJURY – FIFA should examine video footage of matches afterwards and look for players collapsing to the ground as though they have been shot before miraculously getting to their feet and playing on seconds later. It is pathetic, cowardly behaviour and is a worse offence, in my mind, than diving to win a penalty.
4 AWARD AN EXTRA POINT IN THE GROUP STAGES FOR TEAMS WINNING BY MORE THAN ONE GOAL – this would punish ultra-defensive teams from strangling matches once they have taken the lead. It should lead to more attacking play and reward the more offensive nations.
5 USE GOAL LINE TECHNOLOGY TO HELP REFEREES DECIDE IF A GOAL HAS BEEN SCORED – the old chestnut! There is no reason why FIFA should not set up cameras in the goal because it is almost impossible for referees and linesmen to clearly see if the ball is over the line. The argument that it would slow the game down is nonsense. The fourth official could have a small TV screen and signal to the referee seconds after it has happened. Millions of people around the world knew Frank Lampard had scored against Germany. The only people who didn’t were the officials. Fortunately Germany went on to score twice more to win 4-1 but if they hadn’t there would have been outrage.
So there you have it. My recipe for making the world’s greatest game even more enjoyable. I welcome your comments!

The First Social Media World Cup

With the excitement building for the 2010 World Cup, it has dawned on me just how much I rely on social media for news and information about the tournament.
Back in the 1970s, when I was a child thrilled by the skills of Pele, Cruyff and Kempes, the satellite pictures from Mexico and Argentina seemed like a technological miracle.
Not every game was covered live on television, though, and the only other information came via the newspapers or potted profiles in my Panini sticker album.
How different it is today. My Blackberry mobile phone is constantly signalling Twitter and Facebook messages about every aspect of the world’s biggest sporting event outside the Olympic Games.
The Football Association (@thefadotcom) send Twitter links to England press conferences and photographs of facilities in the team hotel.
A Facebook friend sends me a You Tube video of the spectacular new Nike World Cup advert featuring Ronaldo, Rooney and Drogba – an astounding 14 million people have now seen it on the video-sharing site.
Telegraph football writer Henry Winter (@henrywinter) tweets match updates from England’s last warm-up match while broadcaster Gabby Logan (@Gabby_Logan) says she is nervous before interviewing Fabio Capello for the first time.
There are all kinds of insights and titbits you can glean from a multitude of sources. Football magazine @FourFourTwo tweets about the Dutch squad being banned from using Twitter and they report regular disparaging comments from players about the quality of the new World Cup ball.
On his Facebook page, USA star man Landon Donovan counts down to his team’s opening match against England as American supporters urge him to ‘kick some English ass’ in their comments.
This truly is the first ever social media World Cup and what a wonderful thing it is.
Of course there are some football fans who still live in the dark ages – as befits the world’s most secret society North Korea apparently has not allowed any journalists to cover their own nation at the tournament!

PR disaster for world's most popular sport

If I wander into my local town centre later on today and drop a piece of litter it will be spotted by at least one of half-a-dozen CCTV cameras.
It would lead to a small fine and possibly a couple of lines in our weekly newspaper.
On Wednesday night millions of television viewers around the globe saw France knock Ireland out of the football World Cup. Everyone of those armchair onlookers would have seen that the crucial French goal should have been disallowed because of a blatant handball.
Consequently, the Emerald Isle is in a state of national mourning and cyberspace is awash with twitterers and bloggers demonising the French team and key perpetrator Thierry Henry.
The only people who didn't see the handling offence were the only ones who could actually rule it out - the referee and his assistant.
This is because the game's ruling body - FIFA - will not sanction the use of TV replays to help officials get crucial decisions right.
As a result Henry is being pilloried as a cheat despite a previously impressive and unblemished career and the Swedish referee for the game is derided as incompetent.
The real villians in all this are FIFA and the French football federation, who are both ignoring Irish pleas to replay the game.
By doing nothing about it, they are missing a golden opportunity to brighten the image of football in the eyes of the world. Many see the modern day footballer as vastly overpaid and lacking in sportsmanship in their quest to win at all costs.
The latest controversy comes at a time when the integrity of other sports have been damaged by blatant cheating - rugby players faking injury and Formula One racing drivers crashing their cars to gain tactical advantages, while athletes and cyclists continue to take illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
Football has scored a monumental own goal and missed a PR trick by failing to agree to play this match again.
The least they should do is bring in video technology to help referees because it is clear that footballers, who are playing for such high stakes at the top level, cannot be trusted to do the right thing when a similarly controversial incident takes place in the future.
We live in a world where our every move is monitored by CCTV cameras and yet the football authorities decide not to use them in their multi-million pound sport.
Shame on them.