FIFA must address soccer shortfalls

I shall take two powerful and lingering memories from the recent World Cup of soccer, and neither of them are positive.
In the first instance, an Italian striker is streaking towards the opposition goal as a fellow forward is prising a gap on the sideline. Suddenly, just as the man going for open space near the goal is actually in open space, he falls down like he’s been shot, clutching his leg. Calf-muscle pull? Assassination attempt? Nope. The guy appeals to the referee, calling for a penalty kick right at the top of the 18-metre line.
Small problem: there wasn’t a defender within two yards when the striker went into his swan dive.
In the second instance, the Dutch earned a free kick in the dying minutes of the second extra frame of the final. On the ensuing kick, the ball deflected off a Spanish defender and out of bounds for a corner kick ... save that the official, who was seriously tested all game long, incorrectly awarded a goal kick. Two minutes later, the Spanish win the game on the match’s only goal.
The above two instances underscore everything that is wrong with elite-level soccer.
Fortunately, both can be readily fixed.
At the highest level of the game, players insist on embellishing even the littlest bump. This has to be addressed. Other sports have a methodology for dealing with instances of player embellishment of non-fouls. Hockey implemented the “diving” penalty, and I, as a lacrosse official, have administered an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for a similar act. Soccer needs to do something – but I don’t know what: a yellow card seems a bit harsh. Then again, if officials issued a few yellow cards for faking a penalty, maybe people wouldn’t be calling the recent soccer event the World Diving Championships.
Maybe FIFA could borrow a tactic from rugby, and send a player off for five minutes for a diving infraction. I know that will offend soccer purists, but as a sporting purist, the blatant faking of injuries and fouls plaguing soccer is one of the reasons it will never gain better traction in North America where hockey, lacrosse, football and other more forceful contact and collision sports are played.
On another front, let’s be honest: the World Cup featured missed calls, blown calls, non-calls and other examples of poor or questionable officiating. In one game, a goal was discounted that was clearly in. On the road to the World Cup, the French eliminated the Irish on a clear but not-called hand ball.
In the World Cup final itself, Netherlands striker Arjen Robben was involved in a sprint to the net late in the second half. A Spanish defender, Carles Puyol, charged in, and grabbed Robben by his waist as he began a clear-cut breakaway to the goal.
The official - Howard Webb - could only see the backs of the involved players. According to reports, he signalled an “advantage” foul, in which the error is acknowledged, but the play allowed to proceed. However, from my point of view, the foul seriously impacted Robben’s chance to score. In the NHL, a similar play would have been a two-minute minor, if not a penalty shot.
As a veteran official as well as a sports writer, any time I see an officiating error, I immediately ponder mechanics – the positioning of an official. Nine times out of 10, when a call is blown, the arbiter is in the wrong spot. But when I looked at the replays of the Robben non-call, Webb was in a good spot for the flow of the play at the time. He was just in the wrong spot for that particular instance, which is why he didn’t see what everybody around the world saw on TV.
The World Cup featured the best officials in the business, and FIFA (along with its constituent bodies) has some excellent referee-development plans. The competence and quality of officials is not, contrary to the howls one constantly reads on British soccer fan chat boards, a problem. Nonetheless, it’s plain to see that soccer officials are, simply put, overwhelmed.
That observation leads into an obvious conclusion: soccer at its highest levels needs to implement a two-official or even a three-official system. It works in lacrosse, it works in hockey, it works in many other sports.
Were there two officials on-field Sunday, maybe, just maybe, one of them would have been in a better place to the clear and obvious deflection on that late-game free kick, and the Dutch allowed to take a critical corner-kick they were otherwise deprived of.
Yes, the better team won the World Cup. But had that officiating error not taken place, what might have happened? It’s that what-if that FIFA needs to take seriously and address if it is ever to improve the state of the world’s most popular sport.

Vern Faulkner is the Courier/Courier Weekend editor. He has officiated football for 14 years and lacrosse for three.

Reflections on Atlanticade

As a man, there are few times when I can stand up and say, “Hey, gosh, I was right.”

For the previous months and weeks, I’d been trying to explain just how much of an impact a major motorcycle festival can have on a region.

As of Monday morning, more than a few county residents had come to grips with that reality.

The numbers are still being tallied, but so far, it seems like at least 5,000 people signed on for Atlanticade, the five-day motorbike festival that was here in the county for the first time, but in its fourth year of existence in this province. Upwards of 10,000 bikes may have come through the region in a five-day period.

Wow.

I had the delightful duty of riding around on my motorbike and participating a bit, and I can honestly say that this weekend’s impact exceeded every one of my expectations.

Everywhere I went, there were bikes. At stores, at restaurants, parked in the lookout overseeing the Campobello Island lighthouse – everywhere.

There’s a habit among bikers of waving at each other (left hand, of course, as the right has to stay on the throttle) as we pass on the road. There was a lot of waving.

Or, as I said to Dale Hicks Monday, “My left hand got more tired than my right did.”

More than a few businesses reaped the rewards. Appropriately marketed and appropriately placed restaurants were the big winners, as were hoteliers.

Not everyone was happy, however.

Some St. Stephen merchants were underwhelmed. That would, I think, be adequate fodder to plan ahead and create a bigger splash next year – there were a few things done, but for the most part, too little, too late. Simply put, St. Stephen residents and powers-that-be didn't realize the potential.

Now they do, one would hope. It will be better next year.

In a related note, a second-hand report suggested a St. Andrews jewelry store was displeased with the lack of traffic.

Well, what did that business do to tap into the market? Did it flog skull-and-crossbone rings, pendants and “ride free or die” jewelry?

Business requires creative marketing, like the tartan store in St. Andrews that flogged tartan-printed do-rags and bandanas: that, my friends, is smart stuff.

Now, let me address the remaining big issue: noise.

And here’s where some of you may find an intriguing ally.

I utterly and totally despise the loud-pipe crowd.

There are several myths regarding loud bikes, the most pervasive and utterly debunked one being that “loud pipes save lives.”

The thought is that if someone can hear your rumbling behemoth, they’ll see you. It’s a totally false. Motorists still plow into bikes, and they do so for two key reasons: one, the biker wasn’t sufficiently trained in defensive driving and avoidance techniques; two, the driver didn’t see the bike.

Muffler-less bikes will still get munched, in large part because motorcycle collisions usually involve the front of a motorcycle, and noise from a bike usually goes out the back.

Some remove mufflers in the mistaken belief it will improve performance. That, too, is usually false. (If anything, the loss of back-pressure actually reduces power output.)

So yes, I find that too many machines are too loud. There is never a need to remove or diminish a muffler. Someone is compensating for something.

There’s a saying among some of my dual-sport peers, and this weekend’s backlash from Atlanticade underscores the saying: "loud pipes annoy the neighbours."

Unfortunately, there are too many image-seeking individuals who think that a loud bike is part of some lifestyle thing.

That said, even if you don’t like loud bikes (and I clearly don’t), it is unwise to decry Atlanticade.
The buzz in this region was spectacular, and the impact staggering: Atlanticade just put this county on the tourism map of thousands who had no idea what this region had to offer. I cannot tell you how many riders reveled in the delightful roads of this region. Some explored the ridges, others went to the delightful undulating curviness of Deer Island.

As an “embedded journalist” I didn’t have to pay for accommodations. Typically, the Scottish genes in my makeup congregate in my wallet. I’m a cheap guy. Yet in the two days my wife and I participated in the periphery of Atlanticade, we spent $150 or so. That’s dollars into the economy – and our spending was paltry compared to some.

In closing, two things must be stated.
The bikers came here, and spent bucketloads of money. And, more importantly, they’ll be back, if you let them.

Atlanticade, as I had hoped, was, indeed, the biggest boost to tourism this region has ever seen.

And frankly, loud pipes or otherwise, the welcome mat should be readied for this time next year.