Football fans the world over should be hitting the internet hard to find out more about Jérôme Champagne. But they’re not; in fact they probably don’t have the slightest idea who he is. In fact, up until a couple of days ago I didn’t know who he was either. But he could hold the future of this game that we all love in the palm of his hand.
For those not in the know, Jérôme Champagne is a candidate for FIFA’s next presidential election, to be held in 2015. Champagne, a 55 year old Frenchman, formally confirmed that he was aiming to replace long-standing president Sepp Blatter on Monday.
It is easy for this election to be something that we don’t care about. After all, the last one saw Sepp Blatter run unopposed to claim his 4th term, not exactly something to get the pulses racing. But the changes that a new FIFA president could bring could see very noticeable, very real changes to our game.
For example, during Sepp Blatter’s reign he has introduced and gotten rid of the ‘silver goal’ and the very common practice of players being booked for removing their shirts during celebrations.
Blatter’s legacy could well be more prevalent in the changes that he didn’t make. Namely his stubborn refusal to introduce technology to help officials. Jérôme Champagne has some changes of his own that he wants to introduce. The kind of changes that, for better or worse, will be felt within the game.
First of all, Champagne likes the idea of the ‘orange card’, which is essentially rugby’s sin-bin, apparently designed for “heat of the moment fouls” that don’t warrant a yellow or red card. That seems like a bit of a grey area already. There is always much debate on fouls that should have been yellow cards, yellow cards that should have been reds etc etc. Would we not just be complicating things further by trying to decide what differentiates a yellow and orange card?
Also, if these cards were to be often deployed, then would we see a game slowed too many times as one team aimed to consolidate for 2-3 mins whilst being depleted. The cards idea seems to have the ability to damage the game as a spectacle.
Along with that, Champagne has interest in implementing another of rugby’s rules by moving a free kick forwards 10 yards for dissent. Paired with this, only the captain would be allowed to speak with the referee. It’s a shame that it’s come to this. In an ideal world players would be able to speak with the referee as and when and could do so without causing an issue.
However, unfortunately this is not an ideal world and the fact remains that players crowd around the referee and angrily contest every decision that goes against them. The players had their chance, they were given the responsibility to speak with the referee whenever they wanted and they blew it. So why shouldn’t the captain be the only one who speaks with the ref? Nice idea, Jérôme.
Another of Jérôme Champagne’s big new ideas is abolishing the current ‘triple punishment rule’. This is where a player can give away a penalty as the last man, get sent off and receive a 3 game ban. All for what could have been a fairly harmless tug of the shirt. Limiting this to a penalty and no red card may sound like a good idea on the surface, but remember that this idea is there for a reason.
If that ‘red card because you’re the last man’ rule is abolished then a defender can bring an attacker down whenever he likes, the professional foul will be common place. How could it not be? If an attacker has an easy chance then just bring him down. There’s a chance he could miss the penalty, if he doesn’t then it doesn’t matter as he would have scored anyway. Or better yet, foul him outside the box and leave the attacking team with a difficult free kick to convert.
No, this rule was brought in for a reason. And if the ‘triple punishment’ is abandoned then good goal scoring chances will become a rarity. Replaced by constant trips and tactical shirt pulls.
Jérôme Champagne has other, less radical ideas too. But why bother? Surely he can launch a successful campaign by offering a change from Sepp Blatter rather than a change for football itself.