Football, a sport that’s supposed to be simple, yet somehow still manages to get overcomplicated. You’ve got two teams, a round ball, and two goals – what more do you need, right? I mean, we’ve all played with makeshift balls and goals made out of backpacks or coats, and it’s still been a blast. But no, the big football minds insist on changing the rules, introducing new ones, and making things more complicated than they need to be. It’s like they’re trying to justify their jobs, you know, by coming up with new ideas, making PowerPoint presentations, and printing out a bunch of papers.
This week, Gerard Piqué has been making waves with his latest proposal to revolutionize the sport. He’s not a fan of 0-0 draws and thinks that teams should take zero points if the game ends like that. His reasoning? “You can’t go to the stadium, spend 100, 200, 300 euros, and have the game end 0-0.” But what’s the real issue here – the fact that the game ended 0-0, or the fact that you spent a lot of money on tickets? I’m not sure Piqué is thinking about the fans as much as he is about his own business interests.
As Rory Smith, the New York Times’ football chief, put it, “I’ve always found it crazy that people in football insist that the sport is boring and needs to change. It’s the most popular leisure activity that has ever existed.” Doesn’t seem like the best marketing strategy to me.
And let’s not forget, not all 0-0 draws are created equal. Sometimes, a scoreless draw can be the most exciting game you’ve seen all season. I mean, when you’re on the edge of your seat, 40 minutes in, and the score is still 0-0, that’s when you know you’re watching something special.
As the Twitter user Asturian Dolphin so aptly put it, “I’ve looked for it and you only appear on Google asking for dogs.” This seems to apply to more than a few of these self-proclaimed football experts who think they can make the sport better and more entertaining for everyone. Newsflash: many of us fell in love with football because it was free to watch on TV, and we could play it in the streets without anyone telling us to stop. Maybe instead of trying to fix what isn’t broken, we should just let the game be.