Leading Article: The quaint custom of being sporting

CAN FOOTBALL - or indeed any sport - be the same after Arsene Wenger's historic offer to replay a football match because he did not think his team's winning goal was "fair"? Its significance is not that England will now have to offer to replay the 1966 World Cup final because the ball did not cross the line - or did it? - for the third and decisive goal. Nor is it, ultimately, that it was a grand sporting gesture in a game supposedly driven by ruthless professionalism and money. The cynics might argue that, as in any big-money business, public relations is the line just above the bottom line. Mr Wenger's Arsenal have taken a media kicking for "professional" foul play, while the FA, which agreed to the re-match, urgently needs to restore its credibility after the Hoddle affair. Still, as Glenn Moore argues in today's new Sports supplement, it was the right decision.

The real significance of the Arsenal-Sheffield United game, however, is it drew attention to the quaint custom of deliberately passing the ball to the opposition after the ball is kicked out of play to allow an injured player to be treated. This is what might seem strange to outsiders in a game allegedly so driven by the need to win at all costs. The same players who pull shirts, trip opponents on the referee's blind side and dive with extravagant theatricality are suddenly transformed into models of tea-party politeness, cheerfully surrendering an advantage to which they are entitled under the rules of the game.

After the publicity generated by Saturday's extraordinary mix-up, footballers will have to get their etiquette right. But why not extend the principle to other games? A bowler could lob a soft one to a batsman who had hurt a finger. A tennis player could play left-handed while an opponent recovers from a sprained ankle. Welcome to the new hero of the stands: the good sport.