Sports Letter: The automaton era

Sir: The suggestions for improving skill levels in English football have been flying thick and fast recently. But what use are all these ideas when our game rewards skill so poorly? As long as managers can achieve success by producing strong, fit automatons, why should they take the trouble to encourage technique?

No rule changes are necessary to improve the situation - we just have to do away with the current emphasis on intention. At present, players can make reckless and ill-considered challenges safe in the knowledge that any offence they commit will be deemed unintentional. If clumsy fouls were properly punished, tacklers would be forced to measure their approach, and skilled players would have the time and space they need to operate. Additional benefits would be a decline in the art of the 'accidental' foul (such as the elbows-out header) and in the growing number of serious injuries.

Some of the refereeing in European ties this season has taken this approach, and the games have been better for it. This, of course, has not stopped our commentators and managers from decrying the officials - 'doesn't he know it's a man's game?' - rather than face uncomfortable reality. Is English football open to new ideas yet? I think not.

Yours sincerely,

WILL GRAHAM

Cambridge

29 November