‘Players Should Shake Hands After A Match’ – Franz Beckenbauer Calls For Football To Be More Friendly
By Alan Duffy
Der Kaiser himself, Franz Beckenbauer, wants a return to more good sporting behaviour in the world of football. The German legend was chairing Task Force Football 2014, a group set up to improve sportsmanship and the overall image of the game.
The panel watched footage of a number of incidents including the infamous Suarez/Evra handshake that never was and Beckenbauer is convinced that players should shake hands in the centre circle at the end of every game . The World Cup winner said:
“At full time I think it would be a better image, when leaving the pitch together and not refusing a handshake.”
He also suggested that teams leave the field of play together at half-time and also come out for the second-half together. He said:
“That is what we used to do when I was at school. I believe one should leave the pitch the same way one has entered the pitch.”
This new task force is another creation of a certain Sepp Blatter, with the intention of cleaning up the image of the game ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. However, I doubt these kind of contrived solutions to the problems we have seen recently will hardly have any real impact. In fact, having to all walk into the centre circle in order to shake hands sounds incredibly silly to me. No doubt Luis Suarez would simply refuse to do this as well, anyway.
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Go back to how it was, have teams come out separately so the opponents can be booed. No handshakes before the game and let players choose who they want to shake hands with after.
Handshakes mean nothing if they are forced and of course will lead to on pitch fights after a game instead of them happening in the tunnel.
oh, and I miss the “Keane v Vieira” moments on Arsenal-United matches… arghhh… What’s next? Goalkeeper lets the poor striker to score a goal?! C’mon…
You don’t fight war for 90 minutes and then shake your enemy’s hand like it was nothing. -_-
If rugby players can do it why not??
Ya but its a fucking game not a war. I don’t care if its Barca vs Madrid, they should still be able to shake hands after the game (coming from a Barca fan).
I was immensely impressed by Philip Lahm today when he corrected the ref on their wrongly awarded corner.
And Del I disagree with you in two ways, first of fooball is not a war, its a game, if it was a war every player would go in to just injure players like Messi, Ronaldo or Rooney to hinder the opposite team and if you look at the World War 1 there are a number of recorded soccer games for christmas, you can fight a war gentlemanly if you choose…
The football games was between germans and english I should add.
This is ridiculous. Maybe some of you people never played sports at a high level, but these players go out there with their own swagger, trying to look as tough and unbeatable as possible, then try to beat the living sh!t out of their opponent (score wise, and not only physically). They want to win, the more they win the better they look and the more money they make. It may be entertainment to us folks at home on the sofa but it is A JOB for them, their way of life. Go out and play in a world cup qualifier, which is the start of the dream EVERY pro soccer player has ever had (win a cup), put everything on the line and play with your emotions on your sleeve, then try to shake someones hand like nothing happened for the last 90+ minutes moments after it has ended? yeah right, that’s absurd.
@Paul then you just see it as a game, not the socio-political rivalry that barca-madrid has evolved into, which is stunningly short-sighted of you.
Dear America: thank you for wording it so well.
Well worded, America; I don’t agree, though. It is a showing of respect and sportmanship.
It happens in sports which deal with a much higher dose of physicality and fighting, sometimes literally.
You have kickboxers, who after beating each other up for 15 minutes, end up hugging and bowing at the end of the fight.
Take J-league matches, for instance. The same lined up squads with handshakes formula we see at the beginning of every match is replicated at the end.