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.