Another week, another football scandal that has almost nothing to do with the sport itself, but is dominating the headlines in a mad way.

Just in case you’ve spent a fortnight under a rock, this latest controversy started in the immediate aftermath of Spain’s World Cup victory when Spanish FA president Luis Rubiales kissed captain Jenni Hermoso on the lips as she went to lift the trophy.

It didn’t look very appropriate, it must be said, but I don’t think anyone could have imagined the storm of anger, protests and resignations that this seemingly spontaneous, caught-up-in-the-moment meeting of lips has sparked.

Politicians are calling for Rubiales’ head, Spain’s coaching staff are quitting en masse, while on the other side there was even a three-day hunger strike by Rubiales’ elderly mother as she tried to stick up for her son.

Wow! I mean totally wow!

The sad part about ‘kissgate’ is that it has completely overshadowed the Spanish women’s fantastic achievement in lifting the trophy

Rubiales claims the kiss was consensual. Hermoso claims it wasn’t. But only the two of them know the truth. It is a proper mess that will only end when the president is fired, resigns, or is banished to a deserted island in the Outer Hebrides, one of which is very likely to have happened by the time you read this.

Personally, I am a little bit dazed by the whole thing because the sheer level of venom and fury over the kiss took me by surprise.

Was it the right thing to do? No. Did he get carried away with euphoria? More than likely. But does his crass error of judgement justify the abuse he has received, which has bordered on a mass lynching? Probably not either. The whole thing isn’t as clear-cut as you would imagine, either.

Hermoso started by publicly condemning the kiss, then defended it the following day before swapping back to condemning it. That suggests to me that there are bigger forces at play here, with more powerful agendas.

And that theory is backed up by footage that came out in the last few days that captured the player on the team bus showing a photo of the kiss to her teammates, laughing and joking about it; not the sort of thing you would do if you felt violated.

Then again, Rubiales doesn’t come across as a decent, unassuming chap either. The fact that his instinctive reaction to the final whistle in the World Cup final was to grab his crotch in celebration, despite sitting next to the Spanish royal family, says a lot about the sort of guy we are dealing with here. Sleazy is an understatement.

The sad part about ‘kissgate’, as it has become known, is that it has completely – and I mean completely – overshadowed the Spanish women’s fantastic achievement in lifting the trophy.

Their triumph over England should have been an opportunity for the players to bask in their deserved glory and soak up the admiration of an entire nation after achieving something that had never been achieved before.

Instead, the only thing anyone in Spain is talking about – from politicians to players to people on the street – is a kiss. And if I had just lifted the World Cup, that would really annoy me.

 

Time for more effective football

So, what do we all think about the way games in England are getting considerably longer?

England’s refereeing body, the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL), decided to introduce additional stoppage time this season to try and claw back more of the time being lost to substitutions and injuries. The move was aimed at increasing actual playing time, which has been gradually reducing over the years, and removing the incentive for teams to waste time.

Some managers and players are against it and have not been shy about saying so. So are the global players union, the Fédération Internationale des Associations de Footballeurs Professionnels (FIFPRO). And now the dissenting voices have been joined by UEFA, with their Chief of Football Zvonimir Boban describing it as “absurd”.

But that was all to be expected really. Whenever anything is suggested that potentially means footballers have to do a bit extra for their ludicrous wages, the outcry is passionate and prolonged.

To be fair, I do understand their reservations with this extra-time scenario. If you’ve just played an intense 90 minutes, then seeing the board go up with an additional 15 must be quite a mental blow. But the truth is that if the referee has added on an additional 15 minutes, then the preceding 90 weren’t that intense, were they? He is only trying to make up for the periods when everyone on the pitch was standing around waiting for something to happen.

Over the years, I have gotten increasingly fed up seeing games littered with substitutions and injuries only for the board to go up with just three or four minutes of added time. While swapping players or treating them when they are hurt is a genuine part of the game, it is also an ideal way for one of the teams to eat up effective playing time. And this professional time-wasting has become so endemic in English football that we have started accepting it as a tactic. “Game management” is the trendy term.

If the PGMOL’s new strategy cuts time-wasting down to a minimum, and makes teams think twice before taking half an hour to take a throw-in, and stops mildly injured players needing three weeks of on-pitch treatment, then I think it is in the best interests of the sport as a whole.

FIFPRO and UEFA may not be on board now, and the players may not be overly excited about having to put in a little more effort for their €300,000-a-week, but I think anything that increases effective playing time should be welcomed.

In the Premier League, for example, the ball is in play for an average of 55 minutes out of the 90. And can a sport that wants to be seen as dynamic, exciting and packed with adrenaline really afford to lose more than a third of its duration to nothingness?

I think not.

We will look back on this move in a few years and say it was right for football. You wait and see.

 

E-mail: james@quizando.com

Twitter: @maltablade