Jimmy Monaghan must have been one of the best sliding tacklers in the history of soccer. Not many people know that, but those of us old enough to have seen him play at right back for Sligo Rovers in the Fifties and early Sixties can still see the furrow he would leave after skidding into and through players such as Liam Tuohy or Amby Fogarty.
Every Monday morning Mickey "Dunt" Conlon, who served as groundsman, masseur, bottle carrier, adviser and general factotum was out with a trowel, a spade and a shovel, a bag of grass-seed and a heavy roller trying to put the Showgrounds back to rights after Jimmy's spectacular efforts the day before. Now somebody - aptly named Blatter - wants the sliding tackle banned! Isn't it quite extraordinary that people who are paid enormous amounts of money to administer the beautiful game have nothing better to do than make senseless and stupid proclamations about how the game should be played. What do these people want? Perhaps it is a chequered board with wooden "men" being drifted hither and thither by some demented Andy Gray with the action being stopped every few minutes so that "experts" can "analyse" what has just happened while the paying customers, if there are any left, slumber fitfully in their corporate boxes.
This Geneva-based mogul seems to believe that the tackle in soccer is a negative matter and should either be curbed or banned entirely. What nonsense! Does Herr Blatter not realise that such great players as Pele, Matthews, Best or Maradona - or Johnny Armstrong or Joe Haverty for that matter - would ever have become the players they were if it were not for the fact that they developed the most spectacular skills simply to avoid things like the sliding tackle.
One of the real glories of soccer is the fascination of watching the small, quick, fleet-footed forward taking on the might of a Norman Hunter or a Mickey Burke, turning him inside out and then whipping in a devastating cross or a dipping shot.
If that happens early in the match you know for sure that you will have an entertaining afternoon for, surely, neither Norman nor Mickey is going to tolerate too much of that kind of frippery for too long.
We are not talking here of roughhouse or foul tactics. What we have is as much a contest of mind as well as body. Will the fleet-footed one outthink or out-jink the strong, straightforward, no-nonsense defender? Or will the latter finally work out the strategy to anticipate every twist and turn his opponent makes?
The question of what is a fair tackle is a difficult one, but a good referee will always know the difference between the fair and the foul. The very nature of the game is such that there are marginal moments when what was always intended to be a fair tackle arrives either that split second early or that split second late. That is a matter for the referee. This attitude applies to the sliding tackle as with any other tackle. The sliding tackle can be early or late, but, when it is executed properly, it adds a spectacular element to the game. And it is a valuable skill in the repertoire of all good defenders. The manner in which the fleet-footed forward manages to drift away from it or hurdle over it is the very stuff of sport.
Removing it from the game would merely further sanitise the sport and increase the boredom level. It seems to me at times that people like Herr Blatter have far too much time on their hands and are their wits' end to try to justify their huge salaries. As the old saying goes: "The devil finds some mischief yet, for idle hands to do."
People like Herr Blatter should be putting their efforts into making the game more exciting, more skilful and more entertaining rather than removing aspects of it which contribute to its attractions. The sliding tackle is one such attraction. If soccer ever decides to kow-tow to the Blatters of this world they may as well not bother opening the gates. In fact there is a realistic argument to be made that if there was more excitement on the pitch and a few more sliding tackles there might be less of the kind of action which we saw on the terraces at the match between Italy and England last week.
It has also been suggested at times that the goalposts should be further apart. What rubbish! Does nobody understand that some of the most memorable moments in the game surround wonderful saves by goalkeepers? Widen the goals and you take away the very essence of the goalkeeping craft - that no shot is unstoppable. If people want more goals then a slight alteration in the offside rule would fit the bill admirably. Why not extend the 18-yard line right across the pitch and decree that only a player inside that line can be adjudged offside, thus frustrating the team which plays a negative, defensive game?
By and large the game is fine the way it is. What is wrong with it, however, is that there is a cynicism within the ranks of those who administer the game. Some of these seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Needless to say, that attitude filters down to the players and eventually the public. People seem to forget the meaning of the verb "to play".
Money now seems to pervade the game like a virulent fever. Let them have their money and their moguls, but for heaven's sake, hands off the sliding tackle!
