International Football Association Board Is Proposing To Give Team Captains More Power

 

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) will meet at Wembley stadium on Friday to discuss a number of proposals involving the laws of the game, including a review of responsibilities for team captains.
IFAB is made up of representatives from FIFA and the four British associations, football experts have already held talks with the game's participants around the world.

IFAB technical director, David Elleray said “We want to look at how we can enhance the role and the responsibility of the captain to take some degree of responsibility for the behaviour of his or her players. The captain should be more than somebody who has a piece of material on their arm and attends the toss [of a coin] at the start of the game. Can we say, for a major incident, [only] the captain may be able to talk to the referee? If that stops six players from each team going towards the referee that will enhance respect and improve respect for the game. We've been moved very much in this direction, not least by the players and coaches who say 'use the captains more'. So we're responding to that. We take a view, 'what does football want?' Football wants better behaviour and a better image of the game." All the indications we get from our consultations around the world is that this is something the game would like. Part of the role of IFAB is not to dictate but to respond, so we have our expert panel of players, coaches, referees and in these sorts of areas, we've had discussions already. We want to work with the captains and this is the message we get across the world. Captains are people that respond positively to help. It's up for discussion but we could well get a decision. It wouldn't involve, necessarily, a law change. I think we would like to make progress in this area.”