Football not doomed!

This letter is in response to Toni R.S. Cash's whining missive entitled Is football doomed? (The Jakarta Post, July 8, 1994).

No, Ms. Cash, your beloved game of football is by no means doomed. In fact, World Cup USA 94 has given the sport a much needed shot in the arm. In a game notorious for providing so many opportunities for cheating (shirt-pulling, tripping, delaying tactics, feigning injury to gain penalty kicks, etc.), FIFA has done the right thing by clamping down hard on foul play and players' theatrics. After all, who wants to watch a game with 22 cheats on the playing field?

With injured players immediately hauled off the field, a newly designed ball which travels 15 percent faster, three points for a win instead of two, new rubber-tipped shoes and other innovations, the game has been sped up and players try harder to score instead of being satisfied with those boring 0-0 or 1-1 results. We all remember too clearly when Algeria was squeezed out of the World Cup finals in 1982 by a blatantly contrived tie between the Germans and their Austrian cousins. Is that sportsmanship or just typical old-style football? Viva FIFA and their courage to change the game!

As for fears that the game would be broken up into four quarters, that never came to pass. Why aren't innovative developments such as writing names on the backs of players' jerseys (a la U.S. basketball) to create "star" appeal being lauded? It certainly makes for a more interesting spectator game. Also, the excellent organizational and security arrangements that the hosts provided deserves our praise. No disgusting football riots there, for sure.

As for the "onward march of global culture", all of human history has shown that everything man creates eventually must evolve. It's the rigid traditionalists that get left behind. If human civilization didn't progress, we would probably still be riding in George Stephenson's steam locomotive, the Rocket (circa 1829), wouldn't we?

The same goes for sport. No, my friend, World Cup USA was a positive development for the game of football.

FARID BASKORO

Jakarta