Bill Bridge: Myopic Blatter must be persuaded to take enlightened view of game

First and most obvious is that FIFA, whatever the misgivings of their myopic leader Sepp Blatter, must embrace some kind of technology to rid the game at the top level of the ridiculous affair of England's goal that wasn't against Germany.

Blatter still insists that the game must be administered the same from top to bottom, that a game in the local park or school playground be no different from a World Cup final.

He is wrong and is proven to be wrong in over 90 per cent of all matches played. Where are the fourth officials at Sunday morning pub matches where there is trouble enough finding someone willing to take the abuse which goes with the whistle? The same applies to those games involving youngsters and their appalling, unthinking parents.

There are so many ways in which the lads' kick-about is different to a FIFA international or a Champions League game that Blatter's stance is ludicrous.

He must be persuaded to change his view and accept that referees and their assistants at the top level need all the help they can get, not only to prevent moments like Frank Lampard's 'goal' but also to take firmer action on the pirouetting and diving which blighted this World Cup and will the next unless something serious is done.

We are already running out of time; changes to the rules will have to be implemented before qualifying matches begin for Brazil 2014.

Diving is cheating and must be addressed as such. So should the intentional hand-ball by Uruguay's Luis Suarez which prevented Ghana winning their quarter-final in the last minute.

Ghana were awarded the penalty – as the rules demand – but Asamoah Gyan missed from the spot and Uruguay made their way to the semi-finals where even the most ardent anti-German fan changed allegiance and prayed that the South Americans were beaten.

They were, thank goodness, but the blatant cheating by Suarez remains. FIFA should consider introducing a penalty goal; not a shot from a penalty after some foul or debatable handball, but an automatic goal should an outfield player's hand or hands prevent a goal-bound shot or header finding the net.

Rugby has its "penalty try" law; football should not be too high and mighty to adopt the same principle. If a goal would have been scored without illegal interference then a goal should be awarded, never mind having someone having to take a penalty in the last minute of a game with the eyes of an expectant continent on the unfortunate given the unnecessary task of actually kicking the ball.

Cameras on the goal-line and the penalty goal would indeed signify that FIFA are capable of taking the game forward.

TESTS against Bangladesh, Royal Ascot, Wimbledon, the World Cup and the British Grand Prix are all behind us, leaving us to ponder the remaining highlights of this wonderful summer, this week's Open Championship, York's Ebor Festival and the start (pause for yawn) of another football season.

None has more sub-plots than the Open, not least in the commotion which will surround the return of Tiger Woods to our shores and – better still – the probability that one or maybe more British and Irish players might be involved in the climax.

Graeme McDowell raised the hopes of an already expectant British game when he captured last month's US Open title at Pebble Beach and the wondrous run of great golf played by Justin Rose has underlined how strong the home challenge might be in this year's Open and how well Europe is placed ahead of October's Ryder Cup.

With McDowell and Rose in form and a collection of other players well capable of raising their games round the open spaces and massive greens of St Andrews, we face a couple of hard days' study to determine who will be the subject of modest investment.

Lee Westwood, the most consistent of players in major championships, will be there, although there are doubts over his fitness following a minor tear to a calf muscle. He has to be on the shortlist if only because the adrenaline will flow should he put together a couple of half-decent rounds on Thursday and Friday and he will forget the pain.

Rory McIlroy is desperate to join his great mate McDowell on the roster of major winners and he has the long game to reduce St Andrews to virtually pitch-and-putt status.

Germany's Martin Kaymer is another with the ability to make the breakthrough but Ian Poulter remains more peacock than substance and it is surely too soon for the Molinari brothers to succeed where Costantino Rocca so gloriously failed in John Daly's year.

Of the global stars, it is difficult to imagine that with the turmoil in his private life, Woods has the levels of concentration required to win a third Open at St Andrews; Phil Mickelson's form at the Scottish Open was as miserable as the weather; Ernie Els still has the look of yesterday's man; Camillo Villegas may well be champion but not this time; the usual posse of American journeymen looks even less threatening than usual this year.

It has to be a European: McIlroy and Westwood, with a saver on Kaymer.

and another thing...

WE have had lots of headlines from South Africa over the past month but none as puzzling as those which surrounded the announcement that 19-year-old Caster Semenya had been cleared to resume her career on the track.

Semenya became the women's world 800m champion last summer and launched a cacophony of complaints when serious doubts as to her gender arose.

In the intervening 11 months she has undergone treatment of a most personal kind – indeed, treatment of such delicacy that the International Association of Athletic Federations refuses to comment on it, even to the point of rejecting the opportunity to clarify whether Semenya has undergone surgery or hormone balancing.

All we know is that she is free to run and will resume somewhere in Europe soon but will miss the World Junior Championships in Canada because her fitness is not yet good enough.

It is a curious business. We know no more than we did a year ago; neither do those who must run against Semenya. We must all take the word of the IAAF that she is, indeed, a woman.