the word

11/11/09

Birmingham midfielder Lee Carsley has described the penalty won by Liverpool in the 2-2 draw at Anfield as an "embarrassing case of cheating".

Blues manager Alex McLeish also accused the French striker of diving.

Whilst it happens and has done for years, did referee Peter Walton get that one right?

Even Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez conceded he had his own doubts as to whether the incident merited a penalty but in defence of Liverpool he insisted that a draw was the very least his side had deserved.

So should the rules be changed to clean up football and stop divers? This would mean retrospective action after the game, watching the incident back and deciding whether the decision taken at the time was the correct one or not.

Sounds great doesn’t it, almost idealist. Imagine if we had the opportunity to do that in life and apply it retrospectively to all decisions and actions we had made that we later decide were ‘wrong decisions’.

When trekking in Vietnam in the foot hills of Mt. Fansipan in Sa Pa 5 years ago (sounds like a ‘Friends’ episode) I decided that considering I had been away from home for 4 months now that I was a shrewd budgeting hardened traveller. So whilst other fellow trekkers opted for a local English speaking guide and specialist equipment to show them through the difficult terrain and foreign lands around us. I thought this was a great opportunity to save a massive £4.50 and guide myself!

Now it’s not like I advertised my tour but mentioned to a few travelling buddies that I would be heading out unguided in the true spirit of what travelling is all about. Chancing the unknown, going where no man had gone before and so I rallied my troops at 0700 hours...all 3 of us and we set off collectively saving a whopping £13.50! If we wanted to cover lots of ground and see as much as possible we adopted a mantra for the journey ‘Travel Light’. This was ground breaking exciting stuff, in high spirits we picked up the pace and passed the first tour group sniggering at how sucked into tourism they were, how small minded and reliant they were on their local rip-off tour guide. Inexperienced tourist bafoons I thought, they wouldn’t know what travelling was all about if it marched all over their face! We are real, true to the cause and Capt Cook would be proud of us! So with the potential to take up a seat at the helm of the Ramblers Association, onwards we marched.

It was all so obvious and easy, there might as well have been arrows on the ground pointing the way to go simply following the paths, barely trekking i thought smugly, merely a relaxing strole.

Now we set off at around 7.30am, getting close to 11am one of our party was nearly out of water in the sweltering 32 degree heat, but he reassured us he had brought plenty of money to stock up on the way, although I’m not sure where as there were no shops to be seen in this isolated wilderness on the boarders of Laos and China! Anyway, as a team (‘team Nam’ in my head) we rallied round and pooled our resources in true SAS fashion, even though I had rationed my water to myself and had nearly a full bottle, regardless we split the remaining water evenly amongst the group...how very survival of us.

The scenery was breath taking, hills, mountains, tribal villages, rivers and rice terraces, ridiculously picturesque!

As the water depleted quickly, so did the easy to follow paths, the pleasantly flat terrain got steeper, the open landscape closed in and after a few twists and turns we were faced with nothing but multi-directional tracks in huge undergrowth. At this point we would consult our map or look at our compass, perhaps consult our tour guide...but they did not fit in with our cheap skate budgeting or ‘travel light’ mantra, in other words the map was still at the hostel and no one under the age of 50 really owns a compass.

To add to our mounting problems one of our party now had blisters through wearing some dodgy looking trendy indie trainers and no socks, I reminded him ‘it hurts to be this cool’ as he had told me on several occasions whilst sipping beer a few evenings previous. We shall see how cool he looks limping around in his now knackered muddy footwear. Positive thinking prevailed and onwards we went in unison as ‘Team Nam’.

Carried away hap-hazardly meandering without a care we passed many tour groups and shortly after 3pm (i did have a watch) i didn’t have the foggiest clue where we were, which direction we were heading in or how far we were from the hostel. Soon true to our mantra, we were travelling light, unfortunately it was light on water! No problem I took control of the water situation, opting to carry it and ration it appropriately, as a leader should.

Pretty lost in the under growth, miles from civilisation but not beaten, at last a bamboo house appeared! Simple, get a few directions and we’d be back on track in no time. It was most unlikely any of us knew the native tongue, so armed with our best international sign language we approached the entrance. Never in my life have I felt more in danger than in the next few moments when 7 savage killer puppies bolted at us from around the back of the hut snapping viciously at our ankles. We all legged it as fast as possible, I dropped the water, indie shoes screamed as his footwear ripped into his blisters and the water guzzler jolted as cramp set in his lower limbs! We re-group, injured, beaten by puppies only to notice a small girl about 7 years old harvesting rice. We approached her, used our sign language that we had in reserve to beg for help to get home and after looking at us bewildered in perfect English she replied, “if you want me to take you back to the town it will cost you!” Alas, the water guzzler coughed up the cash then the 3 of us, indie trainers, the water guzzler and myself Miss money saving expert, all dehydrated, tired and cramping up with every step followed a 7 year old girl back to the town!!!

Life is full of lessons, so what did I learn... Not all ideas are good ideas, never travel light if it means going without essentials, sometimes the cheaper option is a false economy, local knowledge is paramount and never be afraid to ask for help!

Looking back would I have changed my decision about going unguided in a foreign land with no resources, yes absolutely!

The moral of the story is this: if we get a chance to put right what is wrong, maybe we should!

So i will ask again: For the good of the game should the rules be altered to retrospectively take action about wrong decisions...it’s probably worth looking into!