Football: Clemence plays down larger goals
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Football
Ray Clemence yesterday cited Alan Shearer as a glowing example of why the sport's world governing body, Fifa, should not increase the size of the goals to make football more attractive.
Clemence, the former England goalkeeper now the manager of Third Division Barnet, said: "We are always talking about improving techniques - and the goals are big enough if the technique of scoring is good enough."
"You see great goals being scored and, just as importantly, goalkeepers making great saves. If you make the goals too big and keepers have a nigh- on impossible job of making those saves, it will take something away from it."
Fifa is considering lengthening the goals by the diameter of two balls, around 50 centimetres, and increasing the height by the diameter of one ball.
However, a Fifa spokesman, Keith Cooper, warned: "Two major considerations may be overwhelming - firstly that the whole cost of the exercise makes it prohibitive, and secondly you would have to see how teams react in any experiment."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments