Why can’t the wall stay 10 yards away?

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The constant flouting of the ten yards rule is an unnecessary annoyance in football today, and it’s our Monday Moan.

There is small part of me that is saying this isn’t the biggest issue in football, but the other 98 percent of me is boiling in a righteous fury so potent I’ve been able to overcome any doubts.

Defenders encroaching on the ten yards when they’ve given away a free kick drives me absolutely mad. It’s against the rules, incredibly obvious, and happens on every occasion a free kick is taken within 40 yards of goal.

No-one wants to see fouls committed when one team is in an attacking area, one of the deterrents to committing these fouls is that you allow a dead-ball specialist a free shot at goal. This advantage is almost completely nullified when the wall is essentially allowed to charge down the ball.

As everyone can see when it happens, it’s closed to being the least subtle breaking of the rules on the football pitch, why cant something be done about it? Either allow the attacking team to take free kicks again and again until they either score, or the wall stays in its correct position, or move the free kick forward five yards every time the wall advances unfairly.

As it’s such an easy thing for the defensive side to stop doing, they will stop doing it when faced with greater punishment. This isn’t something the FA need to debate for a long period, it doesn’t need to take attention away from more important issues, it just needs to be sorted with a simple rule change. Perhaps one of these options are already available under the current rules, in which case all that’s needed is for referees to be told to enforce it.

This kind of change was made when it was decided that that keepers were coming off their line too often at penalties, the rule was changed so the penalty was taken again if this happened. Exactly the same thing can happen at free kicks, if the wall clearly advances, let the attacker take it again. Allowing more fair free kicks will lead to more goals, and perhaps less fouls on attacking players when near the box, as defending players will be more anxious not to allow a free kick opportunity. Both of these outcomes are positive results for exciting matches.

Maybe this is just my thing, and most people couldn’t care less about this in the face of bigger problems like racism in the game, but surely no-one would object if what amounts to blatant cheating is stamped out.