WENGER IN CALL TO SCRAP THROW-INS
Arsène Wenger wants to nullify the ‘Rory Delap effect’ by scrapping the throw-in. The Arsenal manager believes that kick-ins should be the way to restart play when the ball goes out along the touchlines. Wenger, whose side conceded twice at Stoke last season from Delap’s 60-yard throws, says on the Arsenal website: ‘The rule I would change would be maybe to play throw-ins by foot. Why not? I think it would make he game quicker.’ He says the advantage gained by teams possessing long-throw specialists is unfair. ‘At Stoke, for Rory Delap it is like kicking the ball. It’s a little bit of an unfair advantage. He is using a strength that is usually not a strength in football.’ Wenger believes there is no reason why the change couldn’t work. ‘Football is the most popular team game in the world and one day some crazy guy said, “We don’t use the hands”.’ The kick-in experiment has been tried before. In 1993-94 the Diadora League (now the Ryman League) was authorised to use kick-ins but the trial was abandoned after one season when some teams simply used long-kick experts instead of long-throw specialists to bombard their opponents’ goal. In November 1996, Task Force 2000, a panel of football experts featuring Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer, considered the question and agreed that kick-ins would bring no benefit to the game.