The point about the foul is good one.

The punishment for a run-of-the-mill foul is what? A free kick.

So a defender, who was the only one between the attacker and their own goalkeeper, loses his player and so decides to commit a foul (their first permitted one) to prevent them. Which has stopped the attack and has brought time for the whole of the rest of their team to come back and all get behind the ball.

The free kick is then of little advantage - compared to the position of the players when the original foul was committed. Perhaps only the defending players in front of the ball when the foul was committed should be permitted to be in front of the ball when the free kick is taken?

As it stands - this same player can repeat this foul play at least once more before they get a yellow card caution. They then can repeat this at least once more before they receive another and be finally sent off. Unless the referee is Graham Poll - who has already working on three.

No wonder the creative attacking players we all like to see, like Zidane and Rooney - who struggle to recover from brutal tackles, see their careers limited by this and who do not feel protected - get so frustrated and often retaliate.

Then there is the penalty area. Where one minor foul by an attacking player will see the ref eagerly blow his whistle and for the slightest excuse to award a free kick to the defending side. But where an attacking player needs to be practically be-headed by a defender before a penalty kick is awarded to the atacking side.

And don't get me started on the offside rule.............