The Wardman Wire

The sports of football and cricket both have strange parish-pump ways of defining their rules, which witness to the history of the respective games.

Cricket: A Private Club in London

For cricket - a game played at top level with fully professional players by around 10 countries - the copyright to the laws is held by the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club). The MCC is based in St John’s Wood in London at Lords Cricket Ground.

Changes are implemented by the MCC on the advice from the International Cricket Council, the international bureaucracy that manages the game from an office block in Dubai.

Football: Representatives of the Home Countries

For football - a game played by infinitely more people for infinitely more money, and with 207 countries playing internationally - the worldwide rules are set by a committee of 8 members. The committee is made up of

• 4 representatives of FIFA.
• 1 representative of England.
• 1 representative of Scotland.
• 1 representative of Northern Ireland.
• 1 representative of Wales.

A new law must achieve a vote of 6 out of 8 to be approved.

As paraphrased from Wikipedia:

“The laws that govern the game of football are maintained by a body called the International Football Association Board (IFAB). FIFA has a 50% representation on its board (four representatives); the other four are provided by the football associations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, in recognition of the unique contribution to the creation and history of the game of the nations now comprising the United Kingdom.”

It is strange, how history persists even now.

Tags: Cricket, Football, FIFA, ICC, MCC, IFAB, Laws of Football, Laws of Cricket

[tags] Cricket, Football, FIFA, ICC, MCC, IFAB, Laws of Football, Laws of Cricket [/tags]