Explanation by the UAF Committee of Arbitrators: cruel / aggressive behavior

20.04.2021 09:10

Millions' favorite game is not standing still - it is evolving and changing. The same goes for the rules, or even the laws (literally "Law of the Game"), according to which they play football. IFAB, the governing body, amends the Rules of the Game every year.

Many terms change, are filled with other meaning or even disappear. On the other hand, new terms, formulations, definitions and interpretations are emerging. However, the football community becomes accustomed to using the name of a football phenomenon or situation and continues to use it for many years to come. Sometimes it's about whole generations.

There is no longer in the rules of active or passive position "out of the game", "foul of last resort", the inspector is no longer an inspector, but an observer (observer) and so on. Now, the "last hope foul" is a "denying obvious goal score opportunity" (DOGSO), because there is a goal opportunity, and it may or may not be obvious. And here you will not say "foul of not / obvious last hope" or "not / obvious foul of last hope").

IFAB issues the Rules of the Game in English, Spanish, French and German. However, "in the event of any discrepancies in the wording of the translated text, the English text shall be considered authentic". Therefore, any translation should be checked against the English text of the rules.

Today in the text of Rule 12 there is a section Violent conduct (pp. 112-113, English version), which for many years has been translated as "Aggressive behavior". However, anyone who speaks English or just picks up a dictionary will be able to say that violent is not translated as "aggressive", but as "violent, cruel, furious" and so on. Linguists may say, "Yes, the dictionary has such definitions, but the dictionary is also a tool, a tool, a key, a clue to understanding." But everything is much more complicated. What's wrong here?

For many years, only the concept of Violent conduct existed in the rules. However, in recent years, the wording of Rule 12 has also included the wording aggressive manner and aggressive behavior (p. 114, “Withdrawal”, English version). And if you take the dictionary again, you can see that this is "aggressive behavior". So what is the difference between these two terms in football and sports in general?

In order to understand this, one dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia will not be enough. Why? Because we are talking about sports as a separate area of ​​human activity and life, and not, for example, forensics and other areas, where the terms violent and aggressive may have a different color and a slightly different meaning. That is, in addition to translation, you should turn to sports psychology. Since Ukrainian sources refer only to aggression and its varieties, and according to the IFAB requirement, the text written in English is authentic, it is logical that the translation should be based on the English definitions of violence, violent. What do you think of violence, violent in sports in an English-speaking environment?

Dr. Mitch Abrams, a sports, clinical, and forensic psychologist and expert in anger management and the prevention of violence in sports, notes the following:

"Reactive aggression in its extreme forms is cruelty (violence). Not all cruelty (violence) arises from anger (anger) and reactive aggression. "*

Here is what another author says:

"Athletic cruelty can be defined as harmful behavior that is outside the rules of sport, it is not related to the competitive goals of sport ... There are two forms of aggression in sport. Instrumental aggression is unemotional and goal-oriented. Reactive aggression is based on the emotional component, and its purpose is to inflict harm. Cruelty is the result of reactive aggression. ”*

The following is an excerpt on the interpretation of the general difference (not in sports) between anger, aggression and cruelty (violence):

"Aggression is the result of an increased form of anger (anger), which is associated with mental behavior, the intention of which is to harm someone or something. Cruelty (violence) is a physical manifestation of violent behavior, the main purpose of which is to inflict harm or murder, which originates from the psychological state of both anger (anger) and aggression. Although these terms (anger), aggression, cruelty (violence) are very often confused, there is a difference between them that requires a separate approach to each of them. The key difference between anger (anger), aggression, cruelty (violence) is as follows: anger is a psychological state caused by unfulfilled goals, while aggression is more behavior that often occurs due to anger (anger), and cruelty (violence) ) can be described as a physical manifestation of evil (disease), which very often occurs due to two emotional conditions - anger and aggression.

As we can see, violence (cruelty, violence) and violent (cruel) are not the same as aggression and aggressive (aggressive). These words need to be distinguished, and therefore translated into different terms.

In connection with the above, the next Ukrainian translation of the Rules of the Game of 2021-2022 will take into account these changes in the wording of the relevant terms.

*The full text of the articles in English can be found at these links: 

1. https://us.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/learn-the-difference-between-anger-aggression-and-violence
2. https://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9214/sports.htm#:~:text=Sports%20violence%20can%20be%20defined,2).&text=Violence%20is%20most%20prevalent%20in,hockey%2C%20football%2C%20and%20rugby.
3. https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-anger-and-vs-aggression-and-vs-violence/