If it ain't broke, don't fix it. So the saying goes, but when you're running the most successful sport in the world you can't help but try and fix it. After all, there's always the next market to crack, how many people you said live in India? Imagine the revenue stream if they put down those bats and start kicking balls.
I have to admit, this was meant to be a match report on the curtain raiser to the 2017/18 Premier League Season between FA Cup winners Arsenal and Premier League Champions Chelsea. But as it was just a glorified kick about we'll leave the match reports to others and instead focus on another needless innovation to the beautiful game.
The match itself finished 1-1 with Moses opening the scoring for Chelsea whilst the Arsenal equaliser came from our new Bosnian defender Kolasinac which meant we went straight to penalties to decide the winner. That's when the puzzled looks started and we learnt the latest attempts to put excitement into football.
Yes, the penalty shoot-out itself is an innovation that's less than 50 years old, it's ageing well, so why the constant attempt to make it hip and modern? This latest change sees Team A takes the first penalty and then Team B takes two penalties before Team A gets another kick - hence ABBA. If someone can see the point of this change please let me know, because it's utterly pointless in my view.
Quiz:
Q - How many Maradona's can you get for a Neymar?
A - 13 (workings: Based on Maradona's world record transfer (Napoli to Barca) fee of £5m in 1984 adjusted for UK inflation)
Is Neymar worth 13 Maradona's? on the field a definite No, but in the shop stores, commercial partnerships and expanded support base he could be a bargain buy.
Not sure if I still have the Match magazine edition when Gianluigi Lentini moved from Torino to Milan for a then world record fee of £13m. I imagine the headlines were similar to those accompanying Neymar's record move - good luck to him and PSG I say.