Who Rules Rules.

Lets say the rules of football state that if you’re wearing a red shirt you can punch the opposing team in the face. And that the referee must not run, only walk slowly, as might a monk to his place of reflection. Oh oh, and also that said red team can, when they consider it necessary, slip a blindfold on said ref. No arguing now, these are the rules, and as good and noble sportsmen we must play by them. The game begins and immediately the red team show their quality. Their first goal comes from a penalty that the ref was told about by the red captain because he didn’t see it due to experiencing a mysterious blackout. Their second went past the goalkeeper out cold by the striker’s right uppercut. Their third, …and so on. The blue team had two goals disallowed and were down to seven men by the final whistle. A resounding victory. Oh did I mention that the winning team could also introduce new rules as part of their winnings. Well as the season went on the red team went from strength to strength and won the league. They were revered as intelligent, insightful, tough but fair. They had played the game by the rules and won. From every game they took away their winnings leaving the rest to count their losses. Clubs became destitute, their players redundant, grounds sold as managers scrambled to deal with mountains of debt. But as whole national leagues were decimated all had to agree that the red team played by the rules. Until, that is, one day a man asked, “Shouldn’t the game of football be fair?” the red manager said, “I don’t understand the question. Don’t we always play by the rules?”