The FIFA Laws of the Game aren’t THAT complex. A little vague here and there maybe – but they fit into a nice pocket sized pamphlet! But sometimes people think soccer is the most complex and confusing game, especially in the United States.

My kids were watching a movie recently (Soccer Dog [IMDb] [Amazon]) which was obviously a low budget attempt to replicate Air Bud’s ([IMDb] [Amazon]) success. Needless to say, like most of the ‘dog plays a sport’ movies (including those from Disney) it’s not Oscar material. But there was one scene that was hilarious. When one of the team’s players gets sick (poisoned by the Mafia boss’ goalie son – don’t ask), the coach has nobody to sub in except the dog of one of the players. So he asks the ref if its allowed and the ref yells ‘Rule Check!’ Out comes this surly old lady wearing all black carrying this HUGE ancient looking book with gold edged pages that had to be a foot tall with microscopic print. And she scans it page by page. Too funny.

Of course, bad as the movie was – it was funny seeing their exaggerated look at the crazy coaches and officials we’ve all run into from time to time.