The spray shall keep them away

Now you see it, now you don't - that's the logic behind a vanishing spray being used at this year's World Cup in Brazil. The spray is called 9:15 Fairplay, 9:15 being the metric equivalent of 10 yards (9.15 meters). It's already been used in games the past several years by Major League Soccer, and if you watched Thursday's (Friday depending on which time zone you're in) opening Brazil-Croatia match, you may have seen it: before a free kick in the first half, a referee pulled a spray can out of a holster and squirted a white line on the field. No, the World Cup refs aren't wannabe graffiti artists. For the first time, FIFA referees are using 9:15 Fairplay to paint a temporary white line 10 yards from the free kick spot, marking the safe area into which opposing players cannot encroach. The spray disappears after one minute. This, although somewhat awkward to watch, addresses a problem for referees and players alike: although they're supposed to remain 10 yards away, opposing players have frequently crept closer to the free-kick taker in an effort to disrupt the kick, starting countless arguments about fairness. The vanishing spray, which was an immediate hit Thursday on Twitter, is the brainchild of Argentinian journalist and entrepreneur Pablo Silva. "It started seven or eight years ago when I was playing in a championship played amongst former school members," Silva told Reuters. "In the 88th minute, we were losing 1-0 and won a free kick on the edge of the area. When I took the kick, the wall (of opposing players) was three meters away. The referee didn't book anyone and didn't do anything. We lost the game and driving home later, with a mixture of anger and bitterness, I thought that we must invent something to stop this." Hence, 9:15 Fairplay. If all goes well, we could be seeing this in domestic club competitions as soon as the beginning of the coming season, then it could become universal like yellow and red cards did in the years after they were introduced in the 1970 World Cup. Speaking of red cards, one of Germany's most famous footballers has been banned by soccer's ruling body for failing to cooperate with an investigation into corruption within the game. Franz Beckenbauer, the only man to win the World Cup as captain and coach, has been provisionally suspended from any football-related activity for 90 days. FIFA said in a statement that the 68-year-old had been asked to help with its Ethics Committee's probe into allegations against Qatar 2022 and the World Cup bidding process. "The apparent breach relates to Mr. Beckenbauer's failure to cooperate despite repeated requests for his assistance, including requests that he provide information during an in-person interview or in response to written questions provided in both English and German," FIFA said. The chairman of the committee's investigatory body, New York lawyer Michael Garcia, is expected to announce his findings by the end of July after a long-running examination of the circumstances that saw Russia and Qatar awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively. The December 2010 vote by FIFA's executive committee members to take the sport's showpiece tournament to the Middle East for the first time has been mired in controversy.