TANZANIA, Aug. 17 -- FOR generations, East Africa football fans have believed, with the certainty of a grandmother refusing to change her ugali recipe, that football is governed by exactly seventeen rules.

Those seventeen, written in the holy book of FIFAs Laws of the Game, deal with a number of essential things.

That is, dont use your hands unless youre the goalkeeper, no tackling peoples knees from behind and the ball is not, in fact, in play when its rolling down the road towards the chips stand.

Everything else? That was for the television commentators to argue about, for players to interpret creatively.

Or for the fans to ignore entirely while perfecting the fine art of shouting tactical advice at strikers who couldnt possibly he...