A fascinating new project that you should engage with if you get a chance: FootballLaws.
It's been run by young gentleman, Kieran Poole, who is for his university dissertation looking at how the laws of football could change 150 years after being formulated by the Football Association in 1863.
Already a good number of folk have got involved (including luminaries such as Matt Le Tissier, Carlo Cudicini, Clarke Carlisle, Henry Winter, Oliver Kay and Mark Chapman). Kieran's next big idea is to play a game at some stage in the future with some of the new laws.
So, there you go, what laws would you like to see changed? I've said to Kieran that I'd post this and my followers - such as they are - would post in the comments section so he has a place to find some additional views.
So, please, feel free to comment at length.
RCM
4 comments:
I think the main rules are very good - I wouldn't like to see the game changed in a big way.
Some that I think could be better though:
I haven't understood the reasoning behind yellow carding someone who takes off his shirt while celebrating a goal. I thought I knew, but as it comes out the rule has nothing to do with messages shown on some shirt under there.
Goal line technology ASAP. Doesn't have any downsides to the game itself, just upsides. Money shouldn't be an issue either as there's so much of it in the game.
To some extent I think video refereeing could be good. I think a decent way to go about it would be to give both teams one 'challenge' before the match that they can use to check the video. If the referee has got it right and they protest, then they don't have another in that game. If they get it right, then they can challenge a call again.
Something needs to be done about diving imo. For me its about players being honest themselves. Its about whether they want to go down or not. If they want to go down after every minimal contact, knowing that they might get something, then the incentive to dive is there. They get away with diving without any punishment too many times. Plus they get 'easy' fouls when they are barely touched. They scream in agony, appeal for a foul and when they get the decision, they get up and play on like nothing happened(and not much did happen). That kind of behaviour is horrible imo.
For a referee its difficult as well. Lately they've punished these players a bit too much. Quite a few players have got yellows this season after they were fouled. For me a simple solution would be to ask them if they were fouled or not and what they're appealing about. If they lie about it, then yellow card them. If they claim contact when there was none(for the referee), then they should be yellow carded.
Also you could ask the defender the same thing. Both of them knowing that lying gets you yellow carded.
Combined with the previous idea of allowing teams to challenge one call it seems to me that there wouldn't be much of an incentive to cheat.
Although I think they might not be straightforward enough. But it just seems like something that could help the game become more honest. Presently there is a feel that anything is allowed as long as you get away with it(you do have retrospective bans, but if its a cup final then who cares?). In a way I'd like the game to be about gentlemen and people who are a good example to the rest of the community. Now they're not. Now they are just a reflection of the community.
I think the addition of a video replay would make the players much less willing to cheat and complain about non-existent fouls and quite a bit of what we don't want to see would be removed from the game.
Although in some sense I like the game as it is with its injustices. Who cares if the referees get some things wrong? We all know that our team is the best anyway. And the referees give us someone to blame if we don't win. We always need someone to blame there :).
Free kicks to be taken from anywhere within a 10m radius of where the offence took place. No offside from a free kick.
Each side is limited to five outfield players plus a goalie in the penalty area when a corner kick is taken, until the first player within the box has touched the ball. (The other players have to retreat to the halfway line at a corner.)
Replace the penalty shoot-out by a contest of goalies trying to score from their areas into the opposite undefended goal.
I think the game needs some drastic changes to make it more attacking particularly in the international and club international level.
First I would implement a stop-watch approach to time-keeping. This would make time-wasting completely pointless, would end arguments about how much add-on time there should be, and would decrease the incidents of injury feigning to waste time.
Secondly I would utilize replays to help sort out difficult decisions, penalties, offsides, as well as whether a ball crossed the line. This wouldn't take up too much time (and would probably save time)since the really contentious situations only happen less than five times per match and much time is often wasted anyway with players arguing with each other and the ref.
Third. Award penalty goals for on-the-line-handballs, or any other situation where a goal was illegally prevented when it was a near certainty.
Fourth. This is the most drastic of the changes that I would like to see in the game and I know it will never happen! Basically I think that the way games are won or lost should change. Attacking play should be rewarded and parking the bus should be discouraged.
The way to do this would be to award points according to how attacking a team was during the game. In WC, Euro, or CL, group games, teams would be awarded the usual 3 points for a win a 1 for a draw, but other factors could be taken into account to award bonus points to encourage attacking football.
For example extra points could be earned for having 15-20 shots on target, or even for any attempt on goal. Number of corners, or possession in the opponents third could also earn extra points. This way even a losing team could earn precious points for being attacking and exciting play. This might shift focus onto the artistic aspect of the game.
This could even be carried forward into knockout stages, whereby teams could win or lose based on a points system according to how much they attacked. This would discourage teams from sitting back waiting for the PKs, since a side could earn points for the number of goals they scored during the match, plus bonus points for meeting the criteria for "attacking" play. No more boring 0-0 scores. Teams could win on points as opposed to scorelines - drastic I know, but people would rather see an exciting team that lost 1-0 go through on points over their opponent who scored in the first minute but then sat back for 90 minutes.
Fifth. Change player penalization system. Don't let teams go down to 9 or 10 men. Instead, if the points system was implemented teams could lose points if one of their players is dangerous or reckless in their play. A red card means a deduction of points and a decreased chance of winning.
This would protect flair players and promote fair, clean play. Teams could lose points in their group games depending on how severe were the circumstances of the red card.
Not perfect but I hope it is food for thought! Big fan of the blog btw.
For me the biggest problem with the laws of the game is the offside laws.
Offside is horrendously difficult for the officials to correctly monitor and often leads to goals incorrectly awarded or ruled out. People go on and on about goal-line technology but these incidents occur once or twice a season, as opposed to off-side mistakes which occur once or twice a game.
My suggestion would be to experiment with removing entirely the offside laws.
It's hard to foresee exactly how removing the offside laws would change the game - but it would be interesting to see some experimental games.
I play in a 5-a-side league with no offside rules. Players don't goal hang since it's too easy to defend against, and players are needed to help defend and work the mid-field. It's possible that removal of the off-side rules would work better with fewer players on the pitch?
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