On the BBC Sport’s website today, there has been a lot of discussions over what laws they would change in Football today? Some of the suggestions have included:
Offside - removing it / daylight between players
VAR - Time limited, Player Reviews, Management Reviews, Scrapping it
Timewasting - How to reduce it? Stopping the Clock? Making matches shorter
Punishments - Bans to diving or Sinbinning dissent?
Handball Offence - How to make it clearer / easier?
What do you think needs to be improved?
Short of getting rid of VAR altogether, return the offside law to the way it was after the 1990 World Cup. ie a player is onside if he is level with the second to last man (in the naked eye view of the linesman). The current VAR interpretation of the offside law only allows for a player to be before or after the second to last man and it is impossible to be exactly level. This rethinking of the offside law was brought into place in 1990 but VAR automatically makes football more boring.
Introducing an ‘umpire’s call’ type threshold?
Get rid of VAR, it ruins the single best thing about watching football.
A small thing but think it would help speed up play…
I’d allow teams to dribble from a goal kick. With the popularity for short goal kicks now, often the keeper will get the ball back, look around for options, then end up throwing the ball to a defender next to him to then kick it back to the keeper and play continues from there. There is more and more faffing around at goal kicks and it really feels like dead time. Now I completely understand that teams will still take time over them when it suits them, but think it would be great for a team to retrieve the ball, stick it down, and then get it straight back into play
I like the idea of timeouts to try to avoid the inevitable dubious player/defender injury, perhaps one per half?
The handball rule is currently nonsensical & I think we ought to go back to the old hand to ball interpretation & leave it totally up to the ref (i.e.no endless VAR bollocks).
As for VAR I think it has its place - red & yellow card reviews, whether the ball crossed the line for a corner or throw, mistaken identity etc. however I would give it a maximum time limit to review & respond of say 120 seconds, beyond which it cannot intervene.
I like many of my age & older hanker after the old days of offside, but I sadly think that is long gone; though what I do want is the linos to flag immediately rather than wait (never sure what for) & to rely on their judgement - no matter how good or shit that is in any given game.
I like the idea of a sinbin (like they have in Hockey & Rugby) especially for dissent & simulation/diving; these really would reduce if this was brought in.
I like the jeapordy of an attacking player having a chance of slotting in a rebound at a penalty kick so unlike Collina would not advocate changing this. For similar reasons, I would allow players to take a free kick or throw in to themselves, so these can be done quickly & the advantage they have accrued is not lost.
If the keeper requires the physio to come on, they have to leave the pitch for 30 seconds, same as an outfield player. Would soon stop all the time wasting.
Definitely support the daylight rule for offside. I’d also like to enforce a rugby style rule that only captains can speak with the match officials unless spoken to.
Collina wants to outlaw scoring from a rebound after a pen. Utter nonsense.
I don’t think I’d change anything. Two things really irritate me when watching football these days. Both are infringements of the laws as currently written, yet we seem to increasingly interpret the laws in a way which suggests they are fine.
The first is the absurd all-in wrestling that occurs every time there is a corner, which should be punishable with a direct free-kick or penalty, but even after the recent changes of interpretation rarely is punished, so that it feels arbitrary when they are.
The second is deliberately moving into the path of an opponent to prevent them getting to the ball. This was formerly known in fan shorthand as “obstruction” and that is still one of the words used in the laws, which are I believe unchanged in this respect. And yet, like the grappling at corners, obstruction is ubiquitous (watch the way defenders now cynically move into the path of attackers as a ball travels back to the goalkeeper for example) and hardly ever punished.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
I’d bring in a law that protects the beautiful game and allows for as few changes as possible.
No substitute goalkeepers allowed
Opposition allowed to select your penalty takers in the event of a shoot out
If a player kisses the badge he is never allowed to leave that club
If a player doesn’t celebrate a goal he must immediately return to the side he has scored against
Goalkeepers must leave the pitch if they have received treatment, the same as outfield players
Unlimited replays in the FA Cup, including the final
Maximum of two televised games per week, and none on a Saturday
Unsegregated areas for fans who enjoy chatting to supporters of other teams and can be trusted to do so for a couple of hours a week without punching anyone. Life ban for anyone who causes trouble in these areas
VAR in the bin, obviously
spankings
for women’s football
I think that has been agreed to but competition rules and/or officials strength to enforce it has made it not happen
Get rid of VAR, goes without saying.
Also for a throw in, any method of getting the ball from your hands on the pitch should be fine. Whether a roll, a quick toss, a huge swing, I dont care. It’d speed up the game, and most throw ins taken today should be called as foul anyway
I sort of like the sin bin idea….but can see refs “evening things up” during matches so probably wouldn’t work.
Main one for me is to flag as soon as it’s offside and not bugger about waiting for a move toward the ball or some such bollox. Shankly (?) said if a player is on the pitch he’s interfering with play….so flag up lino!
One thing I’d like to see tried is the turnover of possession for timewasting at throw-in’s & goalkicks. In the last 5/10 mins, we know players will “take a yellow” for timewasting but would they if they knew that if it happens, the ball is given to the opposition?
My other obvious one is either discontinue the football league trophy or (better) get the U21s out. Then it’s 16 groups of 3 or 12 groups of 4, or even a straight knockout with a preliminary round.
