AuthorJeffEyesRimmer There has been plenty of paper talk this week regarding potential reforms to footballs rules. These ideas have been put forward to the four British home football associations - of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – who are responsible for making the final decision on law changes. While the scrapping of 45 minute halves has generated the most attention there are a raft of other proposed changes being put forward by lawmaking body - the International Football Association Board, that make quite a bit of sense. The main theme of the rule changes is to improve player behaviour, increase the playing time and increase fairness. Here are few that could really improve the game: Referees Stricter on Time Wasting
Time wasting is a very frustrating side of the game and part of the proposal is to ask referees to crack down on the time wasters. Although the match official has a watch specifically for adding time on at the end of the game this often feels arbitrary. It has been suggested in these proposal documents that the officials should stop their watch for the following breaks in play:
While all of these seem appropriate to me the two that stand out the most are stopping the clock for an injury and when a goal is scored. Stopping the clock when there is an injury will completely cut out players feigning injury to waste time. Remember the cuffle over Chelsea’s medical team and Hazard going down injured, that just wouldn’t have happened with a clock stopped. Additionally when a goal is scored the ensuing celebration often takes a few minutes to sort itself out. That time isn’t added on in injury time (although it’s supposed to) and that should change. Another change that’s been proposed to reduce time wasting is to allow players being substituted to leave the pitch at the closet part of the touchline. This would reduce the slow walking off the pitch at the half way mark that you often see players doing. Only Captains Speak to the Referee This is being trialled at the Confederations Cup at the moment but realistically it shouldn’t even be a trial. It should just be put in place, Rugby is a good example of where captains only speak to the ref and any talking back from others is disciplined either through further metres gained or yellow cards. This can easily be implemented in football and would drastically cut out the crowding of the referee. I have failed to find a single fan that approves of the crowding around of the match official. Also does this ever change the referees mind, ever? I can’t remember an example of it, can you? The knock on affect for the younger generation as well, seeing their sporting heroes acting in a respectable manner can only be a good thing. Real changes to the rules Ok so the previous changes can be implemented without needing to change the actual rules of the game but there are quite a number of written law changes to that would need to be voted on and these include:
Some sensible changes here that I think that would need to be trialled but there are again a couple of big ones that stand out for me. The follow up from a penalty that is missed is interesting and I think if you miss that chance or the goalkeeper saves it why should you get another chance at the goal? The flip side to that is if an outfield player stops a certain goal illegally (think Suarez against Ghana handball) then the referee can award a penalty goal. This would be similar to a penalty try in rugby (in fact there are a number of ideas that have come from that code). The player scoring of a goal with a hand then being given a red card seems a little extreme mind; although I’m sure Irish fans would disagree – looking at you Thierry Henry! So what about the 30 minute halves? Well I don’t like the proposed change but the stats suggest that’s the amount of actual playing time we watch anyway. Opta stats from last season showed that the Premier League team whose games saw the most actual game time was Arsenal, with an average of 58.10 minutes. Crystal Palace had the least, with 52.33 minutes (Big Sam time wasting! Never!). However, by implementing the above mentioned time saving methods I don’t think we need to make the change, we would have full 45 minute halves then. Plus I just can’t see the TV companies paying vast sums of money for a diminished product, so I highly doubt 30 minutes halves will be a thing. Some of these changes are long overdue and it’s good that someone is finally looking into improving the game in a constructive manner. Oh and we will leave the video referee to another day. What do you think all? Sensible ideas or are you like my fellow outcast who said – if it aint broke don’t fix it? Let us know. |
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June 2018
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