How to make football beautiful again

[aylee]

• Instant video evidence: for simulation and other big decisions.
• Official Stadium Clock: so that everyone knows how much time is left.
• Increasing the size of the goals: to take into account the fact that when goalpost size laws were laid down the average height of a man was 5'2": the average height for premiership goalkeepers this season is 6'2".
• Sin bins: to plug the gap between a yellow and a red card.

would any of these work?

Video evidence: yes, provided it is used sparingly so the flow of the game isn't disrupted. Disputed offside decisions and penalties, and did-it-cross-the-goalline-or-not queries only.

Stadium clock: no way, I love the gut-wrenching tension at the end of a game when your team is a single goal up, their goal is under siege and you don't know when the ref will blow the whistle.

Increasing size of the goals: possibly, although only by perhaps six inches in each direction. I think that there is a better argument for making them higher than wider. It would certainly increase goalkeepers' workloads and it should be tried first in a particular tournament to see how it works.

Sin bins: perhaps, although I'm not clear about the precise relationship that would exist between yellow cards and sin bins .... can you really have both? There would be a danger of destroying the pattern of the game if a team got two or three players binned in quick succession .... they'd have to shut up shop. Losing one player probably has more influence on strategy in a football game than in rugby.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Video evidence: yes, provided it is used sparingly so the flow of the game isn't disrupted. Disputed offside decisions and penalties, and did-it-cross-the-goalline-or-not queries only.

I would have thought that would most certainly disrupt the flow of the game.

 

[aylee]

Is Carlton Cole a) a bit crap really, or b) a goal machine if only hernan crespo would piss off.

That would be (a), judging by his abysmal form when on loan to Villa last season.

 

[aylee]

I would have thought that would most certainly disrupt the flow of the game.

Some disruption is inevitable, but it isn't too bad in rugby and it does lead to greater consistency of decision-making.

Most of the use of video evidence would probably concern offsides. If a linesman knew that his decision could be reviewed if a goal was scored after a player was marginally offside, he'd be more ready to let play continue and not make the error of flagging a player offside when he's running on to a through ball, which we see three or four times every week in the Premiership.

There are very few times when there are genuine did-it-cross-the-line disputes.

If a ref is considering sending a player off, he should call for the video link for it to be reviewed.

The proposal needs careful thought and experimental use, but it has to be better than the present volume of wrong decisions. Maybe then managers would have to find something else to moan about other than the ref, which would of itself be a very good thing.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

I wrote a piece on the subject of video replays in When Saturday Comes years ago. What I reckoned then, and reckon now, is that if they didn't moan about the ball crossing the line they'd moan about a foul in the build-up of the award of a throw-in that started the move or something else.

 

[JKKne]

What a complete load of utter tosh that article was.

What is the point?

If the author doesn't like football in this country then let him piss off and watch the French destroy their own game....something I'm sure UEFA and FIFA would be very interested in seeing

 

[fear-n-loathing]

it's not everyone's fault the Italian's are so dull. No need to make goals bigger.

I could be wrong but I think serie A has the most goals out of any league in europe this season...

 

[bigbry]

One thing I would have is a "ref zone" ie only the captain can dispute/discuss referees decisions anyone else approaching gets a yellow.

I like the idea of theis one - I think it deserves some further thought.

 

[kakuma]

sin bins my arse

 

[bigbry]

I wish FIFA/UEFA would take action to stop shirt pulling/holding.

That is my biggest gripe of football - it's blatant cheating and should be stopped.

 

[JKKne]

I could be wrong but I think serie A has the most goals out of any league in europe this season...

Correct. The bottom 3 in the league have strikers who have all hit about 20 goals this season.

Serie A is wrongly derided, it can be exceptionally entertaining.

The Premierships advocates could do worse than look at its own games

 

[kakuma]

Correct. The bottom 3 in the league have strikers who have all hit about 20 goals this season.

Serie A is wrongly derided, it can be exceptionally entertaining.

The Premierships advocates could do worse than look at its own games

serie a can be excellent, but i do think it is dominated by milan and juve, both of whom have been playing 6 defensive players for years

although i saw some cracking games when i lived in milan 4-3 at home to roma

 

[tangerinedream]

Well I do believe that football does OK in popularity as it is.

0-0 draws, nothing wrong with them. Just the way it is.

Course there isn't - if there wasn't dire 0-0 draws to sit through, then it wouldn't be as thrilling when you win 4-3. Ultimately what makes a game good is how close it is, not necacerily the number of goals scored.

Baseball's an interesting game. Usually the lower the score, the better the game.

 

[RubberBuccaneer]

Course there isn't - if there wasn't dire 0-0 draws to sit through, then it wouldn't be as thrilling when you win 4-3. Ultimately what makes a game good is how close it is, not necacerily the number of goals scored.

Baseball's an interesting game. Usually the lower the score, the better the game.

quite frigging trus... i've seen games when we've tanked people ( usualy in the welsd cup), and if you know it's a walk over it's muchless excitinf than a clise game