Improving on the "beautiful game"

[Viper]

With Spain and the Netherlands now set to bring down the curtain on another World Cup this weekend, it seemed a good time to do another rule-change-proposal thread, in this case for soccer.

I have four proposals to improve the sport. Three of them would change the laws of the game itself; the last is more of a big-picture-oriented change.

1) My first proposal I have dubbed "the Suarez rule". Simply put, it will award an automatic goal in the event of any defensive foul (not just a handball, as was the case with Suarez) committed inside the 6-yard box while the ball is also inside the box.

2) To discourage diving, embellishment and similar fakery, when a player goes down to the pitch he has a set amount of time, say 30 seconds, to get back up. If he can't or won't get up, then not only must he leave or be carried off the pitch, but he also becomes a mandatory substitution. Taking a dive would hurt your team by forcing your coach to burn a substitution on you. This rule wouldn't penalize teams when their players really are hurt, since they would have to be subbed out anyway. If your team's out of substitutions, it simply goes a man down as though you had been red-carded.

3) In knockout games and the like, replace penalty-kick shootouts (and possibly extra time) with alternating corner kicks. Hold a coin toss before the start; the winner gets to choose which corner they will take the kick from. Once the kick is taken, play continues until one of the following occurs:

• The attacking team scores
  
• The attacking team is awarded a penalty kick and takes it (whether they score or not)
  
• The defending team's goalkeeper gains control of the ball
  
• The defending team clears the ball behind either the last attacking player or the center line (whichever is closer)
  

Then the other team gets their corner kick from the same corner. If both teams score on their corner kick, or neither team scores, they both kick again from the other side of the goal. First team to score while the other team doesn't score wins (sort of like OT in college football).

4) Revise the points system to encourage goal scoring, or at least to discourage playing for draws. Instead of the current system which awards a flat 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw, set those as upper limits and link the actual points earned to the number of goals scored:

• 1 point for a 1-0 win
  
• 2 points for a 2-0 or 2-1 win
  
• The full 3 points for any other winning score (i.e. for scoring 3 or more goals in victory)
  
• A goalless draw is as good as a loss (i.e. 0 points) for both sides
  
• Any other draw earns 1 point per side
  

Thoughts? Any other proposals? Discuss away...

[Alphabet Man]

1 - Good idea, reward the goal without needing the kick to be re-taken at the penalty spot. And also send the player off.

I think the red card suspension needs to be revisited. At the moment its a triple penalty - send off, penalty, suspension. I think its a tad harsh if its incidental like Harry Kewells send off. When it is blatantly intentional like Suarez then all three. But then how do you decide if its intentional or not?

2 - I think if a player is going to dive or go down, and play is forced to stop then the player must be removed from the field for 5minutes (or other nominated amount of time). So if they want to dive, they go off and their team is down a player for 5minutes. If they are legitimately injured then usually they will be subbed out of the game.

3 - Nup, penalties are simple after 120minutes.

4 - Nup, leave the points system as is.

[dfwabel]

With Spain and the Netherlands now set to bring down the curtain on another World Cup this weekend, it seemed a good time to do another rule-change-proposal thread, in this case for soccer.

I have four proposals to improve the sport. Three of them would change the laws of the game itself; the last is more of a big-picture-oriented change.

1) My first proposal I have dubbed "the Suarez rule". Simply put, it will award an automatic goal in the event of any defensive foul (not just a handball, as was the case with Suarez) committed inside the 6-yard box while the ball is also inside the box.

2) To discourage diving, embellishment and similar fakery, when a player goes down to the pitch he has a set amount of time, say 30 seconds, to get back up. If he can't or won't get up, then not only must he leave or be carried off the pitch, but he also becomes a mandatory substitution. Taking a dive would hurt your team by forcing your coach to burn a substitution on you. This rule wouldn't penalize teams when their players really are hurt, since they would have to be subbed out anyway. If your team's out of substitutions, it simply goes a man down as though you had been red-carded.

3) In knockout games and the like, replace penalty-kick shootouts (and possibly extra time) with alternating corner kicks. Hold a coin toss before the start; the winner gets to choose which corner they will take the kick from. Once the kick is taken, play continues until one of the following occurs:

• The attacking team scores
  
• The attacking team is awarded a penalty kick and takes it (whether they score or not)
  
• The defending team's goalkeeper gains control of the ball
  
• The defending team clears the ball behind either the last attacking player or the center line (whichever is closer)
  

Then the other team gets their corner kick from the same corner. If both teams score on their corner kick, or neither team scores, they both kick again from the other side of the goal. First team to score while the other team doesn't score wins (sort of like OT in college football).

4) Revise the points system to encourage goal scoring, or at least to discourage playing for draws. Instead of the current system which awards a flat 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw, set those as upper limits and link the actual points earned to the number of goals scored:

• 1 point for a 1-0 win
  
• 2 points for a 2-0 or 2-1 win
  
• The full 3 points for any other winning score (i.e. for scoring 3 or more goals in victory)
  
• A goalless draw is as good as a loss (i.e. 0 points) for both sides
  
• Any other draw earns 1 point per side
  

Thoughts? Any other proposals? Discuss away...

I will give you #4 before ripping you on the other three.

1994 Caribbean Cup Group Play

Part of this mess is on YouTube.

[Saintsfan]

1- no. A penalty kick and a sending off were plenty of punishment. Indeed there were other situations where it was considered too much in this World Cup.

2- the problem here is that players genuinely go down with some injury and the recover. Good health and safety tells players to stay down in those situations, in order to get medical attention. What happens when a team has made all it's substitutions? What's to stop the other team deliberately going in hard in order to get players to stay down for 30 seconds and be forced from the field.

3- I always liked the old golden goal rule. Make extra time sudden death, then to penalties. As original as the corner kick idea is, it sounds like it would take a long time, potentially.

4- one of the issues with 4 is match fixing. You can't give the same reward to a team that wins 1-0 or draws 1-1. Where is the incentive for them not conceeding? Sure they could go for the 2nd but a decent pay off could easily see a draw agreed upon.

[Shmee]

To be frank, I think every idea you've proposed here is horrid except for the one that punishes diving. That one works for me.

1. Count me among those who think Suarez' actions were both sporting and acceptable. There's a very clear decision that a player must make in such a situation: is my team better off conceding a goal or defending a penalty kick, playing down a man for the rest of the match, and being without me next game? Given the circumstances and the time remaining, Suarez chose the latter. Ghana should have been able to win the match despite Suarez' handball. They blew the penalty kick (statistically, a 70% chance or better of scoring) and then lost in a shootout despite Uruguay missing their best striker. I have no sympathy for Ghana in this case.
   
2. For it, with some edits. While something needs to be done about diving, this is a little too rigid for my tastes.
   
3. This is just ridiculous. I think the current system is perfect. If you can't beat your opponent in regular time, you keep playing. If you can't beat them in extra time, it comes down to pure basics: striking and saving. I'd be fine with changing extra time to golden goal format, but going to corners? Weird and silly.
   
4. I don't think a 3-2 win is any more impressive than a 1-0 win. And I definitely don't think a 1-0 win is worth the same to a team as a 1-1 draw. Your system doesn't solve the problem of teams playing for draws at all; it just encourages 1-1 draws instead of 0-0 draws. Since the team that's up in a 1-0 game gets the same number of points in your system as if they give up a goal and finish 1-1, there's no motivation to protect the lead. It's pointless and needlessly complex.
   

What would I change? Accountability for officials. Institute hand signals like in American football or ice hockey to indicate what foul a referee has called. The ref must announce the type of foul and the infringing player before resuming play. This World Cup will be unfortunately be memorable for its poor officiating, and making the referees accountable for their calls is a necessity.

And the big one, institute replay review for goals. Give each team captain the opportunity to put in one challenge per game, to be reviewed against video, to check whether a goal has legitimately been scored. This can be applied immediately following a called goal or at the first stoppage in play following a goal that has been waived off. A booth official makes the judgment. For inconclusive reviews, the referee's original ruling stands. The right to challenge future goals is only stripped if a challenge fails.

[jr79]

1) My first proposal I have dubbed "the Suarez rule". Simply put, it will award an automatic goal in the event of any defensive foul (not just a handball, as was the case with Suarez) committed inside the 6-yard box while the ball is also inside the box.

No, goes too far. A rule similar to the "penalty try" in rugby would be better where the referee is certain a goal would have been scored if the foul had not been committed. (Basically would only apply to deliberate handball on the line).

2) To discourage diving, embellishment and similar fakery, when a player goes down to the pitch he has a set amount of time, say 30 seconds, to get back up. If he can't or won't get up, then not only must he leave or be carried off the pitch, but he also becomes a mandatory substitution. Taking a dive would hurt your team by forcing your coach to burn a substitution on you. This rule wouldn't penalize teams when their players really are hurt, since they would have to be subbed out anyway. If your team's out of substitutions, it simply goes a man down as though you had been red-carded.

Players already have to leave the field if they go down "hurt", leaving their team a player short until a match official waves them back on. Referees should be encouraged to use their discretion as to how long they take to wave a player back on. Diving will only be properly stamped out by post-match video review which FIFA stubbornly refuses to adopt. If players were banned and fined for diving it'd soon start to dry up.

3) In knockout games and the like, replace penalty-kick shootouts (and possibly extra time) with alternating corner kicks. Hold a coin toss before the start; the winner gets to choose which corner they will take the kick from. Once the kick is taken, play continues until one of the following occurs:

• The attacking team scores
• The attacking team is awarded a penalty kick and takes it (whether they score or not)
• The defending team's goalkeeper gains control of the ball
• The defending team clears the ball behind either the last attacking player or the center line (whichever is closer)

Then the other team gets their corner kick from the same corner. If both teams score on their corner kick, or neither team scores, they both kick again from the other side of the goal. First team to score while the other team doesn't score wins (sort of like OT in college football).

You'd be there all night. It's not *that* easy to score from a corner. You're making a very simple game unnecessarily complex with all those rules and conditions.

4) Revise the points system to encourage goal scoring, or at least to discourage playing for draws. Instead of the current system which awards a flat 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw, set those as upper limits and link the actual points earned to the number of goals scored:

• 1 point for a 1-0 win
• 2 points for a 2-0 or 2-1 win
• The full 3 points for any other winning score (i.e. for scoring 3 or more goals in victory)
• A goalless draw is as good as a loss (i.e. 0 points) for both sides
• Any other draw earns 1 point per side

Thoughts? Any other proposals? Discuss away...

The current system is fine. Teams who finish level on points are separated based on their goal difference which is encouragement enough to play attacking football.

[Sport]

I would lose the offsides rule. Scoring would increase by, I don't know, a lot. You don't want a guy to cherry pick, then cover him.

I would increase the number of yellow cards that it takes to be forced to sit out the next match.

Punish diving. This is one of the main hangups that a lot of Americans have on Soccer.

Add goal judges behind each goal and another official on the field itself. Institute replay for world cup games. Make refs accountable for the calls on the field, or at the very least, require them to explain the call to each side like they do in every other sport.

[Saintsfan]

The only really necessary change in soccer is some form of video replay/goal line technology. Make it exactly the same system used in Rugby. The ref calls for video evidence and the video replay guy then sorts out the decision. DO NOT have a challenge system, like in the NFL or tennis. And my own view is that it shouldn't just be goal line decisions but there should be video available for any incident occuring in the goal area.

Shmee must have been watching a different world cup to me. For the most part, the refereeing has been of a decent standard, historically. Not perfect, but pretty good. What there has been are very few poor sending offs. Referees seem to have used discretion a little more this time around. But what I would like to see is a little more support given to referees. For instance introduce a rule that only the captain of a team can discuss a decision with a referee, and heavy penalties given for dissent.

I don't entirely agree with the idea of a penalty goal. The penalty attempt should be enough of a penalty. (Actually the strange thing about the Suarez incident is it appears he could have headed the ball clear!) I think you would get into terrible confusion about when a penalty goal can be awarded, and in soccer a penalty goal gets you the same as a normal goal. In Rugby the point is that a penalty kick only gets you 3 points as opposed to 5 (7 with a conversion), so teams used to deliberately concede penalties in desperate situations, knowing they would concede a lot less than the inevitable try would cause. In soccer, most penalties are scored, so the penalty for the foul is essentially a goal. (Also don't forget that Gyan missed the penalty, rather than it being saved!) And again think back to the Australia incident when a lot of people felt Kewell being sent off and a penalty conceeded for a debatable handball was a hefty punishment. At least the penalty kick gives teams in that situation an opportunity to redeem a [potentially] bad decision.

What soccer does suffer from sometimes is the rule of unintended consequences. Over reacting to a particular situation and in the end making it worse. It would be a great danger to over react to the Suarez incident.

[Seadragon76]

The biggest gripe I have is the lack of consistancy from the refs. So, to combat that, you have to make sure that the refs are basically up to speed with all of the rules. That means having some sort of educational meeting before each and every major tourny (World Cup, EURO 2012, etc.) to tell the refs to make sure the rules are enforced. This means a far stronger stance on diving (at least a Free Kick if a player is deemed to be caught in the act of diving), and use of replay only for goals.

As for the other changes Viper mentioned:

1.) No. The player is getting sent off with a Red Card and the other team has a penalty kick. That's enough punishment for the player getting sent off. Plus, if you saw the game, the ball never went in. Yes, I know if wasn't for the handball, it would of been a goal. But, what about situations where a player does commit a handball foul in the box when the ball is no where near the net? You can't obviously call it a goal when it was no where near it.

2.) I like this, but I think that a good way to deter diving is make sure you get those who are well known as divers. Taking those kind of players out of the game would help improve the flow of the game because it's not interrupted by these divers.

3.) Another no from me. I think they should reinstate the Golden Goal rule for the knockout rounds. This way, a game can end on the game winning goal without the team who gave up the goal having to play catchup for the whole period of Extra Time. Look at the US-Ghana game. When Ghana scored 3 minutes into the first half of Extra Time, it forced the Americans to play catchup for the remaining 27 minutes of Extra Time. With the Golden Goal rule, you can see both teams try to attack to make sure and win. If no one scores, then that's why you have a Penalty Shootout.

4.) I think Viper has forgotten the most important rule of sports:

You play to win the game!

If you're playing just to get one point to advance to the next round, that's different. But, if you need to win and win big, then you have to go all out and win. Both teams come out because they want to win. If it's tied, then that means they must win the next game.

[The_Admiral]

5) ban the phrase "the beautiful game"

[epper]

1) My first proposal I have dubbed "the Suarez rule". Simply put, it will award an automatic goal in the event of any defensive foul (not just a handball, as was the case with Suarez) committed inside the 6-yard box while the ball is also inside the box.

I too think while what Suarez did could be seen as cheap, there was definite negatives that came from it that were enough of a penalty (penalty shot, man down, 1 game suspension)

2) To discourage diving, embellishment and similar fakery, when a player goes down to the pitch he has a set amount of time, say 30 seconds, to get back up. If he can't or won't get up, then not only must he leave or be carried off the pitch, but he also becomes a mandatory substitution. Taking a dive would hurt your team by forcing your coach to burn a substitution on you. This rule wouldn't penalize teams when their players really are hurt, since they would have to be subbed out anyway. If your team's out of substitutions, it simply goes a man down as though you had been red-carded.

Not a terrible idea. But I still think guys would fake it for, say 25 seconds if the limit was 30. I think a better system would be to have judges that review the tape after games. If you're caught blatantly diving, you're fined. Multiple infractions, then suspensions or starting the next game with a yellow tacked on.

3) In knockout games and the like, replace penalty-kick shootouts (and possibly extra time) with alternating corner kicks. Hold a coin toss before the start; the winner gets to choose which corner they will take the kick from. Once the kick is taken, play continues until one of the following occurs:

• The attacking team scores
• The attacking team is awarded a penalty kick and takes it (whether they score or not)
• The defending team's goalkeeper gains control of the ball
• The defending team clears the ball behind either the last attacking player or the center line (whichever is closer)

Then the other team gets their corner kick from the same corner. If both teams score on their corner kick, or neither team scores, they both kick again from the other side of the goal. First team to score while the other team doesn't score wins (sort of like OT in college football).

This idea would take forever. My idea would be to play the first 1/2 of extra time 11-on-11, then if there's still no goals, drop it down to 9-on-9 to create more space for offense.

4) Revise the points system to encourage goal scoring, or at least to discourage playing for draws. Instead of the current system which awards a flat 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw, set those as upper limits and link the actual points earned to the number of goals scored:

• 1 point for a 1-0 win
• 2 points for a 2-0 or 2-1 win
• The full 3 points for any other winning score (i.e. for scoring 3 or more goals in victory)
• A goalless draw is as good as a loss (i.e. 0 points) for both sides
• Any other draw earns 1 point per side

Thoughts? Any other proposals? Discuss away...

Don't like this idea at all. You can't force teams to completely change their style of play depending on the scoring system. Some teams thrive in 1-0 games.

My Only Change

Fix the damn game clock! Make it count down. Have the clock stopped during all throw ins, stoppages, injuries etc, so that we KNOW how much time is left in the match, instead of adding an arbitrary amount to the end that the ref doesn't even stick to half the time. I hate near the end of the game, the leading team is just staring at the ref waiting for him to blow the whistle.

[Saintsfan]

My Only Change

Fix the damn game clock! Make it count down. Have the clock stopped during all throw ins, stoppages, injuries etc, so that we KNOW how much time is left in the match, instead of adding an arbitrary amount to the end that the ref doesn't even stick to half the time. I hate near the end of the game, the leading team is just staring at the ref waiting for him to blow the whistle.

The issue here is that the referee is the sole arbiter of time in the game (At least traditionally). I understand thats a very unAmerican construct, but its how soccer has always worked. And the uncertainty at the end of the game is all part of the fun.

[The_Admiral]

I like the clock counting up. The clock should count up in hockey from 0:00 to 60:00 or whatever, since goals and penalties are reported counting up. Soccer just deciding "well let's add another three minutes (every World Cup game I've seen it's been three minutes, even though I'm pretty sure we had more than three minutes of wasted time), okay never mind, now's as good a time as any to call it a day here, guys." If you guys think that's cool or something, then I don't even know where to begin arguing.

[B-Rich]

I would lose the offsides rule. Scoring would increase by, I don't know, a lot. You don't want a guy to cherry pick, then cover him.

Absolutely agree. This would make the game much more exciting, add scoring, and remove one of the hardest rules to judge/interpret. In World Cup play, you have sideline refs with flags to indicate offsides near each goal (but not a ref behind the goal to ensure a goal was scored, that's another issue) but in coaching youth games I've seen far too many times a single ref try to accurately judge whether or not an offensive player was offsides or not, and it can;t be done. I agree the simple answer is to eliminate it altogether, and if you don't want cherry picking (or "snowbirding" as I've also heard it called), then have your defense cover him.

[BBTV]

Let the players use their darn hands. Humans weren't built to run around kicking things - we have hands (and opposable thumbs) for a reason.

[infrared41]

Let me preface this by saying I am not a soccer fan. That said, with the popularity of the World Cup etc. does the game really need to be changed? Whatever they're doing seems to be working pretty well across the world.

[TFoA]

The only really necessary change in soccer is some form of video replay/goal line technology. Over reacting to a particular situation and in the end making it worse. It would be a great danger to over react to the Suarez incident.

Idk about you guys, but I'm gonna listen to the English guy on this one. Like any other sport, refs are prone to mistakes. Soccer is a pretty hard sport to officiate, you've got to cover ALL of that ground (when it comes to World Cup sized pitches, it's roughly bigger than an NFL football field...& there's 5 or 6 refs on the field, compared to only 1 ref running with the action & two refs on the sideline.) & somehow be able to catch everything. So yeah, I'd be in favor of goal line technology & maybe putting refs at the goal line as well. Either way, that Suarez incident was one in a million, & I HIGHLY doubt that anybody would be complaining if Gyan buried that PK & Ghana advanced to the Semis. So yeah, I don't want there to be much change...but at least do something about the goalline. That England "goal" was unacceptable.

About the clock counting down, you need to look no further than MLS' early days to see how much of a failure that was.

[OnWis97]

I'm not a soccer guy either...

I'm surprised by the negative reply to the corner kick idea. The NHL established penalty shoot outs in the regular season to avoid ties, but there is a reason they don't end playoff games with them. To me penalty kicks seem analogous to NHL shoot outs. The biggest difference is that soccer has even more infrequent goals then hockey (thereby, perhaps, making indefinite OT impractical).

I'd have thought that fans would think a shootout is a bad way to determine a winner in tournament play. Is there something about the PKs that is more "game like" than a hockey shootout? Most of this board hates college football overtime because it's not "game like", but this is OK? That surprises me.

As complex as the corner kick rules look here, they really are not that complex (or don't have to be). Once the other team clears the crease (or whatever it's called), the attempt is over. It seems a little more "game like" then PKs. I've always thought PKs was a bad way to pick a winner, so if they cannot play forever like NHL playoffs, this seems pretty good. If it could go too long (I have no idea what % of corners result in a goal), then skip extra time and, if we must, have a 5 or 10 round limit, followed by PKs. I like it.

That said, I think soccer is resistant to change...Americans are conditioned for a clock that stops and all time being accounted for in a uniform way. But most of the world seems content with the game now.

[MattF]

1. If Suarez had done this in the 5th minute with the game 0-0, and Gyan missed the penalty, would everyone still call Suarez a cheat, no they'd be calling him a moron for doing that. Bottom line is there's a reason its called a penalty, them team who gets the penalty called in their favor is supossed to make it...end of story.

2. That could use some work, but the basic idea is fine.

3. That idea is basically college football overtime. Plus it would take forever. Penalties are fine. If anything corners are more responsible for flukey goals the penalties.

4. Ugh....no. Some club preseason tournaments use a format like that and its always a complete dumpsterfire.

[NEW.ERA]

Change nothing rule wise.

Only changes that should be made and will be made is adding Replay.