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| The dynamic IFAB Committee, possibly looking unimpressed with my proposals |
I'm not holding my breath, so before my revolutionary manifesto ends up in a Zürich waste-paper basket I'll present my ideas here for discussion. Please bear in mind that these are ideas to kick-start a dialogue, not a blueprint that I would impose on football if I was suddenly elected Fifa president.
However, I do think that we need to be constantly looking at ways to make football a game that is fairer, more entertaining, and easier to referee. IFAB's conservative approach not only lacks both daring and imagination, but often serves to unnecessarily complicate already tricky laws, such as offside. Perhaps a less fiddly, less technocratic approach is called for.
So, here we go. Suggestion Number One:
DISCIPLINE AND PLAYER NUMBERS
Proposal: The reduction of teams by one or more players due to an accumulation of yellow cards. Abolition of yellow-red card.
Reason: Only future opponents currently benefit from another team's foul play (in the form of suspensions for accumulated yellow cards). Under this proposal, teams accumulating too many yellow cards will be punished during the game when multiple offences are committed.
How it will work: After four yellow cards, a team will be reduced by one player (the player receiving the fourth card), and by one further player for each subsequent two yellow cards. The 'yellow-red' system would be abolished. Red cards unaffected - that is, a team reduced by one player for a red card offence will still be reduced by one player for receiving four yellow cards. A player who commits two yellow card offences may be allowed to remain on field (if his team has accumulated less than four yellow cards).
Consequence: A reduction in teams setting out to 'spoil' games; reduction in number of games that 'deteriorate'; reduction in foul play and an increase in positive, attacking football.
Discuss, reject, tear apart etc. Suggestions 2-6 will follow in due course.
Click here to order Reffing Hell: Stuck In The Middle Of A Game Gone Wrong by Ian Plenderleith (Halcyon Publishing), published on August 8, 2022.
On a related note, today's Kicker welcomes the suggestion from Hoffenheim coach Julian Nagelsmann for a 'green card' - a five-minute time penalty for committing a tactical foul. The magazine's editor-in-chief Rainer Franzke writes: "The term 'tactical foul' linguistically softens what is a hugely unsporting offence. When this foul is committed the player and their team are cheated out of a skilfully created advantage. Sure, there's a yellow card, but the cheated team doesn't profit from it. A time-limited punishment, be it five or 10 minutes, would give the cheated team the chance to profit from their numerical superiority." He goes on to point out that the German FA had a 10-minute time penalty for yellow-carded players in its amateur leagues between 1978 and 1992, and that it was "successful". One of the "flimsy" reasons it was dropped, says Franzke, was that the muscles of the ordered-off player cooled down too much during the winter months. "The time is ripe for a return to this rule," he concludes. "Time penalties, regardless of the offense, make more sense than yellow cards, because they give the disadvantaged team the possibility of an advantage."
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