For soccer fans, there has been plenty to watch over the past month or so. While watching the Copa America game last night I started thinking about some changes I would like to see in order to make the game more bearable to watch. Below is what I have come up with. What are some changes the collective here think should be made?
New rules for soccer…
No stoppage time.
If there is a legitimate injury then the clock stops.
Any restart, the team with the ball has 15 seconds to restart.
Goalie has 15 seconds to put the ball back in play on a save.
Player goes down for an “injuryâ€, if they do not allow the ball to be put back in play within 15 seconds then clock stops and that player goes off the field until the next stoppage at which point they can sub back on.
Go over the 15 second time limit and the ball goes to the other team like in indoor with 5 second rule.
I’m sure I am forgetting something but all of the time wasting and sitting on the ground for “injuries†is out of hand and has been for a long time. Time to correct it.
I agree with 1. and 2. Beyond the at, I don’t see any big issues.
What I would propose, which will never happen, is to make the goal 25% bigger. Modern goalies are giants compared to the size of athletes when the game was invented. Larger goals would still see the best team win, but higher scoring games would reduce the boring style of play you so often see. Scores of 6-3 for example could be common-place.
For soccer fans, there has been plenty to watch over the past month or so. While watching the Copa America game last night I started thinking about some changes I would like to see in order to make the game more bearable to watch. Below is what I have come up with. What are some changes the collective here think should be made?
New rules for soccer…
No stoppage time.
If there is a legitimate injury then the clock stops.
Any restart, the team with the ball has 15 seconds to restart.
Goalie has 15 seconds to put the ball back in play on a save.
Player goes down for an “injuryâ€, if they do not allow the ball to be put back in play within 15 seconds then clock stops and that player goes off the field until the next stoppage at which point they can sub back on.
Go over the 15 second time limit and the ball goes to the other team like in indoor with 5 second rule.
I’m sure I am forgetting something but all of the time wasting and sitting on the ground for “injuries†is out of hand and has been for a long time. Time to correct it.
I don’t think you can say that someone has x seconds to restart, because what if they don’t? And what if we are parsing seconds as to whether they kicked it or threw it in on 14.97 or 15.10?
I do, however, think that a much more exact amount of time that the ball is out of play can be kept and added, and has been in some tournaments (the “true 90” concept), and that it adds time closer to 8 to 12 minutes and whatnot.
Just do what they do in rugby and stop the clock if there’s an injury or VAR review or yellow card etc. Then at 90 minutes, the game is over. It’s not complicated.
a goalkeeper is allowed to hold the ball for a maximum of six seconds. The countdown begins the moment the goalkeeper establishes control of the ball, typically through a save, a catch, or any other means.
For soccer fans, there has been plenty to watch over the past month or so. While watching the Copa America game last night I started thinking about some changes I would like to see in order to make the game more bearable to watch. Below is what I have come up with. What are some changes the collective here think should be made?
New rules for soccer…
No stoppage time.
If there is a legitimate injury then the clock stops.
Any restart, the team with the ball has 15 seconds to restart.
Goalie has 15 seconds to put the ball back in play on a save.
Player goes down for an “injuryâ€, if they do not allow the ball to be put back in play within 15 seconds then clock stops and that player goes off the field until the next stoppage at which point they can sub back on.
Go over the 15 second time limit and the ball goes to the other team like in indoor with 5 second rule.
I’m sure I am forgetting something but all of the time wasting and sitting on the ground for “injuries†is out of hand and has been for a long time. Time to correct it.
No to all of those.
Two things
Fake injuries need to be addressed. This flop and roll shit is just ridiculous.
Fouls made on clear breakaways need to be a red card. If they are clearly intentional, would receive a yellow card. A red card would stop them from happening and make more goals in a match happen.
I’m with others in leaning to keeping the beautiful game as-is (mostly). It’s the most popular sport on the planet for lots of good reasons without needing to tweak a bunch of stuff unnecessarily. Jogo bonito and all that.
I’m guessing you’re in the US? We Americans like to change soccer to suit “our” tastes. e.g. Back when NASL was around they made up their own shoot-out rule – like hockey – dribble forward from 35yds out 1:1 vs. the goalie and try to score. Supposedly that was more exciting. Instead, it was just silly.
The stuff I would change to address the fake injuries is to have ref give out yellow cards for faking – bucket it under unsportsmanlike conduct. Accumulation of yellows risks not playing in the next game, or a second yellow in a game means a red. These are already current rules.
The other thing I like is what the COPA did - tied at regulation, go right to PKs.
I’ve heard the stoppage time complaint before and have never understood why stoppage time bothers people.
I agree.
I believe MLS first started a countdown clock that stopped, as well as a number of other rules designed to appeal to an American audience. It was pretty lame, and they eventually went to the international standard.
I’m with others in leaning to keeping the beautiful game as-is (mostly). It’s the most popular sport on the planet for lots of good reasons without needing to tweak a bunch of stuff unnecessarily. Jogo bonito and all that.
I’m guessing you’re in the US? We Americans like to change soccer to suit “our” tastes. e.g. Back when NASL was around they made up their own shoot-out rule – like hockey – dribble forward from 35yds out 1:1 vs. the goalie and try to score. Supposedly that was more exciting. Instead, it was just silly.
The stuff I would change to address the fake injuries is to have ref give out yellow cards for faking – bucket it under unsportsmanlike conduct. Accumulation of yellows risks not playing in the next game, or a second yellow in a game means a red. These are already current rules.
The other thing I like is what the COPA did - tied at regulation, go right to PKs.
Yeah, that’s a hard judgment call. Much of the time they’re on the ground in pain because they got stepped on or raked with metal cleats.
I definitely agree with making the goal bigger. Even making it 10% bigger would result in the goal being almost two and a half feet wider and about eight inches taller which would change the amount of goals a bunch.
Do you think 15 seconds for soccer would be much different than 5 seconds to inbound the ball in basketball or the pitch clock MLB now has? They seem very similar to me but I could certainly be missing a difference between them. “Parsing” the seconds for a soccer inbound could be the same as the other sports I think. There were times last night where the goalie was takeing 25-35 seconds to put the ball back in play after a save.
I’m with others in leaning to keeping the beautiful game as-is (mostly). It’s the most popular sport on the planet for lots of good reasons without needing to tweak a bunch of stuff unnecessarily. Jogo bonito and all that.
I’m guessing you’re in the US? We Americans like to change soccer to suit “our” tastes. e.g. Back when NASL was around they made up their own shoot-out rule – like hockey – dribble forward from 35yds out 1:1 vs. the goalie and try to score. Supposedly that was more exciting. Instead, it was just silly.
The stuff I would change to address the fake injuries is to have ref give out yellow cards for faking – bucket it under unsportsmanlike conduct. Accumulation of yellows risks not playing in the next game, or a second yellow in a game means a red. These are already current rules.
The other thing I like is what the COPA did - tied at regulation, go right to PKs.
Yeah, that’s a hard judgment call. Much of the time they’re on the ground in pain because they got stepped on or raked with metal cleats.
I’m thinking when the ref makes the two-handed diving motion to a player to indicate, well, diving - that that should then be card worthy. Seen this happen at a Brazil game I recall (looking at you, Neymar :-). Granted, Neymar is also one of the most hacked players as that’s pretty much the only way to stop him.
I am not up to date on every rule in professional soccer anymore but I believe they could technically sit now for a period of time but would have to play down which is why teams don’t do it. You see it every once and a while with an injured player where they will play down for a few minutes after an injury while the player gets checked out and then subbed back on at a stoppage. Do you know if there is another rule against this?
This is something that is never called in soccer. In both games yesterday, goalies would take 25-35 seconds in the last third of the game to waste time. I hard stop on time like in basketball would eliminate that very quickly.
My thought on number 5 was to try and eliminate some of the fake injuries and laying on the ground for 45 seconds when they either didn’t get touched at all or barely touched. Currently, referees can give yellow cards for flopping within the rules of the game. I have never seen it given even once in a game though.
They can already give out a yellow card for flopping which is when you typically see the fake injuries. Never once have I actually since it been given though and it happens minimally 20-30 times in a pro game. It makes a mockery of the game in my mind. The thing with stoppage time is it very rarely correlates with the amount of delayed play in a game. I could get over the stoppage time stuff very easily if they didn’t waste 10-15% of the game laying on the ground with the ball in their hands for goalies or laying on the ground like someone just broke their leg every couple of minutes.