How would you improve the 2022 tournament? Here's some ideas for rules changes designed to combat some of the issues of the game. 1) Handballs happen. Even in the penalty area. But not all deserve a PK. Maybe FIFA could consider revisiting the Indirect Free Kick instead of a penalty kick. Those that are deliberate are a red-card offense with a PK (as the current rules). Incidental Handballs are an Indirect Free Kick, anywhere. The PK are not needed everytime a ball hits a hand. 2) Diving is currently unchecked in the game. Give a player 15 seconds to get back to their feet, or stop the game immediately for the trainers. Pull the player to the sideline and do not allow them back to the field for 2 minutes. Essentially diving without an injury gets the player's side down a man for at least 2 minutes. 3) Diving (harsher alternative option). Issue straight Red cards for diving. Play a few qualifying round matches with 9 playing 8 and the diving will stop. Players aren't afraid of the Yellow Card penalty, especially when the card stays in the pocket. The refs need to enforce this harshly. 4) Drop advancement by Fair Play. While good in intent, the Fair Play counts are totally negative statistics. The fouls and cards are subjective, a determinate of the refs opinions. There's got to be something more positive to judge a team by -- corner kicks, times fouled. 5) Shepherding the ball. Letting the ball run out of bounds is one thing. Physically blocking a player from playing a ball running out of bounds is rather boring. In the spirit of increasing the action and showing the individual's skills, call obstruction. If a player prevents an opponent from making a play on the ball and both are within playable distance of the ball, judge that the player shielding the other is actually playing the ball and give the throw or appropriate kick (corner or goal) to the player blocked from playing the ball. Either play the ball or let the opponent try to play the ball. Basically, if you shield the player from the ball, it is the same as if you touched the ball. Some controversial stuff, I'm sure. There are just some tactics and rules (and rules enforcement) that simply aren't conducive to entertaining football. Feel free to add your own ideas of how to improve the game.
I think there are three problem areas: 1) Players wasting time by feigning injury or diving for fouls. Neymar, Mbappe, Navas, and Suarez were perhaps the tournament's worst offenders. This, perhaps more than anything, really hurts the image of the game. 2) Teams preferring to sit in their area and to play on the counter or set-pieces. Being Greek, I'm the last to pass judgement, but when sides of France's quality also get in the habit of employing the same tactics, something suggests some sort of rethink is in the offing. There has to be a way to get games to be more open or else we'll see teams rely almost exclusively on counters and set-pieces while everyone plays hot potato with the ball. 3) Teams employing systems that set out to deliberately foul opponents and prevent them from playing. Colombia and Switzerland were the guiltiest of this offense at this tournament. I had some trouble deciding what was worse between Neymar's play acting and Switzerland spreading out their accumulation of yellows so that no one player would be sent off for deliberately fouling Neymar. I was surprised more teams didn't employ this tactic, especially given the quality of some players who frankly--in the case of the likes of Kane, Mbappe, Rodriguez, Cavani, Neymar, Hazard, and Ronaldo--were just about unplayable unless someone had hobbled them. We saw it happen to Salah in the UCL final at the hands of Ramos. I think it's bound to happen again if players like Ramos can just about get away with it or if teams like Switzerland can brag about as if for that reason they deserve to be respected.
In terms of rule change I've always supported altering the offside rule to allow one player per team to be offsides but not in penalty box. I also support hockey's penalty box system more than having 10 players permanently because of a red card. In exchange let the red cards flow for anything, think Mendel's idea makes sense. Haven't had a WC average 3 goals since Pele that needs to change if soccer is to grow even more the 0-0 sterotype needs to die and hopefully all of these changes would increase scoring. Fair play points was also a dumb idea agree with Mendel they should be done away. Can just imagine Senegal players one day telling their children and grandchiildren about the big game and how they did exactly as well as Japan but Japan was "slightly more fair" than us. Japan did well and all against the Belgians but that still was distasteful IMO. Now in terms of tournament structure for the expansion to 48 here's my thoughts. In terms of the structure the 48 teams are going to mostly go to the non Euro and South American countries and honestly seeing that African and Asian countries have only made it past the round of 16 5 times and non Euro, SA countries have only made it past the round of 16 like 10 times. Yet most of the new spots are going to go to teams in these confederations. Now Africa's got a lot of countries and I feel like an extra spot or two could be justified but the main benefit that would come from expanding the World Cup would come from including the collection of talented European teams that get left out every year(in 2018 alone we had Wales, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland). South America has only ten countries and I think letting six in and having four stay home is the perfect way to do it but that Europe has less than a third of it's teams make the World Cup. Under the proposal for 48 teams we're just getting three new Euro teams but we're getting 2.5 North American teams(Panama's performance in this WC should put in perspective just how terrible an idea this is), Asia gets three and a half(what countries are worthy of those extra slots?) and there is basically going to be a permanent spot for New Zealand. At least if you're going to give Oceania a guaranteed spot move the Australians back. Africa I think does deserve an extra slot or two,(Ghana or Egypt has been missing at every world cup) but four is overdoing it, South America was done right IMO but everything else should have went to the Europeans with North America and Asia getting one spot apiece to appease(and hey USA didn't make it this year we could use it). Oceania should not have a guaranteed spot, it would make more sense to give the best British Home Country it's own guaranteed slot.\
I think what happened is referees were told not to hand out too many yellow or red cards (because VAR would clear it up) so players would keep intentionally fouling to disrupt play, knowing they could keep doing it until they got a yellow. It's a frustrating tactic when you want to see flowing football. I think the ref association will look back on this tournament and realise they need to stop this method being employed. At least I HOPE they do.
PKs are already not called for every ball that hits a hand. Handball calls have already come a long way becoming more and more lenient. While some calls are pretty obvious, a few are still very subjective. Adding a third option for the ref could make things even more complicated. Unless you're saying do away with the no calls as we have it today and make unintentional handballs indirect free kicks. You still need the ref to make a distinction between intentional and non-intentional and this change doesn't really get around that problem. Diving is already supposed to be punished by a YC. The problem is that it's very loosely applied. Refs only punish a player when it's very obvious. I think refs don't want wrongly give a YC if they get the dive call wrong, specially in a WC. For a 2 min punishment, the ref would really have to be spot on with the dive call. I think in the grand scheme of things, with VAR, diving to get something as game changing as a PK becomes almost a non-issue. That should fix quite a bit of the "injustices" that most people complain about. Ref would really need to get it right if so. I could see this back firing as well as defenders would start taking a bit more liberty because they can get away with more contact that affects the attacking player's movement but doesn't constitute bringing him down. Nowadays there are legitimate fouls that only get called if the player falls to the ground even though the foul doesn't cause the player fall down. Agree. But not sure what alternative there is to this. This is really not a big issue and I definitely don't agree. It doesn't affect the game that much and sounds more like a pet peeve.
There was one 0 x 0 game in this whole WC. The offsides rule is fine IMO. Asking a linesman to ignore one player, and look for the 2nd one to be offsides and then add a caveat for PK box is asking way too much for one brain to handle. I would only do away with offsides in FKs where the defense has a chance to be set .. basically when a wall is set. Always found it weird that offsides applies to those situations. Although I am not sure we'd like to see even more set piece goals.
actually disagree. Veteran of 5 world cups here including a final and cummulative 4 months lodged at tournament venues. Qataar is going to be incredible due to the low distance between cities. Drinking will be OK. Attendance will be even better. The only reason you would want Qatar to be moved is because you are a man and you are single. Since I am married and have kids, no problem there. this is why 2026 is going to suck. And I'm an NYer that clearly stands to benefit in 2026
This is half true. I am a man and single and will sorely miss this edition's native females. But I believe it will be a logistical nightmare due to reasons other members pointed in Qatar 2022 thread, besides other things...
It is not nice to just come in and throw a "not true" out there without doing proper research. On 12 April 2018, CONMEBOL requested that FIFA expand the 2022 FIFA World Cup from 32 to 48 teams, four years before the 2026 FIFA World Cup as initially planned. FIFA President Gianni Infantino expressed willingness to consider the request. However, the FIFA congress rejected the request shortly before the beginning of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
That's out the window since the timeframe of the 2022 WC has been confirmed (21 Nov to 18 Dec). Not remotely feasible to play a 48 team WC in that time.
Lol WTF? Why would being a single man be the only reason to want the WC out of Qatar? There are many reasons I want it out of Qatar, despite being a non-single man. One of the things I liked most about Russia was travelling across the country, visiting new cities, etc. Short distances between host cities isn’t objectively better. That’s just a personal view some might have. Going to a WC isn’t only about going to the stadiums for the matches. At least not for me. Qatar will also be very expensive. Shortages of hotel rooms, transportation options, places to watch the matches on TV ,etc. could all be issues as well. According to my calculations, if you’re not a single man (i.e. you are travelling with dependents) then these issues are all magnified. Oh, and its a full-on slave state! I for one can’t wait to skip it.
Not that easy. Much harder for me (and many others) to take a long vacation in November than during the summer when things are slower. Even if I manage, a vacation is so much better when its part of the WC. Not good enough to make Qatar worth going to, mind you.
I didn't mean at the same time as the WC. Pick a month, any month !!! I've been to only the WC in Brazil. Probably should have done Germany. If I go, I will try to get tickets for the on in the US. Russia would have been cool but didn't work out for me. Qatar is a definite no go for me. I might try some CA next year.
You must be new here. Were you in Japan? Germany ? I am willing to venture you did not partake. Closer cities means closer concentration of fans. This means public transportation continues the party (unlike planes). This means that you will see fans from most countries, as opposed to only those that you are playing against. You are right. Its not just about going to the matches. Its about going to the bars. Its about meeting excited locals receiving you, sometimes inviting you into their home. Where you at a locals' home, in russia? Its about meeting people from faraway lands and make friends that maybe last a lifetime as you share in the common struggle to deal local languages, taxis, shopping, and customs together. You can't do that if the nearest nigerian or peruvian is 500 miles away. Also, consider most locals will never ever experience a world cup again.... in their life, unlike you. Have some common sense, and save your sightseeing for when the party leaves town. You have the money to come back, they will never leave town. If you want to do tourism, then fly to Beirut, Tel Aviv, or Amman. Those cities are actually closer from Doha than flying to Moscow-Rostov, or NYC-Miami, or even DC-Montreal. Most fans are OK with some tourism. Qatar should offer plenty as it is. Simply put - if you all you want to do tourism, you travel. If you want the world cup experience, you don't
You clearly have not been reading peoples views on why we do not want Qatar and most of them have nothing to do with the local female population.