Here is a link from FIFA and posted in the FIFA and her Tournaments Forum courtesy of Beachesl of the proposed Agenda for the International Football Association Board Meeting scheduled for London in two less than two weeks. http://images.fifa.com/fifa/Agenda_IFAB_Meeting_28_02_2004_London.pdf
Thanks for passing this along. Some interesting things and some not so interesting. I wish they'd make up their minds once and for all on the goal celebration thing. First it wasn't a caution, then it was a mandatory caution, then it wasn't a mandatory caution, now they're proposing that it be a mandatory caution again. I thought Mr. Blatter wanted more sex in the game....or I guess that only applies to female footballers. It will be interesting to see if the moving the ball forward 10 yards for freekicks when there's encroachment/dissent/etc provision passes. That will be a big change for lots of people.
I would suspect that the 2 minute injury sit out has the least chance of passing. Who's going to enforce the two minutes? Is the 4th official going to have to stand there with his stop watch? What about games w/o 4ths? Don't the CR and AR's already have enough things to keep track of? And it also seems to punish the "victim" of a hard foul. Wouldn't teams be likely to go after certain opponents if they knew that his going off for treatment would require a two minute penalty?
I don't like the jersey removal one mainly because of the language used. Must. The ref must show the yellow. I'm not thrilled about the idea of giving a ten year old a yellow card because he saw Landon Donovan do it. That's a bit much.
You also 'must' show a yellow if that same ten-year old jumps in front of an opponent taking a throw-in as to unfairly distract him. In practice, do you? There's plenty of reasons to debate the merits and wisdom of this proposed change--including the fact that it removes discretion from the referee's arsenal. However, how it applies to the youngest players is not one of them. When officiating those games, we should all realize that part of our job is to teach, and not necessarily punish stringently. The laws--even the 'mandatory' parts--become flexible at that age. Then again, if a ten-year old sees Donovan do it, and then sees Donovan get a yellow card for doing it (as he would under this law change)...
This is exactly the reason this is back on the agenda I think. The kids are picking up everything from pros. A few years ago I reffed U-11 teams that regularly commited tactical fouls. It's the way the game is these days.
"I'm not thrilled about the idea of giving a ten year old a yellow card because he saw Landon Donovan do it." Then give him a red!
Law 7 =============== I hope they fix the typo. Law 10 =============== I'm glad they are cleaning up the winner determination rules. However, I don't see a need to capitalize Golden Goal. As for away goals, there must be a better way of saying it than "will count double". I mean, why not "triple" or "10% more"? Do you go back and change the score of the first game? The rule should state that penalty kicks or away goals may also be used in addition to extra time or golden goal periods if they expire without a determination. Law 12 =============== No goal celebration is "necessary". While taking off a jersey doesn't seem terribly classy to me, it's hardly unsportsmanlike. It adds some color to the game. Besides, I believe those players have earned the right to show off their body a little bit. Let's get rid of those end-of-game jersey swaps, too, and yellow-card everybody! If performed in a country that believes it is bringing the game into disrepute, well, that is a different matter. But don't legislate it into the international LOTG. Law 13 =============== Free Kicks The yellow card is already a fairly stiff penalty. It seems an appropriate punishment for b), c), and d). It doesn't seem necessary that whole team take on an additional penalty for this offense. The main problem with a) is that it is generally not an offense committed by a single person. It may often be difficult to single out a single person to yellow card, especially when several team-mates are equally guilty. In this case, simply moving the ball forward 10 yards, without awarding a yellow card, should be punishment enough. It would also allow this punishment to be more commonly applied, as it would not be so severe to the offending team. Of course, if a single player is deemed "responsible", that could be yellow carded as well. I find it interesting that moving the ball into the penalty area is a disadvantage. I'd like to know more about that. On a side note, I'd like to see penalty kicks eliminated entirely, to be replaced by simple free kicks. But knowledge about what happens on free kicks inside the penalty area would certainly apply my thoughts on this. =============== Two-minute time-outs I don't see a need for mandatory 2-minute time-outs. The whole "a player must ask for re-entry" is a bit of a circus already. If, in the opinion of the referee, a player fakes an injury, yellow-card him. Otherwise, I see no point in forcing him off the field simply because medical staff were brought onto the field.
Let's not go overboard on this thread. Most propsals to the IFAB are not accepted. We will see the results very soon so just wait. And if something is adopted, it will not be in force till the start of the next season so wait for your local chain of command to tell you how to interprete and inforce any changes to the laws. Then again, most of these proposals are worth a good laugh.
I don't think the YC is harsh, because they're all cautionable offenses now. All they're suggesting is that we tack on an additional penalty to what should already merit a booking. Just moving it forward is less of a punishment, not an adequate subsitution. As for multiple people committing offenses, how do you deal with it now? Depending on the number of people, maybe everyone DOES deserve a caution, maybe just the instigator, maybe the player with the captain's armband.... Keep in mind that none of these are offenses commited during the "run of play". They're all done during stoppages, and are deliberate attempts to remove the right to a quick kick, or undermine the referee and/or game. If it works in qwelling that, I'm all for it.
Apparently the 10-yard advancement isn't completely dead. I'm surprised that yellow cards alone aren't enough to control this problem, but apparently they aren't in England and Wales. From http://www.carosi.freeserve.co.uk/corshamreferee/newlaw.htm