The Laws of the Game: Proposed Changes & General Discussion

It also would take away the surprise tricky/sneaky goal when players intentionally miss/pass so that their teammates basically get an open shot.

Barcelona did it a few years back.
MESSI & SUAREZ MAGICAL CRUYFF STYLE PENALTY

 

One experiment which - to my knowledge - has never been trialled and which I think could be an improvement is to change the zone of the pitch where a player cannot be in an offside position from their own half of the field of play to outside their opponent's penalty area, therefore a player could only be in an offside position if they are in the opposition penalty area.

This could have the effect of "stretching" formations and creating more space across the pitch.

 

Just like how the golden goal would create more attacking play in extra time as a goal would finish the game.

 

I actually thought it did and I didn't agree with the decision to discontinue it.

 

Maybe play 10 minutes of extra time. Then another 10 minutes of extra time with no offside near the penalty edge. Then another 10 minutes of no offside at all.

Then penalties if still tied after all that craziness..

 

I would like to see a change in the offside rule whereby a player who is in a noffside position when the ball is passed is no longer offside if he comes back towards his half of the field and receives the ball with the necessary two players between him and the goal. He would be receiving the ball in an "onside position" with his momentum taking him away from the goal. I do not see that as gaining any advantage.

 

My suggestions:

1. The player who wins the penalty, takes the penalty. Just like in basketball and ice hockey. No longer would players be able to stat pad their goal tallies with spot kicks they had nothing to do with.

2. Non-DOGSO handballs are punished with an indirect free kick, even if inside the box. Nowadays defenders essentially have to waddle like a penguin or play with their hands behind their backs to avoid overly harsh penalties for clearly accidental handballs. Also, penalty goals are awarded for handballs that clearly prevent the ball from crossing the line (e.g. Suarez in 2010)

3. DOGSO, even outside the box, is punishable by a penalty and a yellow card (unless no attempt on the ball was made, then it's a red).

 

It worked well in the youth tournaments it was trialed in but once the cautious coaches in top level football got involved most extra times became a half hour snoozefest as no one was prepared to do anything other than set up a solid defensive pattern and hoped the other team stuffed something up.

 

This would probably make scoring harder than it actually is.
No one wants to see less goals in games. They want to see more.

 

I wonder if this trope is actually still true.

For a long time, people felt it was important to grow the game (especially in the US) by encouraging more scoring. And so rules and systems were modified that punished defense and rewarded attack. This was a decades-long trend.

But at some point low scoring ceased to be the main issue that discouraged people from watching soccer. Now if you ask non-fans why they won't watch, they'll often say it's the institutionalized cheating (simulation, faking injury, VAR, systemic over-indexing of penalties). Those are all efforts to punish defense.

Maybe we took it all too far?

 

I am not talking about USA fans, I am talking about fans in general around the world.
It is very difficult to score goals in futbol. Making penalties stricter or reliant on certain criteria in the box/outside the box would make it even more difficult to score.
People in general want to see more goal opportunities, not less.

 

Morocco make VAR history with “green card” overturn:
https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2025/09/30/morocco-make-var-history-green-card-overturn/

 

Been saying for years that challenges should be the way to go. Glad they are at least testing out a system. Maybe it needs some tweaks but so far it seems okay.

 

It doesn't appear that this is meant to supplant VAR. Based on what FIFA has been saying, the challenge system is designed to be a less expensive alternative to full VAR. I could potentially see leagues like USL, EFL Championship, and other "Big Five" second divisions adopting this.

 

I agree with the people. Goals are fun. More goals are better.

 

EFL - like some Scandinavian premier leagues - have already explored the idea of adopting VAR and rejected it because fans don't want it.