It's time, once again, for Americans to tell the world how to fix soccer.

The Game Room
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I want to acknowledge up front that this is a preposterous thread. As you might expect, I’m a total dilettante: 90% of the soccer I watch is during the World Cup. Just please remember that I admitted this up front when it comes time for you to tell me that I have no idea what I’m talking about and I should just stick to American Football.
Really Obvious Changes

1) Have an official timekeeper, and post the official time on the scoreboard. This is not a big deal since the current system doesn’t really cause any problems, but it’s nonetheless silly and archaic that the time remaining should be a secret known only to one man. Just as in other sports, the referee would signal to the time-keeper when to stop & start the clock. If he wants to postpone the end of the game past the allotted time to allow for, say, one last corner kick to be played, he can similarly signal that there’s to be a hold on the final whistle until the current play is resolved.

Theoretically Problematic (But Still Actually Beneficial) Changes

2) Allow Unlimited Substitutions. Soccer is a very, very tiring activity. You know what else is very tiring? Ice Hockey. Imagine if Ice Hockey were played like soccer, and once a player came out of the game he could not come back in. Players would just coast around almost all the time, as maximum effort would be basically impossible in all but the most limited circumstances. I think this gives some idea of how much faster and harder-played soccer could be if players could count on a five-minute breather every now and then. Obviously this wouldn’t result in everyone sprinting all the time – the size of the pitch and the simple limitation of how long it takes to move the ball and one’s offense from end to end means there will still be plenty of deliberate movement – but every time an instance of the ball being walked or jogged up field is replaced with a full speed zerg rush is a victory. And that’s to say nothing of the strategic innovations we’d see, or avoiding the preposterous situation where a team is forced to play with 10 after an injury.

(Of course, you couldn’t handle substitutions in the same way if they were unlimited. Again, they’d have to be run like hockey’s: no stoppage of play, one guy runs off and then another one replaces him.)

3) The diving. My god, the diving. I’ve seen it pointed out that it’s very hard to keep your feet when your lower body gets nudged and you’re running full speed – no doubt this is true. I’ve also heard that many supposed dives are reactions to *actual *fouls that would likely go uncalled if the victim just tried to play on – this is also true. Nonetheless, these facts are often deployed as mere rationalizations: the dives are fucking galling, and there’s no reason they have to be as prevalent as they are. At the least, there should be retroactive yellows (in addition to heavy fines): you take an obvious dive in game 1 and the ref fails to card you for it, you’ve got a yellow for the start of game 2.

**Come On, Wouldn’t This Be Better?

  1. Move the spot for penalty kicks (or have two different spots).** Somewhat related to the above, in part because penalty kicks are so likely to be converted into goals, it’s often (sadly) a good strategy to get the ball into the box and then immediately heave yourself into the air like you’ve been gored by an invisible bull as soon as a defender comes close to you.

But, more fundamentally: you know what’s more exciting than a player with an 80% chance of scoring? A player with a 50% chance of scoring. So move the spot for PKs back. And if you want, keep the current spot as well, and reserve it for no-doubt, super-egregious fouls in the box (brutalizing a player as he’s clearly about to score, intentional handball to prevent a goals, etc.).

**Probably a Bad Idea, But I’d Like to See It Tried

  1. Remove (or modify) the offsides rule.** I’m just not totally convinced that killing offsides would have the terrible consequences that everyone claims. I think there’s a good chance it would mostly just spread the field and make it more possible to score in a “half-court” offense (or whatever soccer’s equivalent is). Or maybe not, and in any event people probably wouldn’t like to see a change in the style of play. Still, aren’t you a little curious? I’d like to see teams in some national league play a few regular season games with no offsides every year, just to see.
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You have no idea what you’re talking about. Stick to American football. :smiley:

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Soccer should remain a children’s sport, like Tee-Ball, Chutes & Ladders, and hide-and-go-seek.

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I think the only way to make me a fan would be to ban men’s soccer completely & require the females to play nude.

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I could get behind this.

Very behind.

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Hopefully I can provide a little insight to the OP. I never really paid any attention to soccer for the first 35 or so years of my life. Then one day my wife called and said she signed our 4 year old daughter up to play soccer. I questioned why she would do such a thing. 15 years later she is now getting her college paid for playing D1 soccer. My son will be doing the same after next year.

I probably would have agreed with you when I started out and had never watched a good match. In fact many of the changes you want are in place in the younger leagues. Fixed time is in place even in High School (but not at that age in Club… club is much more competitive and that is where they get recruited from). Unlimited subs are also used at younger ages as well as no off sides (only at very young ages).

I would compare several to the changes the “normal” US sports progress as they age to make the sport a bit more challenging. Baskets are raised for Basketball… three point lines are moved back. Kids move from hitting from a Tee to coaches pitch to real pitches.

Specifically… Time keeping… this can be a bit subjective on the ref’s call, but he can compensate for the player who can jog slower than my grandma to get the widely played ball back into play, or the player who lays down as long as they can before finally getting up and suddenly playing at 100%. I’ve been on both sides of feeling “oh shit the game should be over please don’t let them score on us” and “please give us just another minute because we are so close to scoring.” It all evens out.

Subs… it is all about fitness and endurance. Would a Marathon be more fun if they allowed relay teams just because the times are faster? It is about who can last longer and still perform well and also the coaching staff’s ability to judge if and when someone should be subbed.

Diving (aka Flopping). Have you ever watched an NBA game? Nuff said. Sometimes it works… usually it doesn’t.

Off sides… Watching a team kick the ball from the center line to the cherry picker planted in the box is not very exciting.

PK’s… they are not called very often, and are frequently not called if it looks like they are giving an advantage. The ones that are called are for flagrant situations and are usually fouls done to prevent a 99% chance of a goal. The resulting PK has closer to an 80% chance of scoring. I could easily argue that any foul in the box they should award the goal.

Again, early on before I became a fan of the game I probably would have agreed. But then again, if I were making the rules for Baseball (which I don’t really follow) they would use Tee’s so I could see more hits and other rules that would seem absurd to a fan of the game.

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Oh, I’m a soccer fan of sorts. I don’t watch much of it for various reasons, but it’s not because I don’t enjoy the game, and the World Cup is awesome. (And I played in youth leagues for several years.) Didn’t mean to seriously imply that soccer is “broken” with my thread title; there are just certain rules I think could be changed for the better.

Allowing unlimited substitution would hardly make the game less challenging on the whole. Yes, you and your teammates are less fatigued, but so is the other team, and now you have to stop them.

Right, so let the referee keep his ability to start and stop the clock; I just don’t see any good reason the rest of us can’t know how much time is left.

No, but soccer would be more fun if the players were less tired. I don’t think this is an apples-to-apples comparison.

That it’s a problem in the NBA doesn’t stop it from being a problem in soccer. And in any event it’s a bigger problem in soccer, both because it’s more common, and because the potential reward is so much greater.

There was a PK awarded in the Brazil/Croatia game and one in the Spain/Netherlands game. Neither was flagrant and neither was for a foul that stopped a near certain goal. In my humble opinion, both were bad calls that rewarded dives, in fact. (The Costa play was closer, but he sure seemed to go out of his way to step on the leg of a defender who made an otherwise clean play.)
Sorry for chopping up your post like this, I know that can be annoying to read.

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My only fix-it comes not because I’m an American but because I’m a soccer fan.

Enough with the diving!

While they cannot always fix it on the field, they can fix it afterward in the form of sanctions on the players. After the game, it should be reviewed for obvious, blatant dives. If it’s questionable, let it go. But things like the Brazil dive in the first game? Fine and a “yellow card”. Since they obviously can’t book someone after the fact, make the sanction equivalent to a yellow. One more and you sit out a game. Or, even better, one more and you draw a red in the game itself.

The only way to kill off these aspiring Olympian divers and pratfall artists is to sanction the hell out of them. It’s time to do it, they are killing the game, slowing the flow, and corrupting the results. They are making a mockery of the sport. Surely a way can be found to get rid of it.

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The biggest changes that I would make would be some sort of goal line technology and replays for questionable off sides that result in a goal.

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  1. Replays used for certain calls. Perhaps permitting a challenge per team per half, like in cricket or tennis. (Incidentally, this will increase the Captain’s role).

  2. Post match analysis and punishments. By rights, Neymar and Fred should be missing the next match. This would permit this. With fines and perhaps points docking.

  3. Further to the above, a sin bin like in Rugby or Field Hockey. A major fviolationlike the one that was committed by Neymar should lead to removal from the game for 5-10 minutes,

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I’m at peace with an internationally competitive sport we aren’t particularly good at and yet don’t collectively care about. Our nation shrugs while the Togo team beats us and their nation loses their minds and declares a national holiday. Cool with me.

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This is the first World Cup that uses goal line technology, actually.

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Time is not that important in soccer. The game can’t turn around in a few seconds (unless… a lucky strike)

Modern medicine has solved that …:rolleyes:

Also, there is a "long term: aspect in this game. Until recently, for example, a team couldn’t acquire a new player mid season.

Payer changes were meant for, like when a players hurt himself or something, …
In most games there were no changes.

I think that a fake dive is punishable. But referees prefer to play it safe.
Think about it.
A referee, from his point of view, thinks that it is a fake dive, and punishes the player.
The video playback proves that not only it was not a fake dive, but this player was the actual “victim”.
This won’t look good for the referee.

And be sure, players always have in mind where the referee is, before faking a dive…

Then defenders would not hesitate to kick the attackers…

Then the team would always leave one player in the enemy territory.
One long pass to that player…
What could the enemy goalkeeper do? Not much…
By the way, I don’t like soccer.

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This is actually a lot less objectionable than previous versions of this thread.

Don’t touch the offsides rule, though. It would ruin the game.

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Guys… it’s the Offside Rule. Not “offsides”.

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Let’s just say: if it ain’t broken…
And leave it at that.

On second thought scratch that.
There is an official timekeeper and he announces that extra time in the 89th minute or so. (Pay attention)

Unlimited substitutions would just be dumb, for so many reasons I don’t know where to start.
Coaches have a very limited role during a match, to take away the one decision here they can make a difference would promote dumb coaching. The game would become terribly defensive; why leave your strikers on the pitch when you lead 1-0? Physical fitness and conservation of energy though efficiency and accuracy is what differentiates mediocre players from great players. An important part of tactics is knowing when to pace yourself.

The diving is part of the game, part of every game with limitations on physical contact. Some players are true masters (Ballotelli for example) others are terrible. There is an incentive to convince the ref that there was a foul, better registration (video ref or more referees) will only lead to better acting. Remember that trying to manipulate a ball with your feet will cause you to loose your balance (even without the other guys pulling your jersey) so you can not forbid falling down. Falling is also a clear way to signal the referees that you think a foul happened. There will always be players trying to game the system. Consider the first penalty of this WC; should it have been a penalty? Hell no. Was the kroat pulling Fred in an illegal fashion? Yes, technallily a foul was committed, the defenders hand had no business being where it was. So did Fred take a dive or was he legitematly trying to signal a foul to the ref or did he just loose his balance? If you can answer that without a shadow of a doubt, now with the benefit of watching multiple replays from multiple angles maybe we could consider disallowing the goal. But then what? Replay the whole match? Alter the score? Give Fred a yellow? You can’t change the impact that penalty had on Croatian moral.

I like the game as it is, with a fallible ref, wrong desicions, outrageous fouls and dives. It all evens out in the long run.

And I consider bitching about the ref an integral part of football. Part of the self-delusion that is supporting a weaker side (we didn’t lose because the other side is a better run organisation , with better financial support, a better manager, better supporting staff, better tactics and better players. We lost because we had shit luck with that bastard ref.)

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Nah, my team loses because we need better batteries… (seriously, it’s ridiculous how many times we lose in minute 90-something). (Not talking about La Roja but about my home team)

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Part of the solution (if it’s deemed needing one) of diving is to give the benefit of the doubt more often to the defender.

There will be a few fouls missed, but you can always jump back up and score in the next minute, but there’s no way of removing a goal from a dive.

Plus the ball carrier, knowing it’s not a fait accompli that he’ll get the nod, will be less likely to bolt the ankles together, and more likely to try and score on merit.

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How about a modification on substitution? Limited substitution, but once per half instead of once per game. Changes the strategy some and gets fresher legs on the field.

I would like a clear, unambiguous line on the field where the attacker cannot be offside. Say extending the line for the 18 yard box the width of the field and use that. Once the ball is inside that line, an attacker can’t be offside. When the ball is outside that line, attackers must stay onside but can get as close to the goal as the defense allows (so the current offside rule). Sort of a mix of soccer and hockey.