If you could change the rules of football (soccer) what would you do?
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I would eliminate heading to reduce the risk of concussions, CTE, and dementia among players. The long-term benefits to recreational/casual players, not to mention semi-pro and professionals, would be well worth it. Do you like this idea? Do you have your own to add? Let us know!
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Eliminate the Offsides penalty!
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@CooperDad No offsides works for indoor soccer given the confines of the field/areana, but if you remove offsides for outdoor play then you risk having players just hanging around the goal waiting for a loose ball, which then means having defenders hanging back to cover these players. On a standard football pitch, that would leave the middle section a wasteland from which players would launch balls goalward, and so you wouldn't have build-up play. The NASL way back in Pele's/Beckenbauer's time had two offside lines dividing the pitch into thirds in an effort to encourage more aggressive and high scoring games (the NASL also had "shoot-outs" where players had a fixed amount of time to dribble in and score against a keeper instead of penalty kicks) but that never took hold.
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@schwartzseer said in If you could change the rules of football (soccer) what would you do?:
@CooperDad No offsides works for indoor soccer given the confines of the field/areana, but if you remove offsides for outdoor play then you risk having players just hanging around the goal waiting for a loose ball, which then means having defenders hanging back to cover these players. On a standard football pitch, that would leave the middle section a wasteland from which players would launch balls goalward, and so you wouldn't have build-up play. The NASL way back in Pele's/Beckenbauer's time had two offside lines dividing the pitch into thirds in an effort to encourage more aggressive and high scoring games (the NASL also had "shoot-outs" where players had a fixed amount of time to dribble in and score against a keeper instead of penalty kicks) but that never took hold.
Thank you for the very informative and thoughtful response. I learned something here.
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I don't think there should be a Yellow card for a shirt removal celebration.