The knockout phase of the WC experienced a dearth of goals with the exception of the Brazil quagmire. If I were FIFA I would :

1. Reduce the number of players from eleven to ten.
Reason: When football was invented about 150 years ago, players were smaller, slower and less fit. Nowadays players are so fast much fitter, quick and big that there is hardly any space to maneuver. As soon as you get the ball, there are 3 defenders on your case. Defenses have become dominant. Reducing the number of players would create ,more space, leading to more goals and creative players like Messi would thrive

2. In league play award 2 points for a win by 1 goal and 3 points for a win by two or more goals. This way a team is less likely to fall back into their defensive shell as has become common

3. Eliminate throw-in rules. Allow take throw ins anyway they like be it one hand, two hands, standing on one foot etc. Throw in rules slow down the game. Allowing players to throw with one hand would enable players to throw the ball further and initiate fast breaks as in basketball

4. Allow each team 5 subs within 90 minutes and 2 extra subs in extra time. Fresh legs means the game can still be played at a faster pace. This would increase the number of goals


Some of these sound like blasphemy to purists. So the reaction from a purist is likely to reject it out of hand. So before you type your knee jerk rejection, take a deep breath think it through then say why not

Allow players to defend themselves as the game is going on. This will provide a variety to the fans. For example when Surez bit Giorgio, Giorgio should have retaliated by sinking his teeth into Suarez's balls!!! This would not only have taught Suarez a lesson but the fans would have been thoroughly entertained. Also the referee can be given the mandate to referee a fight. That is, he should be allowed to stop the game of football temporarily eg When those two Cameroonians players faced off each other the referee should have been able to stop the game for a while and referee the fight until the two players kill each other or one of them flees... These I think are very good rules which should be considered in future.

I support.

I think the purpose of the offside rule is to prevent a striker from just hanging out in front of the goalkeeper as we used to do in praimo.

Offside rule states that a player cannot be offside in his own half. I would move the offside zone from the halfway line to the yard box.

agree, plus players have no business talking to the ref, only the captain should be allowed, anyone else should receive a green card - that means a player is sent of but swapped with another.

green card

To minimize chances of injury, e.g. the Mexican who got his leg broken in the warm-up match:

If you injure a player, you are not allowed to play from that moment till the day that the injured player recovers. if the injured a player got a life-time injury, then the person who committed the injury will also be banned for the rest of his life.

Folk will think more than twice before doing their thing.

I agree with this 100%. It would drastically reduce cynical play