Rumors are that Wenger’s offsides rule will go into effect in the next year. The rule is basically that the offsides line will now be dependent on the last body part being in line with a defender rather than the first body part being past the defender. I personally think this will result in teams parking the bus so that they limit the speed aspect of the forwards. It will be so much more difficult to pull and offsides trap with this rule set. I also think VAR will butcher this for the next few seasons.
So anyways, what rule would you implement or remove if you had the options to? I have two:
Throws-ins: don’t require one foot to be on the ground or the ball to go cleanly behind the head. Two hands on the ball and throw it in, however. you want, that’s it. Granny style? Go for it.
PK’s: Have the players line up ten yards behind the 18 and once the whistle is blown they can go after the ball. This would illuminate the weird runs up to the ball or the final jump kick, which is almost a cheat code against goalies. I’m a united fan so this would of course impact Bruno but I think think it makes sense. The attacker still has the advantage being that it’s a PK but also adds a bit of extra pressure. Shootouts would be so much more involved.
What rule changes can you think of?
One I quite like from the athletic a while back - make the penalty box a semi circle instead of a rectangle (goal to reduce the number of penalties for handballs in non-dangerous areas).
I’d also quite like to tweak the handball rule to something like a “meaningful difference”. Eg if it looks like the ball is going wide but hits a players hand, not a pen. If it brushes a players hand in the box, but doesn’t change the outcome of where the ball lands etc then not a pen.
I like the ideas but the problem is you’d be asking for people to work out the trajectory of a ball when they can’t even draw straight lines.