Whilst watching the rugby at the weekend (and I am a rugger bugger at heart) it amazed me that some rules / technology in other sports isn't used in football.
The video debate on offside/ over the line etc.. has been done to death and everyone has their own opinions on that one re slowing the game down..
However two things in rugby I feel could be used -
1) The advantage rule, the referee can come back after quite a long time to penalise an offending side should advantage not occur. In football you often see an advantage given as one team is attacking but then any advantage is immediatley wasted - I think the referees in football should be allowed to wait say 20-30 seconds for an advantage and come back if one does not occur.
2) The time keeping - how many times on this forum do we have discussions about how much time was added or not. It seems to everyone to be totally ridiculous that no one other than the 4th official knows. In rugby the clock (most grounds have a screen/clock these days) is stopped for any stoppage over a few seconds eg injury, susbstitutions etc.. consequently everybody including the players knows exactly how long until the game finishes, and there is never any questioning of the timekeeping. I think this would be ideal in football and would at least shut Alex Ferguson up every other week.
Any thoughts or other ideas?
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That way the subs can take as long as they like to get off its not going to impact on the time, same with goalies faffing about with goal kicks.
Also I love the rule in rugby that lets you go and get a beer and take it to your seat during the game. So feckin civilised.
Yes, teams with 10 men may go more defensive to defend what they've got.
Yes, weaker teams with a small chance of a win at the start find their chances all but vanish after a sending off.
But then again, teams with 10 men often galvanise to perform better.
Or, sometimes stronger teams find they're in for more of a game once they lose a player.
The constant bleating about too many sendings off just exacerbates the problem facing refs which is lack of consistency. At times, they're so desperate to avoid red cards that they'll give a yellow for one offence, but nothing for a worse one, because the player is on a yellow already. This just cannot be right. If it's a sending off, then it's a sending off.
If you want to blame someone for the amount of sendings off, blame the players. They push the boundaries of fair play because they get away with it. They wouldn't so much if they didn't.
Have the fans behave like Middle Class Tossers.
This way, if a team thought a key decision (penalty, disallowed goal, sending off) had gone against them, they'd have the chance to right it there and then.