Sunday, June 30, 2002

Glad the World Cup is over. If they want to appeal to Americans, they need to change the rules. I suggest:

  • Stop the clock when play stops, and show the time remaining on the scoreboard.
  • Have commercial breaks to suit US TV.
  • Fix the off-sides rule, so no goals are called back and so that the average viewer can understand it.
  • Allow substitutions on-the-fly.
  • Allow players to use their hands, provided that they do not run with the ball or throw a goal.
  • Double the penalty kick distance. It is just too easy to score on a penalty kick.
  • Figure out some penalty system that is better than giving out yellow cards.
  • Give each referee a whistle.
  • If there is a tie, play sudden-death overtime until there is a goal.
  • Fix the out-of-bounds rules so that no one has an incentive to deliberately let the ball go out of bounds.
  • Make the goal bigger, so that games have higher scores.
  • Get better referees.
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