Soccer faces the next rules revolution
Things could change on the soccer pitch next season. A player who deliberately commits an unsporting or tactical foul could then be given a time penalty. The rule makers are paving the way for a trial.
Another revolutionary innovation is on the horizon for international soccer. According to members of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the rule makers are about to approve the trial of time penalties to punish deliberately unsporting or tactical fouls.
After evaluating long-term tests in lower leagues in England, the IFAB members made a recommendation at their working meeting in London to extend the trial runs to professional soccer. According to IFAB member Mark Bullingham, who is also Director General of the English FA, the decision will be taken at the next annual meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, in March. If the recommendation is accepted, players could be sent off for a certain period of time from the coming season onwards for infringements of the rules and thus temporarily outnumber their team.
Time penalties for certain types of fouls have long been an integral part of the rules in other sports. In handball, ice hockey, field field hockey and indoor field hockey, for example, experience with this additional sanction option for referees has been consistently good.
After the meeting in London, former world-class referee Pierluigi Collina, head of the referees' committee at world governing body FIFA and member of the IFAB's technical sub-committee, called for the new instrument to be handled as simply as possible when introducing time penalties. "It has worked in the English amateur leagues, but now it's about a higher level. We need to develop something that works and is worthy of top-level soccer," said the Italian.
In addition to the time penalties, the IFAB is also planning measures against the increasing number of protests by players against refereeing decisions. In order to strengthen fair play, a vote will probably also be held in the spring on whether, in certain cases, only the captains of the two teams involved should be allowed to discuss with the referee.
Source: www.ntv.de
