Everyone has their own ideas on how to improve football. Plenty would argue it doesn’t need improving and it’s fine as it is.
VAR has been the big one in recent years - introduced by the SPFL and SFA just a few weeks ago in Scotland - and the jury remains out on whether that particular change has been for the better. Every Premiership club will have their own grievance with the video technology and how it hasn’t worked as it should or has just not enhanced the match day experience for players, managers or fans alike.
But leaving aside the officials’ new toy, former United States international Alexi Lalas has his own ideas about how the sport could be upgraded, and a couple of them are pretty out there. The Fox Sports pundit seemingly wants more excitement injected into games, and has come up with his own suggestions on how to spice things up on the park for the watching public.
Making the goals bigger might see more goals, but goalkeepers might have a thing or two to say about that. It’s not exactly a small target with the current dimensions, so further loading the dice in favour of attackers seems a bit unfair.
We all love to see a long range screamer, and Lalas wants to encourage more long range efforts by awarding two “points” (didn’t make much sense to us either) for goals scored outside the penalty area. That this might simply encourage teams to simply pack the edge of their box to prevent efforts on goal doesn't seem to have occurred.
We’ve seen count-down style one-on-ones with the goalkeeper before, instead of penalty shoot-outs, and there’s good reason they weren’t adopted en masse in favour of the traditionally dramatic, if someone cruel tiebreaker that’s become a staple of the game.
Kick-ins are commonplace in smaller sided youth football. Bringing them in at the top level wouldn't necessarily add much though.
Lalas’ other suggestions included a sin bin, which to be fair, has been mooted before and has some merit for fouls that are a bit worse than the yellow but perhaps not quite a red card. Offsides only coming into play for the final 35 yards of the pitch as a can of worms that doesn’t need opening given the miniscule margins VAR has taken the rule too, while handball being given after the ball strikes any part of the arm already is in the laws of the game if you watch some refs in action.
READ NEXT:
