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Nagel 10:53 Wed Feb 5
Football rule changes over the years

Which rule changes have made the game better or worse? For me:

The good:

Outlawing back pass to the keeper – helped speed the game up.

Banning tackles from behind – Two words: Willie Young.

3 points for a win – some say it just meant that teams parked the bus after going up front, but generally probably made football more attacking.

Goal line technology – fast and accurate. A good thing.

The bad:

VAR – don’t need to say anything here.

The new handball rule – see above.

Transfer windows – supposed to stop big clubs poaching players whenever they wanted. Ended up with big clubs stockpiling quality players and rarely playing them (eg Scott Parker at Chelsea, etc.) while smaller clubs face relegation if hit with injury problems (eg West Ham in the very first season this was introduced).

Financial Fair Play – Nothing fair about it. As with the transfer windows it was supposed to provide an even playing field but ended up as simply helping the biggest clubs maintain their place at the top.

Any more?

southbankbornnbred 1:03 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

Having posted below, I have to admit that I have seen quite a few West Ham players down the years who spent their entire careerts attempting to "not interfere with play".

Titi Camara springs to mind.

gph 12:48 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

Outlawing hacking - caused the split with Rugby.

CrossBAR instead of tape.

Stopping the keeper handling anywhere in his own half. Made it a completely different game.

Two players instead of three in the definition of offside.

May have got some of these out of order.

southbankbornnbred 12:44 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

The worse 'new' rule, by VAR (geddit!), is the utterly ridiculous "not interfering with play" rule.

There is no such thing as not interfering with play.

If you are a professional footballer, every time you move on a football pitch, you SHOULD be interfering with play - be it obviously in possession, or through where you place yourself on the pitch (marking a player, pushing up to halfway etc).

If any professional footballer is "not interfering with play" during a game, they should be fucking shot. It doesn't exist.

The rule was introduced by idiots with clipboards who barely kicked a ball in their life and desperately wanted to see more goals in the sport.

Fucking idiots.

dm 12:34 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

I don't like the recent change about stopping pksy if the ball hits the ref.
Since the year dot, the referee has been considered part of the playing field and if the ball should ricochet off him to a teams advantage or otherwise, well that was part of the game.

Dan M 12:26 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

VAR is fine if you're watching it on telly and it's two teams you don't care about, or ideally at least one team you hate.

Your team at the ground though - it's fucking awful. Didn't bother to celebrate Diop's opener on Saturday until the PA confirmed it. Every goal we score now I assume will be disallowed. Utter bollocks.

Back pass rule change was an excellent idea, though it did shorten Ludo's career.

Spray paint for free kicks is decent. The ten yard advance for dissent was good too for the couple of seasons it lasted.

goose 12:13 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

there's a clip of Souness in a european game, they were winning by a narrow margin in the second half and Souness has the ball in the oppositions half.......... he turns away from goal and boots it back to the keeper. must have wasted about a minute doing that, completely killed the game.

Razzle 12:07 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

Law changes not rules...that really irks me.

The laws of the game are laid down by IFAB
Rules are related to the competition ie how many subs etc

cygnet 12:05 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

Liverpool haven't won the league since the back pass rule was changed.
I can remember Alan Hansen in particular passing the ball back to Grobbellaar repeatedly who would then stand there holding the ball for half a minute waving his arm at players upfield before eventually kicking the ball.
You'd get roughly 45 minutes actual playing time when Liverpool came to Upton Park. The rest of the time Grobbellar would be holding the ball.

Pickle Rick 11:55 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

The issues with VAR can be rectified, for example VAR is only to be used as an aid for the ref, if VAR spots something they can alert the ref, he consults the screen but his decision is final, he can over rule VAR if say an offside decision is because a players elbow is over the line or the fact the he saw Glenn Murray handle the ball so the goal is disallowed.

, 11:39 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

What used to happen though was a team would have a free kick ten yards from the opposition box and the opposition would dissent so that the ball was moved ten yards closer thus making the job harder for the free kick specialist.

Iron Duke 11:37 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

Far Cough 10:55 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

The offside rule is now over-complicated and the application of it is inconsistent.

BetterthanKaka 11:36 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

I always thought the dissent/move the ball 10 yards forward at a freekick rule was decent - strange that it got canned.

Nagel 11:33 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

One of the best things about going to games is the euphoria you feel when your team scores. With VAR, and even if they manage to speed up decisions, that euphoria is tempered by the fact that you know it can be reversed and that you have to wait and find out if you're actually allowed to celebrate.

On those terms it's shit and always will be, no matter what improvements they make.

, 11:21 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

Look, leading up to the use of VAR there were incidents galore where tv viewers especially knew a wrong decision had been made by officials. Over the seasons there have been countless wrong decisions that everyone at home, and quite often at the ground were wrong. Now VAR can give a near perfect look at anything.

To speed it up we need to revert to a handball being deliberate and an offside being a comparison of players feet only.

It’s not the technology it’s the interpretation.

goose 11:17 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

back pass rule changed the game, and in many ways started the process of the PL being the most exciting league in the world.
in coincided with Sky launching the PL and stopped teams being able to kill the game by just playing back to the keeper.

the rest is history.

Nagel 11:08 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

With VAR I read that in Spain they had a terrible first season with it last year but it had improved this year with the time it takes, etc. People watching the game there still hate it though.

If all you care about is stats and accuracy then VAR is fine. If you go to matches it's shit.

, 11:01 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

Wrt to VAR don’t blame the technology rather blame the inconsistency in the way it is used and the time taken to confirm or reject a decision.

It was introduced because of the number of wrong decisions being made after all.

Far Cough 10:55 Wed Feb 5
Re: Football rule changes over the years

The offside law now is an abortion