"Imagine a world in which you could reinvent football. It's a dream, of course. Just a bit of fun. But stick with us. What if you had the power to change any of the game's laws and potentially bring to an end countless hours of discussion about handball, offside, video assistant referees, or anything else you want?"
"Is it fair, for example, that Brentford were given such a high chance of scoring when Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk tapped the boot of Dango Ouattara right on the edge of the 18-yard area last month? Is a shot from 12 yards with only the goalkeeper to beat a just punishment? We already define an obvious goalscoring opportunity for a red card, so we'd only have to tweak this to any kind of scoring chance for a penalty."
"Imagine when a penalty is saved or hits the woodwork and bounces back into play that the game is stopped and the ball given to the goalkeeper. Pierluigi Collina - perhaps the most famous football referee of all time, and now head of Fifa's referees' committee - is already on board. Collina argues that if the attacking team have squandered such a big chance of scoring, why should they be allowed a second or even third opportunity?"
Change penalty awarding so that fouls or handballs without an immediate likelihood of a goal result in free-kicks rather than penalties. This reduces the creation of disproportionately high-probability scoring events from relatively minor incidents, given that penalties historically convert around 78%. Deliberate or cynical acts inside the box would still result in spot-kicks. Stop play after a saved penalty or a shot hitting the woodwork and return possession to the goalkeeper, eliminating repeated second or third opportunities. Adjust the obvious-goalscoring-opportunity rule to cover any scoring chance to align red-card and penalty outcomes more fairly. Pierluigi Collina supports ending multiple opportunities after a squandered big chance.
Read at www.bbc.com
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