Your Ideas To Improve The Game

Thistle

Norm Smith Medallist
May 12, 2011
5,891
8,349
AFL Club
Fremantle
Other Teams
Chelsea, ICT, Glory
A thread to discuss changes you think would be beneficial for the game. Here is some ideas I would love to see:

- Retrospective banning for diving. Similar to what is in place with the a-league, any player found guilty of diving banned for 2 games.

- If the medical staff are required to come out to assist a player they must go off the field and may only come back on once the ball has gone back of play.

- To generate greater interest in the league cup and give it a greater purpose, in both England and Scotland, combine the two.

- I also liked the idea someone on here had of handing a champions league spot to the winners of the FA Cup.
 

jd2010

Well done boys. Good process, carry on
Feb 1, 2010
38,572
19,636
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Tottenham Hotspur, Brentford FC
- retrospective penalties for diving definitely! First offence a fine, 2nd offence 1 game ban, 3rd offence 3 game ban, every one after that a 3 game ban.

- if a player goes down 'injured' so the ball gets put out of play that player should have to stay off for 5 minutes. Too many times a guy goes down when he sees his team lose the ball knowing that the other side shouldn't him them on the counter while he is down. If sides have to play 10v11 for 5 minutes I wouldn't imagine so many magic spray fixed injuries would occur

- scrap the touchline 4th official and move him into a TV broadcast box where he has clear screen views of all incidents and can communicate directly with the ref on most calls

- last Champions League place going to a play-off like they have in Holland. Maybe go with 4th, 5th, 6th & Capital One Cup winner (7th if they're already in top 6)
 
Oct 5, 2009
53,178
42,438
Adelaide
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
West Adelaide Bloods, Man City.
technology help with officiating decisions, because they've proven themselves to be amazingly incompetent.

adjust financial fair play to actually attempt to do as the phrase says

make the fans feel like they matter again. a forced price cap for all football fans. rich football club doesnt equal rich fans
 
Like the retrospective bans for diving, but it would be very hard to prove except for the most blatant ones.

Don't think teams should be punished for legitimate injuries, sure some teams take advantage of it but how would you like if some thug took out one of your players late in the game and it's you that has to play the last 5 minutes 1 man short?

Don't mind the league cup idea, but maybe it could be an U23, or club trained only comp?

Hate the champions league spot for the FA Cup winner.

Like technology to help incompetent refs. Can't be any worse than it is at the moment.

Like the champions league playoff idea.

Love price caps for fans, or in general the idea that fans shouldn't be treated like s**t. I'd look at TV times, pricing, standing.

Love to see a decent, workable FFP.

I'd like to see a more even distribution of champions league money flowing down to the premier league sides, and premier league money flowing down to the championship sides (and so on and so on). Would instantly make the sport more competitive, fairer and leave the champions league for clubs that genuinely want to compete in it, not just make a quid out of it.
 

WowWeee

Club Legend
Jun 17, 2013
2,440
1,689
AFL Club
North Melbourne
IF a goal is scored but called offside, it should be reviewed to see weather if its a legit goal or not (or review every goals to see if its off or onside?)... Sick of seeing goals being allowed/dissallowed due to shitty linesmen
 

jd2010

Well done boys. Good process, carry on
Feb 1, 2010
38,572
19,636
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Tottenham Hotspur, Brentford FC
Don't think teams should be punished for legitimate injuries, sure some teams take advantage of it but how would you like if some thug took out one of your players late in the game and it's you that has to play the last 5 minutes 1 man short?
If a thug actually took a player out he'd be off for the field actually receiving some sort of treatment to get right to come back on. Maybe 5 mins would excessive, but something enforced and in a rule book to stop the instant come back on fake injury would be good. It's the ones where they are literally ready within 5 seconds and is a blatant form of cheating that really are my biggest bug bear. To be honest I'd scrap the whole 'fair play' thing and both sides just play on until the ball naturally goes out.
 

jd2010

Well done boys. Good process, carry on
Feb 1, 2010
38,572
19,636
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Tottenham Hotspur, Brentford FC
Following the German model where club supporter trusts get a certain shareholder stake of their club would definitely help the big 6-8 clubs in the UK stop feeling so plastic & corporate
 
Following the German model where club supporter trusts get a certain shareholder stake of their club would definitely help the big 6-8 clubs in the UK stop feeling so plastic & corporate
Feel plastic and corporate to who?
 
I don't know what to think of City.
Yeah, rich billionaire pumping money into the club, but he's doing a lot to keep it affordable to the fans and give back to the community.

Much better than United/Chelsea/Hull etc.
 

Cristiano Ronaldo

Norm Smith Medallist
Nov 21, 2012
5,999
2,081
Lowry Hotel
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Man United, Victory
I'm sure someone can come up with technology to have linesman replaced by robots to correctly call offsides 99.9% of the time
 

jd2010

Well done boys. Good process, carry on
Feb 1, 2010
38,572
19,636
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Tottenham Hotspur, Brentford FC
Feel plastic and corporate to who?
There is a general disconnect between fans and their clubs for all of Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, United, City, Liverpool, Newcastle. Heck even some locals at Fulham struggle to feel any sort of affinity to the way their club is run (e.g. £30 tickets for a mid-week Championship game).

The average fan or family in 2015 is less connected to their clubs as they were in the 80's & 90's. A family without Sky here is limited to seeing only 4 games a week live at a licensed pub or they have to watch MOTD at 10pm. The % of tourists in the crowd at nearly all stadiums is growing rapidly thanks to the deals clubs have with viagogo & stubhub. At the end of the day most clubs would rather get Park Le Che from Korea come to a game than little Billy who lives around the corner.
 
There is a general disconnect between fans and their clubs for all of Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, United, City, Liverpool, Newcastle. Heck even some locals at Fulham struggle to feel any sort of affinity to the way their club is run (e.g. £30 tickets for a mid-week Championship game).

The average fan or family in 2015 is less connected to their clubs as they were in the 80's & 90's. A family without Sky here is limited to seeing only 4 games a week live at a licensed pub or they have to watch MOTD at 10pm. The % of tourists in the crowd at nearly all stadiums is growing rapidly thanks to the deals clubs have with viagogo & stubhub. At the end of the day most clubs would rather get Park Le Che from Korea come to a game than little Billy who lives around the corner.

I've supported City for over 20 years, and in that time our supporters of City have never felt as connected with the club, ownership and management as now IMO.

I think there is a lot of dissatisfaction with football in general (prices, kick off times, refereeing etc) but it's hardly restricted to the top 6 clubs. In fact I'd say it's more prevalent at the lower end clubs.

And I don't think supporter investment would change much anyway. For us you could kiss goodbye to the academy, stadium expansion investments for a start.
 
Last edited:
Sep 7, 2008
53,886
36,821
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Philadelphia Eagles
The only problem with bringing technology in to look at diving/disallowed goals/offside etc is the time it takes.

How long would a game stop for? And if indeed the call is correct, and the opposing side can hit the team on the counter, but play is stopped, it's not really fair in that aspect.
Would still prefer they take the time and get the right result.

Case in point, the 'handball' against Liverpool where it clearly hit him in the face. Would prefer the extra 30 seconds to make sure they get it right.

All goals should be reviewed as well as penalties. Penalties only overruled if it's clear the wrong decision was made.
 

elhadjihenry

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 2, 2009
5,463
5,823
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Arsenal
The only problem with bringing technology in to look at diving/disallowed goals/offside etc is the time it takes.

How long would a game stop for? And if indeed the call is correct, and the opposing side can hit the team on the counter, but play is stopped, it's not really fair in that aspect.
Rather than stop the game with any dubious decision, I'd suggest that if the referee/linesman are in doubt about an offside, give the benefit of the doubt and allow play on while the video ref reviews it upstairs. Then stop the game and rectify if an error has been made.

For diving I'd let the ref decide if its a foul, and the video ref can review while free kick is being prepared. If the player dived then card him and reverse the decision. If no foul given, play on and ref reviews it and play can then be subsequently stopped, free kick awarded to opposition where the incident occured and the player in question can be carded.

There is no perfect way to fix it and would result in disruptions to the game, but if you generally have the video ref 'auditing' the game while play continues and bringing it back to correct errors I would be in support of it.

One rule I hate is that you can't be restrospectively punished for offences that the referee has noticed and awarded a card for during the game. If you do something horrible and only get a yellow/free kick against in the game, you should still be able to be retrospectively banned (ie: Rooney elbow vs Wigan a few season back).
 

elhadjihenry

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 2, 2009
5,463
5,823
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Arsenal
On your first point, and what if the opposing team scores while they're reviewing it?
Yep its not perfect as anything could happen in the time the ref is reviewing it, but I imagine this is a highly unlikely situation as it could only take 10 seconds for a competent video ref to analyse an offside. Given that the advantage played would mean the attacking team would most likely be in possession of the ball while the decision is being scrutinized its pretty doubtful this situation could occur.
 
Nov 21, 2010
13,480
17,328
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Other Teams
Chelsea, Detroit Pistons
Use a count-down clock instead of a count-up one. Removes all issues with time wasting, feigning injury, time wasting subs, referees being wildly inconsistent with application of extra time etc.
 
On tickets:

End categorisation of games, fans of particular clubs shouldnt have to pay any more than fans of other clubs for an away game.

End flexible pricing, everyone should know what they have to pay at the start of the season.

Make annual price rises subject to FA approval.

Guarantee a % of TV revenue go towards subsidising season ticket prices. As TV contracts go up, the fans get a reward as well.

Scheduling has to guarantee transport for away fans. If the game finishes after the last train leaves, then it can't be held on that day/time.

Ticket subsidies are exempt from FFP, currently clubs are incentivised to have tickets as high as possible so they meet FFP requirements.
 
Sep 30, 2011
4,588
2,498
Melbourne
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Other Teams
Melbourne Victory, Blackburn Rovers
Offsides could be adjudicated through technology, far too many bad calls surrounding a relatively straightforward decision. Penalty appeals are a bit different, that's often unclear even on replay.
 
Back