No Game Is Perfect

By Duane Rollins 24th Minute

Five modest proposals to make the game better
Football is a conservative game. To suggest rule changes is to commit blasphemy. The traditionalists won’t have it. The game is pure. It must not be touched, as it is perfect the way it is.

Except it’s not. No game is. There are plenty of ways that you could tweak the game to make for a better product if only you were willing to try.

In the interest of starting a dialogue (and because it’s been a slow news week) allow me to present five potential rule changes to make football a better game. I’ve picked changes that are relatively minor so as to not upset the purists too much (not that I expect that they will even be able to stomach the idea of any change whatsoever).

1. The Pink Card

Diving is an affront to the sensibilities of any right thinking fan of the game. It’s cheap and it makes the game look bad. Technically a diver can receive a yellow card, but it happens infrequently. Some will argue that diving is a good strategy. They’re right. It is. And that’s a problem. I propose that football leagues the world over get serious about getting the swan dive out of the game. To do that referees will be instructed to issue a new card that is specially designed to target divers – the pink card. If a player receives a pink card his night is done and he will be suspended for the next game as well. Harsh? Sure, but to eradicate the practice you have to make the punishment so severe that you would be stupid to risk it.

However, I’m going to make one allowance to the rules so that referees are more willing to flash the pink card…

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