This referee has a few ideas- any comments?

First two seem pretty reasonable to me.

The 'injured' player one drives me mad when teams are trying to build pressure to get back into a game. If you need to go down injured requiring a break in play to be called you should have to leave the field for a medical assessment, before being allowed back on at the next break in play. It would stamp it out almost over night.

I think time wasting is just as bad. I'd be very happy to go to two 30 minute halves of 'in-play' time or whatever it works out to be. Controlled by the fourth official. But at the end of each half if the ball is in play the clock keeps running till someone hoofs it out, or it goes dead some other way. *edit* this would do away with a lot of the fake injury stuff and niggly fouls / dissent to break up play and waste time too IMHO.

All the dissent stuff and referee harassment has plenty of scope under the current rules, for some reason they don't ever apply them.

I'd be happy for the Ref to be mic'd up as they are in other sports and to simply start dishing out reds for foul and absuive language and yellows for any dissent (wagging fingers, dismissing linesman's decisions etc). For a couple of games they'd have to abandon them as it would be 7-a-side after ten minutes, but they'd soon learn.
 
Last edited:
Moving free kicks forward was in place for a season or two not so long ago, you may recall. If the defending team didn't retreat 10 yards then the ref moved the free kick forward 10 yards. I thought it was a great rule but TPTB decided otherwise and binned it,
 
Both would be more grey areas. When does a foul become tactical and when not? Feigning injury again open to interpretation.

I would like to see a sin bin for yellows like rugby and ice hockey etc. Off the field for 10 mins
At the moment there is no advantage to opposing team if a yellow is issued, except that maybe offending player is a little more careful.
 
Both would be more grey areas. When does a foul become tactical and when not? Feigning injury again open to interpretation.

I would like to see a sin bin for yellows like rugby and ice hockey etc. Off the field for 10 mins
At the moment there is no advantage to opposing team if a yellow is issued, except that maybe offending player is a little more careful.
I agree with sin bins and also think a tactical foul is obvious. How many times have you seen a player take a card for the team, Clayton was great at it.
 

Tactical fouls​

Tactical fouls are one of the most frustrating aspects of football. To prevent a counter-attack, teams often make cynical fouls around the halfway line to put a stop to a dangerous situation. It always results in a yellow card but a free kick 50 yards away from the goal with the opposition all back in position hardly seems fair.

Ittrich has suggested moving the resulting free kick in a bid to prevent these tactical fouls.

“For a tactical foul in midfield, a free kick should be awarded 17 metres from goal. How often would we see such fouls then?” Ittrich says.

You know what? We don’t think it’s a bad idea.


Bundesliga referee suggests several new rules that would change football for the better
Seems fine, give the attacking team an advantage.. more goals.

Feigning injury​

Ittrich really doesn’t like players exaggerating injury and believes they should be sidelined for three minutes for doing so.
“If a player rolls on the floor three times and needs a doctor, get him one and make him wait outside for three minutes. How quickly do you think the player will stand up?” Ittrich says.
Sorry, we’re not on board with this one.
Players who are in genuine pain could get wrongly penalised. Will we have VAR judging whether they’ve rolled over twice or three times? Players have to leave the field if they get treatment and we think that’s enough of a deterrent.

Bundesliga referee suggests several new rules that would change football for the better
Very difficult to police, pretty sure AI refs could tell the difference between real and simulated injury.Tough to regular imo

Referee abuse​

Considering he is one, it’s no surprise that Ittich isn’t a fan of officials being abused. To be fair, nobody should turn up to work to be abused.
Ittrich has a solution.
“If a player insults a referee, send them outside for 10 minutes to cool down. Go cycling to warm up before coming back in. We can learn from handball in that respect,” Ittrich says.
Will it stop players from abusing referees? Sure. But the need to introduce sin bins in football as a result seems unnecessary. Surely yellow and red cards do the job?

Bundesliga referee suggests several new rules that would change football for the better
Sin bin could work, Rugby refs seem to have it tight. 100% I would be carding s player for giving me jibber jabber!

Protesting decisions​

On a similar note, Ittich doesn’t like players surrounding the officials protesting at a decision. He thinks straight red cards should be shown if that’s the case.
“How is a referee surrounded by 10 men after a decision? In my opinion, boom, boom, boom – three red cards. Play seven against ten now. That’d be fine by me,” he says.
A rule like that would certainly stop players from protesting and would turn football into rugby in terms of how they interact with officials.
Are protestations such an issue these days? With VAR making the final call, players know there’s not a huge point in complaining after a decision has been made.

Bundesliga referee suggests several new rules that would change football for the better
Referees should commend respect, far too many poor decisions at the moment for that and VAR still needs ironing out!
 
A lot of this can be sorted before the game in the dressing room. 'Listen lads, I'll take no shoite for any of you. I will talk to the Capt and the perpetrator only, you crowd me and yellows all round. Abuse me and you're off and no questions. Abuse my staff and you'll get the same treatment. But alas no, the FA does not allow Refs in the dressing room. Rugby has it nailed.
 
I disagree as a Sin bin would be a leg breaking charter.

Plus would you honestly give these powers to the inept muppets in our league.
 
A lot of this can be sorted before the game in the dressing room. 'Listen lads, I'll take no shoite for any of you. I will talk to the Capt and the perpetrator only, you crowd me and yellows all round. Abuse me and you're off and no questions. Abuse my staff and you'll get the same treatment. But alas no, the FA does not allow Refs in the dressing room. Rugby has it nailed.
This used to happen when I played local league soccer. We all knew which refs you could try it on with and those that meant business.
 
Moving free kicks forward was in place for a season or two not so long ago, you may recall. If the defending team didn't retreat 10 yards then the ref moved the free kick forward 10 yards. I thought it was a great rule but TPTB decided otherwise and binned it,
It was too confusing for non-rugby playing countries apparently.
 
Back
Top