New Fifa director eyes radical rule changes

In office for barely six months, Fifa’s Marco van Basten has thrill-seeking ideas on his mind

Time penalties instead of yellow cards, no offside rule and more substitutions: legendary former striker Marco van Basten, Fifa’s technical director, has a radical vision of football’s future.

“We must keep looking for ways to improve the game, to make it more honest, more dynamic, more interesting, so that what we offer is attractive enough,” the 52-year-old Dutchman told

“There are lots of variations which need to be tested in the coming years.”

Van Basten has a string of revolutionary suggestions, some of which would be hugely controversial.

“A yellow card [in football] against an opposing player doesn’t currently give the attacking team much,” said Van Basten.

“One idea is to replace the yellow card with a time penalty of five or 10 minutes. That would frighten teams.

“It is hard to play 10 against 11, let alone with eight or nine. We’re also thinking about allowing more than three substitutions during games.

“Last month I met [Manchester City coach] Pep Guardiola, who asked, ‘Why aren’t six substitutions possible?’ ”

Van Basten also wants to introduce a shoot-out, which would give a player eight seconds to beat the goalkeeper, to replace extra time and traditional penalty kicks.

“Each team would have five attempts. The referee whistles, then the player runs at the goalkeeper from 25 metres out,” he said.

“The goalkeeper can’t leave his area and if he parries, it’s over. It would be spectacular for the spectators and more interesting for a player.

“In a penalty shoot-out, it is over for the taker in a second.”

But any of the far-reaching changes Van Basten wants would need to be ratified by the executive committee of world football’s governing body.

If he gets his way, he would dump the offside rule.

“Football currently resembles handball where nine players, plus the goalkeeper, pack the penalty area and [the defence] is like a wall,” he said. “They abolished the offside rule in field hockey and there were no problems.”

Van Basten is also concerned about how teams have become experts at slowing the game down in the dying stages when narrowly ahead.

“We’re discussing how to make the time more effective in the last 10 minutes,” he said, adding that he wants to see the number of competitive matches reduced to protect the game’s top stars. — AFP

Across

Photo: Jerry Lampen/Reuters Yellow card: Among Fifa technical director Marco van Basten’s proposals are that a shoot-out replace extra time and penalty kicks and that the offside rule is dumped.