Your preferred football world

[Corky]

Semi-serious topic on how you'd like the game to look, suiting your needs/ preferences as a fan as well as the overall sport.

 

For me, I'd like- 

 

• 3 Live TV matches per weekend. Two on Saturday (12.30pm and 5.30pm) and one on Sunday (floating kick-off time between 2 and 3pm depending on distance travelled for the visiting fans). Do away with Monday night matches, end to matches finishing late on Sunday afternoons/ evenings. Also a club can only play a maximum number of matches on a Sunday, fans should be looked after a lot more than they are currently. Terrestrial TV to broadcast a lot more matches too.
• European football to be straight, one legged knockouts. Would reduce the Champions League from 13 to 5 matches for the finalists spread throughout the season. Would hugely ease fixture congestion, player welfare would be considered and also good for the environment with significantly fewer flights taking place.
• VAR to go. It has it's uses, the intention was right but it brings about too much noise and will never be fully accepted so go back to moaning about human referees only again.
• And a not so serious one- Goal music to be banned. Just awful and stops the natural noise of the crowd being heard.

 

It's an open forum, all suggestions welcome. It can be a football Room 101 if you wish  

[Scotch]

I would like to see the PL have it's own streaming platform. You pay your subscription then pick whatever game you want to watch. All games available at all times. 

 

So sick of paying for sky when we were barely shown for the most of this season so far and having to find a stream anyway. 

 

Surely the subscriptions and advertising generated by such a product would make it worth the leagues investment

[Brainy]

Would happily see matches shortened to 30mins per half with a clock that stops when the ball is not in play (that includes the keepers hands but thats probs a bit OTT)

[MarriedaLeicesterGirl]

I don't mind weekday evening games, but there should be a limit to the distance between teams involved. I think one game a week (Monday night, Sunday night, whatever) should be a package for terrestrial broadcast. I mean, if Sky wants to bid and put it on Pick, fine. But the people should be to watch the people's game.

 

I would regulate the game at a government level to ensure a more even spread of income...I would make the Premier League two divisions, and have cross investment with the Football League to make sure the money was more evenly distributed (basically, the same money percentages as the old Football League but without the problems that the voting rights of the lower tiers caused.)

 

I would abolish one or two of the mid-season international breaks. And completely reform the European system.

 

Champions League and Europa League would be 48 teams each, with 12 groups. No drop downs to other competitions, but top third place finishers (based on points) making the R32 knockouts, so fewer pure dead rubbers. The Europa Conference would have 64 teams, and every UEFA member would get a slot. I would also bring back the Cup Winner's Cup, but run it on different weeks to the other competitions, so you could win a European double. (hence the need to kill a few international breaks. But you could get the first round (which wouldn't involve the top teams) done in the summer, and the R32 in August, so it's less of an issue.)

 

I would also introduce a Premier League Cup, only open to the top two divisions, run on European nights in the autumn. It would involve the non-European involved teams, but give the winner a European place. on the R6 week of the European group stages.

 

I don't believe in fixture congestion. I believe in using your squad.

[Nalis]

World Cup limited to 32 teams, Euros limited to 16.

[Soar Fox]

Fa Cup semi finals to be played at neutral venues at 3pm on Saturdays. 
 

England qualifiers to be played around the country at different stadiums. 

[adejo92]

A premier league without Liverpool would be great.

[Aus Fox]

I would love to see a return to the old style European Competition.

A European Cup that is just for League Champions, each county in Europe has one entry plus the previous years champions and the champions of the Europa League.

A qualifying round for winners in countries like Gibraltar, San Marino etc. Then the main draw starts with 32 teams playing knock out football.

A Cup Winners Cup rather than the European Conference, same format as the European Cup but only for each association cup winner.

And a UEFA cup/Europa League with more teams for better association, maybe more qualifying rounds and starting with 64 teams - maybe 3 teams from England, Spain, Italy etc 2 from Portugal, France etc and one from the rest.

 

Move the FA Cup semis back to neutral venue depending on the 2 teams playing Old Trafford, Villa Park, St James Park etc.

The FA Cup final should be the last game

of the season.

Change VAR to a captains challenge, similar

to cricket, 2 challenges per game per team - this would stop diving - if a club loses a challenge based on a dive and later can’t challenge a clear offside would force coaches to address the issue.

 

Make referees front the camera after a game like players and managers do to explain their thinking or mic them up during the game like in rugby.

 

Retrospective bans for diving.

 

[leicsmac]

Mic up refs, automatic three game suspension/red card for any player giving abuse caught on mic.

 

Keep VAR, but some kind of challenge system (as per above) would be good.

 

Deliberate handball on the line where the ball was obviously going to go in results in a goal being awarded anyway, like a penalty try in rugby.

[Footballwipe]

I think a lot of stuff here could be accused of us harking back to days of yore, but there's a lot right here that has been mentioned because it worked so well then. Modernising is eminently good, but modernising just to make even more money at the harm of normal football fans is not the way to go.

 

International Football

• World Cups capped at 32 and can only be hosted in countries who could hold a World Cup at a month's notice. Do away with "building the game" by taking it to places where white elephant stadiums occur. Keep it sustainable in this modern day of trying to be environmentally friendly. If the USA host it, for example, it has to be a region/state to reduce air travel for games
• Euros either retract to 16 or expand to 32. Either way keep the format simple maths wise
• World Cup and Euro qualifying in blocks rather than fragmented. October and March, let's say, reserved for qualifying to take place, with friendlies allowed to be arranged in that month when there's a gap between fixtures.

Club Football

• Blackout is abolished. Premier League launches it's own streaming service with eight games a weekend kicking off at 3pm, all streamed live in the UK for a flat monthly fee. One game floats, either Saturday at 12:30pm/5:30pm or a Sunday at 2pm. Main game at 4pm.
• Any and all games moved out of the 3pm slot, or evening matches for midweek rounds have a strict radius limit for away fans (unless circumstance dictates)
• Football League does similar with its own streaming service, but (if technologically possible) game is unavailable for anyone within a certain radius of the stadium if ticket sales are below a specified % of the capacity (excluding away fans).
• FA Cup moves to an "end of season" competition. Rounds 3, 4 and 5 are played as usual but the final week after the league season is done is for the FA Cup. Sat/Sun - QF, Tues/Weds - SF, Saturday - Final (At 3pm)
• Champions league remains a 32 team group-stage tournament but does away with seedings. Anyone can get anyone in any group. If that means 4/4 English teams in a group so be it. If that means Barca, Juve, Man Utd and Bayern in a group, crack on. Forget your safety net, that's what ruins group stages. One legged knockout matches in an FA Cup style draw. Whoever comes out first is at home for the game, best of luck to both teams.
• Europa League reverts back to the UEFA Cup format of straight knockout, but two legged. Conference League disappears
• Final of the UCL/UEL is flexible based on who is in the final. If it's Man Utd v Man City, host it at Wembley or Dublin. Again, back to environmentally sustainable. Why fly out tens of thousands of fans to a city far, far away when it's greener to have them a much shorter flight or coach/drive away.
• Offside law is properly revamped with VAR kept for this alone

 

[Stadt]

1 hour ago, Footballwipe said:

Final of the UCL/UEL is flexible based on who is in the final. If it's Man Utd v Man City, host it at Wembley or Dublin. Again, back to environmentally sustainable. Why fly out tens of thousands of fans to a city far, far away when it's greener to have them a much shorter flight or coach/drive away.

That'd be rubbish for fans. Imagine if we made the final of the conference league against Celtic and we were made to play in Middlesbrough. Part of the fun of a Euro campaign is dreaming of going to Lisbon, St. Petersburg, Tirana, Istanbul etc.

[Finnegan]

You know how in Narcos, the incorruptible police Colonel goes out and finds the Colombian dudes with the most hate for the Narcos who don't give a shit about money and can't be bought? 

 

Yeah. That's my concept for a new crack squad of elite officials. 

 

Every game has a ref, two linos, a fourth official, a VAR/TMO and a fully qualified doctor to adjudicate concussion and blood protocols as a complete neutral. 

 

They're all trained extensively as full time professionals. Their day job when they aren't reffing games is to train and improve, as with players, watching countless footage to analyse where they could improve. Nobody gets to go out on the pitch or run the line without being extremely physically fit and passing regular checks on their eye sight, reaction time and stamina. Age is capped at 50.

 

Former pros (from all levels of the professional game) are actively targeted for recruitment and they're paid a wage comparable to the average salary of an assistant manager or first team coach in the league they're officiating. FIFA/UEFA covers this cost with contributions from individual leagues. They can all afford it. 

 

Officials are all on the mic on match days and the decision making process they're going through can be heard on live TV akin to rugby. As with rugby, the VAR/TMO will interject when the ref has missed something and whilst not "technically" over ruling him, will actively guide him to the correct decision because he's the one with ten thousand ultra 16k high definition hyper slow motion cameras and the idea of "clear and obvious" is wooly, stupid and deliberately vague. 

 

Officials will be encouraged to make decisive decisions and trust their instincts. 99% of the time the neutral TV audience know on one view of a slow mo replay if an incident in the box was a penalty. If it takes six replays and five minutes to decide if Mo Salah was touched in the box then we all know he dived. 

 

On that note, simulation actually gets enforced and has a much lower bar. The ref is encouraged to hand out yellow cards for dives, even if there's some nominal contact, and for players feigning facial injuries to attempt to get someone sent off. This is upped to a red card if it's an attempt to win a penalty.

 

Oh and back to the rugby comparison, only the captain of each side talks to the ref without explicit invitation to do so. Back chat is a yellow card offence, as is crowding the ref and other obvious displays of disrespect (aggressively waving him away sarcastic clapping etc), swearing at the ref is a red card offence. These will all be enforces strictly. There will be mass casualties the first weekend. I don't care. The players will learn. If you think this takes away any of the "passion" of football, go watch almost any other sport, footballers don't magically care more than other athletes - they're just one of the only ones where a culture of being massively disrespectful has been tolerated forever. 

 

Finally, offside will be officiated by hawkeye. FIFA to invest heavily in a technology that tracks a sensor in the players "sports bra", the harness that carries their heart rate monitors and GPS currently. Their position is triangulated by these. Something like the hot-spot in cricket determines the exact nano second the pass is struck, "hawkeye" is constantly tracking the position of every player in real time so a definitive green light for a tight offside call can be given instantly without any fat handed twat "drawing lines" on the screen with his mouse or whatever the fvck they do. 

 

 

[CosbehFox]

15 hours ago, Scotch said:

I would like to see the PL have it's own streaming platform. You pay your subscription then pick whatever game you want to watch. All games available at all times. 

 

So sick of paying for sky when we were barely shown for the most of this season so far and having to find a stream anyway. 

 

Surely the subscriptions and advertising generated by such a product would make it worth the leagues investment

This is exactly what I wouldn’t want

[Finnegan]

On another note, all football agents become instantly illegal. Known "Super Agents" like Mino Raiola, Jorge Mendes and Kia Joorabchian receive lifetime bans from the sport. 

 

Footballers are free to, and encouraged to, engage the services of specialist solicitors to support them through contact negotiations. Fees for such are capped at industry standards and paid for by the player. Where a player cannot afford this or where a player is under the age of 18, these fees are handled by the local PFA. 

 

The player is free to hire whoever they want to deal with day to day affairs but neither the player or any individual acting on their behalf may contact another football club or the media in order to orchestrate a transfer before the last year of their contract. 

 

Being caught doing so results in the forfeiture of their now accurately named loyalty bonus if less than 50% of their contract duration remains and forfeiture of the loyalty bonus plus a fine payable to the club of the same amount if more than 50% of their contract remains. 

 

[CosbehFox]

Domestic 

• Agreed on the three games per weekend to slots on Saturday / Sundays only. The third game should be on free to air TV. 
• Blackout rule at 3pm remains. No streaming service. No PL TV. Protect the pyramid at all costs. Increasing TV coverage for the top flight sees every step of the pyramid take a hit in attendance and interest.
• Every transfer made from a non English club is subject to a percentage tax which is deferred to the Football League (clubs who've been relegated within the last three years are exempt from that) 
• Every club is to appoint a independent supporter liaison officer - this isn't not an employer of the club but the wages are subsided by the league as a whole. 
• Two year kit cycles
• PL calendar to be reviewed - emphasis on midweek games in the warmer months, take the 28/29 December game away
• Midweek games must meet a radius of miles from the away opposition or have a simple transport route 
• All leagues to work with transport companies in the re-introduction of football special trains. 
• Pre-season every top flight team must play a weekend scheduled friendly v L1/L2 team 

European 

• CL remains a 8 group, 4 team schedule but 10 of the teams must be the qualifiers. No splitting the knockout games over multiple weeks. Just all on one week etc
• EL heads back to a knockout 2 leg basis and new ECL/CWC is the same. 
• European finals are 45% split on allocation / 10% to authorities and sponsors. 

International 

• Qualifiers to be completely revamped with pre-qualification/divisions/levels involved. 
• Would advocate that the international breaks are slightly extended in off tournament Summers/September - 3 games - within 2 International breaks; a qualification group of 4 would be complete 
• Euros back to 16 team tournaments - should be used as an opportunity to be the best of the best. 
• Secondary Euros tournament - 8 teams with one qualifier from the lowest tier. 
• WC 32 teams - host rotation should be traditional footballing power and then a developing nation next - so on 

Edited 12 January 2022 by Cardiff_Fox

[Finnegan]

21 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

Blackout rule at 3pm remains. No streaming service. No PL TV. Protect the pyramid at all costs. Increasing TV coverage for the top flight sees every step of the pyramid take a hit in attendance and interest.

 

Had a really interesting conversation with a colleague of mine the other day about this. 

 

He's a Boston United mega fan. Probably the most fanatical supporter of any football club I've ever known. Travels home and away all season to every single game, including friendlies and all that Lincolnshire Cup stuff, rain or shine, 365. Even writes the quiz for their match day programme, or used to. 

 

He was telling me that fans and clubs at non league level are starting to change their attitude on that. The consensus seems to be that the possibile advantages of streaming are far better than the supposed advantages of a 3pm blackout. What they might lose in plastic part time fans staying home to watch United's 3pm Saturday kick off on telly, they stand to gain potentially selling virtual tickets to exile fans around the country who can't get to the game. 

 

Think he's probably got a point, he's certainly far more qualified to judge than I am. I have always thought it's a bit patronising of fans like us of top flight clubs to assume nobody would go to a non league match if a Premier League one was on the telly at the same time. Most of the core fanbase of those clubs is pretty intensely loyal and committed, they're not going to sack their team off to be a glory supporter on the sofa instead and it's a fair point that they may be better off getting their own broadcast out. 

 

[CosbehFox]

 

1 minute ago, Finnegan said:

 

 

Think he's probably got a point, he's certainly far more qualified to judge than I am. I have always thought it's a bit patronising of fans like us of top flight clubs to assume nobody would go to a non league match if a Premier League one was on the telly at the same time. Most of the core fanbase of those clubs is pretty intensely loyal and committed, they're not going to sack their team off to be a glory supporter on the sofa instead and it's a fair point that they may be better off getting their own broadcast out. 

 

 I take his point but I am coming from the position of watching plenty of non leagues in the Birmingham area. I find it does have an effect. 

[boots60]

All games to k.o at 3.00pm Saturday

 

Midweek games for European matches & FA cup replays

 

Scrap the League Cup

 

 

[Foxdiamond]

Can't agree in scrapping League Cup. I Remember how much it meant to us to win in 1997 and 2000. Also brings in money for lower league clubs.

[Scotch]

I'd like to see some sort of PL wage bill come in. 

 

Something like, ok... 20 players out of your 25 man squad has to meet X amount per week and the other 5 spots, you can pay what you want. 

[filbertway]

20 hours ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

 

 I take his point but I am coming from the position of watching plenty of non leagues in the Birmingham area. I find it does have an effect. 

If definitely does at coalville as well. Attendance is noticeably bigger when Leicester aren't playing at the same time. The bar also does a lot better as it tends to be lads that like a drink.

 

I think you also risk losing the younger generations who would rather stay at home and watch a Prem game than come down yo the local team with their dad.

[TiffToff88]

Some people have suggested scrapping the League Cup. I don't think it should be scrapped, but I do think that teams who have qualified for Europe should be exempt from that season's league cup. It would ease the fixture congestion for those teams in Europe, which will help to protect player welfare.

 

Winning the League Cup should also still mean European qualification. This would also mean that more different English teams (and their fans) would get a taste of European Football every season

[CosbehFox]

16 minutes ago, filbertway said:

I think you also risk losing the younger generations who would rather stay at home and watch a Prem game than come down yo the local team with their dad.

Yeah that's a part I thought of after my original reply. I think as well it's easy to forgot that non-league within itself effectively as three tiers - professional / semi-professional / amateur as well; some clubs such as Boston are as good as a League 2 set up and their supporter base is much the same as that. 

[AyewJoking]

Probably been said a lot already but a service where we choose which ever games to watch.

 

Other countries are moving with the times but UK may as well be stuck in 1993 with big ugly sky dishes on the wall.

 

Scrap VAR it gives too much power to inept/corrupt officials.

 

 

[Corky]

Clubs to be liable for the non refundable travel and accommodation costs of fans of both clubs in the event of them having a team available but choosing to request a postponement and it being granted. If it is weather related, or a medical emergency then that can't be helped but if you can put a team out and don't want to, you pay the costs.

 

We'll see how much the clubs really care about their wonderful, loyal fans.