Marco Van Basten - Scrap offside and yellow cards

[PinnerPaul]

Lets go completely retro and return to the original definition & duty of the "referee" - the person who unresolved disputes between the two captain were referred to.

I quite fancy standing on the touchline in a striped blazer!

 

[es1]

They do have them at grass roots. It's managed by team officials mostly with the ref having the final say as to when time is done.

but they also won't have anywhere near the same amount of cautions, on average, that we'd have in football so it'll be much less to manage and worry about

 

[CO. DOWN REF]

How about a GAA style black card (in addition to yellow and red that operate like they do in football) which allows the referee to send off a player for 5 categories of offence - e.g. Deliberate trip / cynical fouls, ofinabus to opponent and yelling at referee. The player can however be replaced by a sub. Saves all the admin and checking and easy at grassroots. Has been fairly effective although still relatively new - 2014 from memory.

 

[SM]

but they also won't have anywhere near the same amount of cautions, on average, that we'd have in football so it'll be much less to manage and worry about

Very true. A lot less offences warrant a yellow in rugby. Far easier to manage as a result.

 

[Peter Grove]

I've just seen some details on his anti-timewasting ideas and I'm not impressed. Firstly, he seems to think that it's only a problem in the last 10 minutes and his solution is to make it illegal for the ball to remain stationary for more than 10 seconds during that period. I'm not sure I've ever seen the ball remain absolutely stationary for 10 seconds - even with players holding the ball in the corner, they're usually moving the ball constantly (if only slightly) to keep it away from the opponent so I don't see that this would have any effect.