Sepp Blatter

[House of Flies]

Is a lunatic.

Today's news

From The Times
March 2, 2010
Fifa may get into line with dropping offside

Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa, football’s governing body, may be considering scrapping the offside rule, as hockey did more than a decade ago.

The Swiss held talks with a leading hockey official in Zurich a fortnight ago, with a view to determining what football might do about a rule that splits opinion and could do so again at the World Cup finals in South Africa this summer.

“He asked me a lot of questions about it and how successful it was, although he never offered an opinion, so it was difficult to judge what football might do,” said Leandro Negre, president of the International Hockey Federation. “But he did seem very interested in how we had implemented it.”

The offside rule in hockey was amended in 1987 to apply only to the final 25 yards and was temporarily abolished in 1996 before being done away with altogether two years later.

The result has been that the game has become more exciting and attractive to spectators, with play flowing more freely, fewer whistles and more space created in midfield.

Fifa amended the offside rule in 2003, but referees and their assistants might welcome a rule change that could rid football of many of its debatable decisions.

Barry Davies, the veteran BBC commentator for both sports, has some reservations about football following hockey’s lead. “I would love to see it given a trial in the lower leagues,” he said. “It would probably take a long time for players to adjust.

“It’s also very demanding physically, but I was amazed at how quickly hockey adapted and there’s no doubt the game is better for it. If football adopts anything from hockey, it should be the green warning card where a player is temporarily suspended for two minutes.”

In yesterday’s first round of pool A matches at the hockey World Cup in Delhi, Germany, the world and Olympic champions, bounced back from a two-goal deficit to earn a 2-2 draw with South Korea, New Zealand scored late to beat Canada 3-2 and Taeke Taekema’s hat-trick, all from penalty corners, inspired the Netherlands to a 3-0 win over Argentina.

Jonty Clarke, the Reading forward, is the only doubt for England’s game against South Africa today in pool B after suffering a sore hamstring in the 3-2 win over Australia on Sunday.

Andy Halliday, the team manager, said: “We’re hoping he’ll be fit but our main worry is getting the players in the right frame of mind.”

Shivendra Singh, the India striker, has been banned for three matches, including the game against England on Saturday, for deliberately hitting a Pakistan player, while Irfan Muhammad, the Pakistan goalkeeper, has been suspended for their match against Spain after wearing illegal equipment.

 

[Cal-FCB]

Yeh I read this on the way to work, utterly ridiculous. I don't see it getting any momentum though thankfully. Football wouldn't work properly without offsides.

 

[beef-supreme]

Football would become stupid to watch because you'd just get a player who stood at the opposite goal all the time like a seagull and waited for hoofed balls. Plus it would take a fundamental tactical aspect out of it.

 

[House of Flies]

Pippo Inzaghi supports such a move

 

[FCB_Titi_LB]

Football would become stupid to watch because you'd just get a player who stood at the opposite goal all the time like a seagull and waited for hoofed balls. Plus it would take a fundamental tactical aspect out of it.

I dont think Blatter is correct but what you are telling aint right.
When u do such a thing it automatically means u loose that/those player(s) for defending.It will be more dynamic imo.

Honestly i think there should be tests and simulations to see what the pros and cons are. Now every1 just shouts like a foul because the offside gave us so much to discuss about in the past...

 

[beef-supreme]

I dont think Blatter is correct but what you are telling aint right.
When u do such a thing it automatically means u loose that/those player(s) for defending.It will be more dynamic imo.

Honestly i think there should be tests and simulations to see what the pros and cons are. Now every1 just shouts like a foul because the offside gave us so much to discuss about in the past...

Have you ever played in a 7-a-side tournament, or less, (especially when you were younger) where there were no offsides? The natural move was to exploit this by having someone up there to distract the goalkeeper and seagull.
When the ball came up you turned and shot.

It doesn't matter if you lose that player for defending, he can defend while the ball is in the other team's half, as any striker would, and when the ball moves to his own half, he jogs back to the keeper. Players have increasingly good fitness nad would have no problems coping with that.
Also you wouldn't really lose a man defending cause both teams would probably do it.

Fair enough that there should be simulations and tests, i 100% agree with that.

But the implementation of such a rule would no doubt make a match more static, it would make the art of bending your run obsolete, it would mean defenders would no longer have to work as a unit to keep a line. It would take a massive tactical element out of football, whenever I play (i'm a defender) the offside rule is always massively important. The game would now freeze to a middle of the park action - where the ball is won, and clogged up 18 yard boxes.

I think that Blatter should stop blabbering on about absurd changes and think more about using technology to monitor offsides. How much easier that would be

Pippo Inzaghi supports such a move

 

[Spector]

People also said FIFA were crazy for introducing the pass back rule, but we can now see they were absolutely right to do so. Maybe the game has matured at the top level to the extent that merely hoofing the ball up to a Peter Crouch figure would result in too much lost possession and be counter-productive. Who knows how it would work in the Champions League. Admittedly at Sunday league level, it might be a different story!

 

[Beast]

Pippo Inzaghi supports such a move

Benzema has also came out to support such move

 

[Lemmi]

the whole shape of the game would be ruined. players like guti and xavi's through balls would become obselite. plus the game would be so stretched with defences having to be so deep and crap teams being able to get lucky goals from hoofing it.

fail.

goaline technology and tehnology for offsides are the future

 

[Guardian]

to be honest the off-side rule is one of most controversial, inappropriate and unadapted rules ever integrated into football. It was taken from the hockey game, if I'm not mistaken, and ever since in every game we have had at least 3 or 4 wrong decisions. And every one of them could be decisive. The football governing body has either to rule it out or at least to turn to technology for help.

 

[Cule Angles]

the whole shape of the game would be ruined. players like guti and xavi's through balls would become obselite. plus the game would be so stretched with defences having to be so deep and crap teams being able to get lucky goals from hoofing it.

fail.

goaline technology and tehnology for offsides are the future

Agreed, defences would sit so deep, there would be "parked busses" every game and none of the wonderful passing in behind the defence to set players free and stretch the game. Controversy isn't an argument for changing a rule, there are a huge number of rules in football which cause controversy (handball, tackles, obstruction etc.) but at the moment football is pretty perfect as a sport, the controversy only increases the spectacle. I understand moves to speed the game up, such as the backpass rule and limiting goalie possession but a fundamental change to the way the game is played isn't needed, this would only increase the defensiveness of the game.

 

[Guardian]

the football game is way older than the off-side rules, bookings, substitutions etc. Your view could be different if you supported a smaller team, the football game is for men so it should be a fair battle. I'm sick of it when the end of the game is decided by fat corrupt officials, their influence should be reduced by using technology. When the hawk eye was integrated into the tennis game, most fans and players were against it, they said that it would slow down the game, would waste time etc, but now they've realised that it's working and it makes the tennis even more spectacular.

 

[Antimilan]

Pippo Inzaghi supports such a move

Hhahahahh... Barca should make him an offer as soon as offsides are removed.

 

[blueduck]

It could be a good idea if they make it so the offside line isn't the half way line, but another line a bit closer to the goal.

Could be a bit complicated for some players though.

 

[Cule Angles]

the football game is way older than the off-side rules, bookings, substitutions etc. Your view could be different if you supported a smaller team, the football game is for men so it should be a fair battle. I'm sick of it when the end of the game is decided by fat corrupt officials, their influence should be reduced by using technology. When the hawk eye was integrated into the tennis game, most fans and players were against it, they said that it would slow down the game, would waste time etc, but now they've realised that it's working and it makes the tennis even more spectacular.

Smaller than Northampton Town? Anyway, I don't really understand what you're trying to say, you start off by stating some obvious facts about football history, then make a bizarre statement and continue on to some tangent about technology :sad: