For better or for worse, football is an ever-changing sport and although some of the changes have sparked controversy, there doesn’t seem to be an indication that any rules will be changing.
Now, whether you like the changes or not, it is fascinating each year to see what they can do in football to try to change things. Some of the biggest changes over the last decade or so have caused a huge divide in the sport and the constant rule changing is causing the sport and the changes to have constant negative reactions.
When we mention the law changes it is obvious that we most likely think of one and I’m sure a lot of people reading this have had their day ruined by a goal being given or disallowed, whether you support the team who won or you bet on the team who lost.
Automated Offsides
I have decided to start with the newest and work back to the oldest and the newest major change is the introduction of automated offsides. This is actually a change that I like quite a bit, and when we saw it in use at the Euros and the Champions League, we saw how quickly and seamlessly the decisions were being made.
Now for strikers who are the favourites for the Champions League Top Scorer Odds and very rarely offside, like Erling Haaland, this will be a fine change. However, for strikers like Darwin Nunez, who may not know the offside rule, this will put his chances of winning the Golden Boot even lower and make his betting odds incredibly high. It could be worth a punt to place a bet on players who have high offsides and hope they don’t ruin too many attacks, but the safe pick is to go with Haaland.
VAR
Now for the most controversial change of the last 30 years in football, VAR came in and shook up the world of football proving to really split the public opinion. Controversially, I don’t mind VAR, I think the time it takes is ridiculous and I think they are unsure of the rules themselves but referees are humans and can make mistakes, so allowing them another chance to rectify an error is a welcome change.
With automated offsides being added, I think we will see VAR decisions in the Premier League be a lot quicker and this is where the majority of controversial decisions happen. Already, four games into the season, we are seeing controversial choices made by VAR and the referees and this needs to be fixed quickly. English referees aren’t good enough and considering it is the biggest league in the world, we need to poach the best refs from around the world to fix the issues we have.
These controversies don’t just impact that one fixture, they impact the season as a whole for those teams. Let’s say in multiple games you have questionable VAR decisions that are the cause of you dropping points, but without those decisions, you’d have finished higher or potentially won a competition, that’s when it can be detrimental. This won’t just affect the team, who are clearly the main victims in that scenario. But it can also affect the viewers, the punters who are making game and season predictions. Using competitive betting odds from the top betting sites to try and win money! They get impacted as well, there’s a lot to take into consideration here. No wonder why many professionals want it scrapped from the game.
Goal Line Technology
Spawning back in 2011 and being fully approved by 2012, goal line tech is another welcome change and one that makes the most sense for football as a whole. Thinking back to the Lampard goal against Germany that didn’t count even though the ball was clearly over the line, goal-line tech is needed.
It is a simple fix and like automated offside, it is quick and effective in what it does, not needing a whole host of people making a decision as it does it all itself. This will be a law that is never changed and shouldn’t be touched at all because it is already a perfect law.
Back Pass
In 1992 the backpass was abolished and changed football forever. Before 1992 players could easily pass the ball back to the goalkeeper who could prick the ball up and boot it or hold it and waste time. This change makes sense and like I said, has changed football forever. It meant goalkeepers needed to slowly get better with their feet and now goalkeepers are almost seen as another outfit player.
Obviously, this came later with Cruyff and then Guardiola really changing football forever and introducing tiki-taka, which couldn’t break down Inter in the Champions League last night deposit the bookies having Man City as clear favourites! Either way, looking at the backpass law and the abolishment of it, it is arguably the best and most important change for the way football has grown over the last 30 years.
