How to improve football…
Recently there have been some changes to football games. Do you think the changes are good or bad?
Can you explain the offside rule?
In England football fans believe you’re only a real football fan if you understand the offside rule
Recently the Dutch FA announced they might stop using the offside rule in amateur games. Why do you think they are considering this?
In Amateur leagues, players from the teams are linesmen for the games. Fights often occur when players disagree with decisions.
Last Season 1,864 matches were stopped because of violent incidents. The number has increased by 58% over a five-year period.
Do you think this was a good idea?
Have you ever seen people fighting during a sports game?
This year the Champions League changed it’s format. There used to be 8 groups of 4 teams.
This year, for the first time there is one league with 36 teams. Each team plays 8 other teams (4 home and 4 away games)
Teams finishing…
1st-8th = automatically join the knockout stage
9th-24th = play 2 matches (home and away)
25th-36th = knocked out
Compared to the current system all teams will play 2 more games in the groups. The teams finishing between 9th and 24th will play 2 more games on top of that.
Why do you think UEFA wanted to change the system?
UEFA believes…
More games means more money for teams and UEFA
One more team from each of the big 4 leagues can join
The previous group stage wasn’t so popular with viewers so there will be more matches between the “big” teams (that have the most fans)
There will be fewer unimportant matches (the previous group stage had games at the end that didn’t matter)
Each team will try harder in the games because there is only one match against each team
Do you think the changes are good? How do teams feel?
Cons:
Players are worried that they’ll have to play 4 more games in the season which increases the risk of injury
Maybe if a team wins 3 games, they’ll be able to qualify for the knockouts so the remaining games are unimportant
It isn’t fair that each team plays different opponents
FIFA is worried about players time-wasting during the game.
In a 90 minute game, how many minutes is the ball in play (e.g. not off the field or waiting for a free kick)?
In the 2022 season the average time of the ball in play was 54:22 minutes which is around 60% of the game.
How can players time waste?
pretend to be fouled and injured
take a long time to take a free kick or throw in
make a substitution and the player walks very slowly off the field
players argue with the referee for a long time
kick the ball away so the other team can’t take a free kick quickly
In the 2023 season FIFA told referees to add the exact time lost in goal celebrations, substitutions or injuries to the stoppage time. In previous seasons, the policy was to choose a rough period of time.
World Cup
Russia (2018)
Qatar (2022)
Why did Fifa do this?
Fifa believed players would waste less time (pretending to be injured, taking free kicks), if they knew that the EXACT TIME would be added on at the end
They thought fans would be happy because they could watch longer football games
Do you think this was a good idea?
How did this affect the ...
number of goals?
the smaller teams?
players?
TV stations?
fans?
The number of goals increased by about 10% however usually it was the bigger teams (with better substitutes) that scored them so it was a disadvantage for smaller teams
The players still continued to waste time in the same way.
The players complained about being more tired and having more injuries
The TV stations had less time to do their half time shows and post-match shows. They couldn’t predict when the games would finish
Many fans (especially younger ones) didn’t like the longer games
What should FIFA have done to reduce time wasting instead?
give yellow cards to players who spent too long taking throw ins or free kicks
make players leave the field to receive treatment if they’re injured and not let them on for 1 minute when they’re better (they’ve started doing this)
Tunnel Club (Manchester City)
The “Tunnel Club” is a VIP ticket offered ONLY by Manchester City.
Price: £975.00 - £1,170.00 (180,000 - 216,000 yen)
Match Seats: Luxurious VIP seats in the lower tier, behind the home dugout
Player Appearance: Watch the first team arrive as they walk through the Tunnel Club
Dining: 11 course meal offered before and after the match
Drinks: Complimentary beers, house wines and soft drink
Presentations: by a staff member (coach or analyst)
Tour of the stadium: given by former player
What do you think the fans will see that so exciting?
How do the players feel?
Is this a good idea?
Fortuna Dusseldorf is a Bundesliga 2 team in Germany.
Their stadium has a capacity of 54,000 and it averages 33,000 fans per game.
In 2023 they offered 3 matches for free. Fans can apply for tickets online. 1,000 tickets are given to local charities and 500 go to local youth clubs.
The team partnered with new sponsors (Hewlett Packard, Targobank) to make up for the loss of revenue
The tickets are for smaller games which are less popular anyway
Do you think this is a good idea?
They announced that last season…
total ticket income increased by 28 percent despite the 3 games for free
season ticket sales rose by 19 percent
members jumped by 20 percent
This year they’ll offer 4 games for free.
This is the history of Juventus’ logo. Which version do you prefer?
Why do you think they chose the current logo?
