Yuriy Virt, a former goalkeeper of the Ukrainian national team and now a well-known Ukrainian coach, analysed possible changes to the football rules that have been announced recently.
Yuriy Wirth- The blue card has been talked about for a long time. A 10-minute suspension. Is this something modern football needs or is it not a good idea?
- A very difficult question, to be honest. Here we need to see how it will happen. Everything new needs to be tested. I don't think it will change anything significant in the game. This is not hockey. Although, if the referee is sent off for 10 minutes for aggression, then perhaps players will not interfere with the referees. Because now only a yellow card is punished for this. This innovation has the right to live. There was a lot of discussion about VAR at one time. They said that the dynamics of the game would be lost. But we see that it is now helping and justifying the risk. If these rules remain in place for a while, then we will see whether they can be introduced to the general public.
- Another possible change is offside. A player will be offside only if his whole body is in front of the last defender. Will this add dynamics to the game?
- Well, it's not bad. Attacking players will have an advantage. I think it will be better. Because there will be more attacks. It will not be on the verge of offside. Defending teams will have to get used to it. But the idea is good - I like it. There will be more sharpness. They won't consider whether the body was minimally blocked or not. You can get used to every rule. Time will pass and everything will be fine. It seems strange now. But they will get used to it.
- Clean time. Another likely change in football.
- No, we'll start moving to hockey. There is a normal number of minutes. This rule is generally strange. 90 minutes is perfect. We are already used to it. Otherwise, I think the matches will take a very long time. Just imagine, pure time. The players won't be in a hurry, the referees won't be pushing. A certain standard, everyone walks calmly because there is clean time. This process will be delayed. That's why it's very controversial.
- And now the seconds when the ball is in play and the goalkeeper has taken it into his hands will be even more precisely calculated. Previously, this was treated more leniently. It's also about dynamics.
- In principle, that's right. There are six seconds and that's it. Referees need to pay more attention to this and prevent goalkeepers from holding the ball in their hands. If the referees take it seriously, then the goalkeepers will give the ball away faster. It's not even an innovation, it's just a forgotten old thing. We need to remind them and start counting down the six seconds.
- A game without draws. There must be a winner in the match. That means there may be extra time and penalty shootouts. Just like in hockey, roughly.
- Will the Americans come up with this? Penalties, and then what? Shootouts? No, no. Who is inventing this, where are these rules? Footballers already say they have a lot of games, and then there will be a load on top of that. This is not true at all. What's the point? How many years have we played and had draws, and now there will be no draws? This is already turning into hockey. I don't support this at all.
Nazariy Shmigil
