VAN BASTEN'S AMERICAN STYLE

Last updated : 08 October 2002 By editor

In an article for Dutch magazine Hard Gras van Basten outlines his plan to make the game faster and cleaner by using cameras and time outs.

From Telegraph:

"As everything is captured by the cameras, players who have committed fouls not seen by the referee should be given retrospective red or yellow cards straight after the match. The advantage: if players know this can happen, next time they will think three times before they misbehave (and yellow and red cards can also be cancelled retrospectively). The result: the game will become cleaner and more beautiful, something the football authorities have been aiming for for years, but never achieved." And the dive would disappear from the game.

The Hard Gras manifesto is stuffed with proposals, some of them familiar, others original, a few dubious and many obviously inspired by American sports. They include:

Playing two halves of 35 minutes of "real time". This would be tracked on the stadium clock, which would run only when the ball was in play. "It would be a heavenly thought finally to be rid of irritating time-wasting," Van Basten says.

Giving each coach a one-minute time-out per match. "Why should the man have to sit powerless by the sidelines, when he has spent all week working towards a certain tactic?" Van Basten believes that excitement would mount during a time-out, as the crowd tried to anticipate the changes the coach would make.

Limiting the top division in each country to 16 clubs, so that the best players have more rest and will be better prepared for World Cups.

Allowing each club a maximum of 24 players under contract, or perhaps 26 "Here too, a serious study should be conducted first," he says. "It’s madness that at one point Ajax had between 50 and 60 contracted players. The club’s wage bill is much too high, most players only get to train, and the lover of football is denied attractive players." If a club suffered an injury epidemic, it would just have to use youth players.

"Personal fouls", as in basketball. A player with four or five fouls against him would have to leave the field. Only the first two players thus punished could be substituted.

A special rule for corners, at present scenes of so much violence that "it could be judo or rugby". Van Basten argues: "You could award five penalties at every corner but, in practice, the referee usually gives a free kick against a forward who has also misbehaved."