implementing new rules for the draw in soccer

Without a doubt, implementing new rules for the draw in soccer

Will push teams for attacking play and will result in more goals scored per match.

By: Elawam Said Ahmed

 

Without a doubt, football is the most popular game. It has occupied this prestigious position after it attracted millions of fans around the globe. What attracts the fans is its charm, the strength of its competitions, the enthusiasm of its players in their performance, and their strong desire to win. This game is played in many different parts of the world because of its easy access to equipment. All you need is a ball and some markings for the goals to play. Even in poor areas they can practice football barefooted. Other sports need expensive equipment to play.

The law of the game is developed throughout history to suit the needs of the game. Many changes have taken place to the laws of the game since its inception. The number of players, size of the pitch, size of the ball, offside laws and more. One of the biggest changes to the game was introduced by Jimmy Hill in 1981. He changed the number of the points awarded for a win from 2 points to 3 points and it took the world about 13 years to adapt to this change. The impact of this change was great for the game. It encouraged more attacking football to win and to gain 3 points instead of the 2 points previously. The game benefited from this change. It became more exciting and fans expected to see more goals. This pushes teams harder to take chances, score, and secure the 3 points.

Fans become elated when goals are scored in the game. This is seen by the supporters cheering, dancing, and singing, not to mention the players running towards fans to join in on the party. This suggests that it is indeed all about scoring goals.

My question is, can the law push team to score goals or at least to push them to do their best to score goals in every game they play? How many times have we seen teams coming to a match only to sit back in numbers to secure a point? Defending in football is an art form and not only does it give weaker teams every right to defend themselves when they play against a stronger team, but it also wants to motivate the stronger team to do their best to break that lockage. I think a change to the law can do that if they can implement new rules for a draw. The worst football match is a match that ends in 0/0. No talking points come out, except if one of the teams loses a penalty, miss clear chances, or a goalkeeper makes exceptionally good clears.

These two scenarios below will explain why we need to implement new rules for a draw.

a) a match ended in a draw (0/0) – negative

b) a match ended in a draw (3/3) _ positive

In these two cases, the rules give 1 point to each team, even though the first match ends goalless while in the second match 6 goals are scored.

1- Is this fair?

2- Which match entertained the fans the most?

3- Which match encourages the fans to come and watch the next match?

4- Why doesn’t the law make the teams take responsibility for not scoring?

5- How can the rules encourage attacking play?

To understand these points let us take the two largest football clubs in England: Liverpool and Manchester City for example.

I will analyse what the two managers have to say after the match that was played in the premier league on 10/11/2019, where Liverpool won the match 3/1 over Manchester city.

Pep Guardiola told the BBC after the match, “I think it was a fantastic game of football because both teams wanted to attack, both teams wanted to try, and both teams wanted to score a goal. Football is a fascinating game.”

Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp said, “Do you know how many people watched the game? They will watch it again, I think. Yes, it is brilliant; I think it was clear that all the games against Manchester City were like this apart from the game last year. The home game where both teams were more controlled, that’s just how it is.”

According to Guardiola, both teams came to win the match and focused on attacking play to achieve victory because the two teams were competing for the title. A win will take the winner one step closer towards the title,(6 points match), so both teams will not settle for one point, (a draw). Even Manchester City lost the match. Guardiola was proud of his team and their positivity. They carried out attacking plays and the fans were entertained. The fact that this match was beneficiary for the Premier League, for the game as a whole and its growth was why Guardiola said football was a fascinating game. The question becomes how we can push teams to be positive all the time and encourage them to go to the match to win and score more goals. Implementing new rules can dramatically reduce the number of the matches ending in a negative draw (0/0) and makes both teams feel they lost.

According to Jurgen Klopp, the manager of Liverpool; the world watched the match in huge numbers because supporters around the world were expecting this, a phenomenal football match, a promising game that was positive and had the right attitude, that was enjoyable to watch, and expected goals and attacking plays because all matches against Manchester City were like this. Klopp explained the presence of the large numbers of supporters with these reasons.  The economy of the football industry will benefit from these kinds of matches because of the attention garnered through broadcasting, the media, YouTube highlights, and advertising.

Klopp mentioned a significant point, about the home game last year against Manchester City. He said both teams were controlled. Guess what the score in that match was? 0/0. Yes, the match ended without a goal being scored! Klopp admitted that that match was the worse match in Liverpool/ Manchester City history. I believe what he meant to say was that both teams came to the match to settle a point from a draw 0/0. He was saying that we will sit back behind the ball in numbers as the priority to prevent Manchester City from scoring a goal, and we will attack when we have clear/safe chance. In other words, we did not take risks and Manchester City did not take risks either. This is what a controlled game means. Both teams were happy with one point according to their position on the league table, and both teams thought one point is better than nothing. What if we put pressure on them by changing the points gained in the positive draw and negative draw? Let them feel that a negative draw is less rewarding than a positive draw. Let the teams come to a match with one option; you must score. Ensuring the match ends in 0/0 (negative draw) is much easier than ensuring it to end in 1/1, 2/2, etc. (positive draw) this will open up all matches.

Here we can see what both managers said after the match was mentioned by Mr Klopp:

Liverpool 0: Manchester City 0:Premier League 07/10/2018

In their interview with Sky Sport, the interviewer asked Guardiola the following question:

What is your reflection on the game, the performance, and the result?

Pep answered, “Why should we comment on the result? The result was 0/0.”

He went on to say, “We played so well. If you want to analyse the result that’s fine, it could have been better, but in the end, the managers need to analyse what we have done and what we need to do in the future. That is the most important thing."

Pep agreed that if the result was 0/0 there is nothing to talk about and this is the reality. The only way to ensure that this does not happen and to make it more difficult is by valuing the positive draw more than the negative draw. They should never have the same number of points.

Jurgen Klopp said, “It was a very intense game, two very well organised sides sticking to the plan. It started off brilliant from the first second; we gave them a lot of problems. We had fantastic situations but could not finish, unfortunately. We still stayed in the game for over 90 minutes."

“Two very well organised sides sticking to the plan.” If we analyse what Mr Klopp said, it gives me the impression that both managers won and benefited and the fans around the world lost. They were deprived of the most beautiful and exciting part of the game.

Positive Draw (PD): When a football match ends in equal goals for both Teams: 1/1, 2/2, 3/3 etc.

Negative Draw (ND): When a football match ends without a goal: (0/0)

Pleasure and enjoyment in football is not complete without goals being scored. This is the highest point of enjoyment in a match for the players and the fans. Fans will go home very disappointed when a match results in no goals being scored for either side. A match with more goals scored encourages them to attend the next match. The impact of football and sports in the economy is significant and there is a lot of evidence suggesting the relationship between sports and economic growth. Fans are the primary source of generating funds to the football industry. However, to keep them loyal to the game, the fans need to be entertained. This occurs when they watch more goals being scored, or they at least know that it is likely for teams to score. 

The suggestion of a match point:

 

Win	Positive draw	Negative draw	Lose
3 points	1.5 points Or 2 points	1 point	0 point

 

This will make a difference as it will give teams one option; they must score. This will mean more entertainment for the fans. It will motivate the teams to win, and the game will attract more supporters resulting in the growth of the game and the trade.

I have applied these rules to the Premier League tables for the last 10 years and I have found significant changes in the title and relegation.

Premier League 2011/2012

	Team	P	PD	ND	Points	New points
1	Manchester City	38	4	1	89	93
2	Manchester United	38	5	0	89	94
3	Arsenal	38	4	3	70	74
4	Tottenham	38	6	3	69	75
5	Newcastle	38	5	3	65	70
6	Chelsea	38	5	4	64	69
7	Everton	38	10	1	56	66
8	Liverpool	38	7	3	52	59
9	Fulham	38	6	4	52	58
10	West Brom	38	5	3	47	52
11	Swansea	38	6	5	47	53
12	Norwich	38	10	1	47	57
13	Sunderland	38	7	5	45	52
14	Stoke	38	9	3	45	54
15	Wigan	38	7	3	43	50
16	Aston Villa	38	10	7	38	48
17	QPR	38	6	1	37	43
18	Bolton	38	4	1	36	40
19	Blackburn	38	7	0	31	38
20	Wolves	38	7	3	25	32

 

-          United should have won the league.

-          There were some changes in the middle of the table.

-          United & Blackburn are the only teams that scored or were scored against in all their matches.

-          92 matches ended in draw, 27 of them without a single goal being scored.

Conclusion:

Scoring goals is the largest form of enjoyment in football. Changing the draw rules in football will affect the game positively by pushing teams to score goals, knowing that a goalless draw will be rewarded with fewer points than a positive draw.