Van Basten wants no offside experiment

Jan 20, 2017 06:00 am

Time penalties instead of yellow cards, no offside rule and more substitutions: legendary ex-striker Marco van Basten, Fifa's technical director, has a radical vision of football's future.

"We must keep looking for ways to improve the game, to make it more honest, more dynamic, more interesting, so that what we offer is attractive enough," the 52-year-old Dutchman told German magazine Sport Bild.

"There are lots of variations which need to be tested in the coming years."

Van Basten, who became Fifa's technical director last October, has a string of revolutionary suggestions, some of which he hopes could be in place for the expanded 48-team World Cup in 2026 - and some of which would be hugely controversial.

He wants to see football copy rugby union, where only the captain can directly address the referee and a yellow card means a player is temporarily sent off.

If he gets his way, the Dutchman would also dump the offside rule. "They abolished the offside rule in field hockey and there were no problems," van Basten said. - AFP