FIFA World Cup 2010: Five Changes FIFA Should Make To The World Cup

Every four years, the World Cup shows us that the world is in love with soccer.

It also shows us something that people love even more than the game, the chance to tell everyone they know how much of an idiot their team's coach and players are, and how much better of a job someone else could do.

We get a lot of complaining but that's just fine and expected in soccer, but I do feel that FIFA should take action to better the play for the future.

Here are my five ideas FIFA should find a way to implement before Brazil 2014.

And for those who feel FIFA really doesn't make "big" changes there was once were no yellow or red cards, no substitutions and of course no 4th ref telling us how much time is left in injury time.

Honorable Mention

Vuvuzelas

Fine, let them be in South Africa since it's a regional item, but PLEASE for the love of god ban them from any future FIFA competition.

The MLB's Florida Marlins had a "vuvuzela" give away night a few days ago and now all the kids around my house have these things going off with no mercy.

Instant Replay

Everyone was angry when France made the cup due to Henry's handball. Instant replay is something to be used and that was a reason why it is needed.

However it should be unlike anything we see with the NFL replay system. There should be no review of any foul, any offsides call or any other play that a coach would be allowed to raise a challenge.

FIFA should have the 4th, even 5th ref, handle replays on certain calls from his chair on the sideline so that the on field ref would not have to go under a hood somewhere.

Calls should be limited to goal situations only. For example, with Henry, it was clear he handled the ball prior to the goal and thus if the ref saw that in a replay he would disallow it.

The time allowed for review should never extend the situation on the field. With any goal situation where this may come into play has a small window of time where nothing is going on and players are rushing the ref in an effort to get him to change his mind.

Same situation with Luis Fabiano's second goal versus Ivory Coast. I must stress that the idea a person can denote absolute intention or not during a handball is unreal. We can all assume he meant to or not during the replay but that should not be a factor in the call.

Linesmen

Basically the quote on this picture is very obvious. A linesman is required to make a call that requires him to look at two different places at once to determine off sides, all without forgetting he too is required to call a foul he has seen.

There's space for two more linesman on the pitch and FIFA should use it wisely. With regards to the fact that if there are two linesmen on one half of the field, who would you be required to agree with as the ref, the one who called an offsides or the one who didn't?

That's why I believe the best method would be that only one would be allowed to call off sides at all during the match and the extra linesman would be able to assist calls on fouls and possession when neither linesman or ref is anywhere near.

Offsides

It's not easy for the linesman to be correct 100% of the time and it really never happens with much success during the games.

I agree with the notion of the rule and am not trying to ask for a change of it, however we now have technology that can assist with calls based on only cm of a difference regarding a call that may have been made from 50 yards out.

For years major marathons have used RFID Tags (radio frequency ID) on shoes to avoid a problem with runners taking shortcuts.

The problem is that there's not much room to put one of these on soccer boots, but FIFA and Nike (or other sporting goods companies) can surely come together to develop a viable option for the game. Some sort of a signal detection is required of course and would also have to be developed together.

If this was the case, linesmen would still be allowed to call offside and the RFID system would be there for backup or when a flag stays down and the system signals offside.

Weather

This is something that FIFA doesn't have to lift a finger to solve. The World Cup is always run in the summer except on several occasions, when based in the Southern Hemisphere, the competition is actually running during the winter (locally.

No one watching from other places would complain if the Cup was run during the host's summer. In fact we are all asking for it.

The cup in South Africa showed us all these fans all under layers of clothing and actually put a small damper on viewers world wide. Do you expect people to dress like these women in the picture when its zero degrees??

Cry Babies

This is the worst one in my opinion. Despite getting better over the years it's still not out of the game.

I have several items that I believe fit this criteria and will just list them below.

Any player demanding a card from the ref because of a foul should be given a yellow card. As soon as people fall a teammate or coach can be seen mimicking the gesture a ref makes while giving a card.

Sliding tackles from behind must be a red card. This is actually in the books but refs are not even giving yellow cards most times.

The only player who should be able to enter into a discussion with the ref is the captain, unless the player is address by ref first.

Every penalty we see ten players rush towards the ref/linesman with their hands behind their backs as if that makes a difference. How many times have you seen a decision get changed because the teams players ambush the ref? Exactly Zero.

Refs are erratic and like I mentioned don't always follow the rules to a T. Don't call something a yellow card worthy foul and then 20 minutes later let one that was exactly alike go unchecked. This is one of the reasons that most of the complaining actually takes place.