5 rule changes that have revolutionised modern football

Football is a sport that has been played for centuries now, and has gone through changes in ruling over the years to keep up with the times.

Here are the five biggest changes in rules in recent decades that have affected modern football and the way that it is played now.

1. Three points for a win

From the beginnings of football right up to the late 1980s, a win used to be worth two points, while a draw was one. The logic was simple. Two teams competed against each other, with the winner taking all. In case of a draw, the winnings would be split between the two participants.

However, with time, football’s administrators saw a slow drop in matchday audiences as teams became more defensive in the second halves of matches, sometimes making tacit agreements with each other and playing out games in the hope of a draw and one point gained.

And why wouldn’t they? Knowing that the threat of losing one point was far greater than the prospect of gaining another, many teams weren’t keen on playing for the win, with former Stoke manager Alan Durban once saying after a stale 0-0 draw that if viewers wanted entertainment, they could go and watch clowns.

Thereafter, in the 1980s, a decision was made by the FA to award an extra point for every win, so as to increase the value of a victory over settling for a draw. Thus, as the importance of a win overweighed that of a draw, more teams started playing a more attacking brand of football when scores were level, with studies indicating that the number of draws reduced and total goals in the second half saw a sharp rise after the ruling was adopted in some European leagues.

2. The offside rule

Arrigo Sacchi

The offside is arguably the most debated rule in football today, but has been in place since the 19th century. However, it has seen multiple changes thereafter, one of the most important being the amendment in 1990.

During the 80s, the offside ruling stated that a single player standing in an offside position when the ball was played past the last defender meant that the whole team was offside, regardless of whether the player was involved in the play or not.

Under Arrigo Sacchi, AC Milan, a club struggling when the Italian manager took over, saw great success between 1987 and 1990, winning one Serie A, two European Cups, two European Supercups and two Intercontinental Cups.

One of Sacchi’s key tactics in defence was his ‘offside trap’, which saw the side’s entire backline run upfield when the ball was kicked forward, which in turn saw the opposition team’s attackers fall behind the Milan defence before one of them reached the ball. Therefore, by virtue of having at least one attacking player in an offside position, the attacking team would be called offside time and again when playing against the Italian side.

In case the attacking team still managed to remain onside, then sweeper Franco Baresi would rush back while the rest of the team moved forward.

This glitch in the offside rule was used to the fullest by Milan before the ruling was changed, allowing players not involved in the play to stand in an offside if they did not interfere in the attack.

3. The back-pass rule

The back-pass rule was introduced in 1992 to discourage time-wasting and defensive play, this after the 1990 World Cup saw many boring matches, where teams would continually pass the ball back to the goalkeeper, who in turn would hold the ball with his hands.

The tactic became an easy way to waste time and release pressure if the opposition was pressing high up the field and giving the backline little time to play the ball out of defence. Keepers would even drop the ball and dribble it around for a while before picking it up again.

Seeing that something had to be done, FIFA announced a new rule that would not allow deliberate backpasses made by the feet to be handled by the goalkeeper.

Initially, this ruling drew a lot of flak, while forgetful goalkeepers would still pick up a backpass instead of kicking it out, in turn resulting in a lot of indirect freekicks inside the box. However, as the benefits of the rule were slowly seen, many appreciated the change that made it much tougher for a team to waste time with the ball in possession.

4. The last round of World Cup group stage games being played at the same time

During the 1982 World Cup’s group stages, Algeria surprised many by beating Chile and title favourites West Germany in two of their three matches in what was their first participation in the competition, to stay in contention for qualification to the next round.

However, since the last games of each group during the group stages of a World Cup competition were not played simultaneously, West Germany and Austria knew before they faced each other that a 1-0 or a 2-0 win for the Germans would be enough to take both teams through.

Both teams already knew what was to be done. After West Germany took a 1-0 lead in 10 minutes, neither team tried to score another goal, instead running down time to make sure that both countries would go safely through to the next round at Algeria’s expense.

The media and fans cried foul, and though Germany and Austria escaped without any punishment, FIFA decided to ensure that the last matches of each group would be played simultaneously during a tournament so that the teams playing earlier would not suffer the same fate Algeria did.

The whole event came to be known as ‘The Disgrace of Gijon’.

5. Cap on number of foreign players, and sugar daddies

Let us consider these facts:

- When Arsenal played Napoli in the Champions League earlier this month, the Gunners’ starting XI included only one Englishman in Kieran Gibbs.

- The big five leagues in Europe spent a total of over £1.9 billion over the summer transfer window.

In 1993, UEFA made one of the biggest decisions in its history. Until then, every club under them had restrictions on how many foreign players they could field in one game, thereby limiting expenditure on players and instead forcing teams to focus on youth development and talent from inside the country.

However, they then decided to remove such limitations and let clubs choose how many foreigners they fielded, a decision that has led to clubs investing heavily in foreign talent, thereby even impeding the development of players from certain countries as a result of lesser opportunities and more competition.

Additionally, they invited the world’s billionaires into the footballing world, as affluent businessmen started investing in clubs, buying their majority shares with the knowledge that they would have the license to spend as much as they pleased and the ability to scour for talent from across the globe.

Now, many of Europe’s superpowers like Manchester City, Chelsea, and Paris Saint-Germain are bankrolled by billionaires, while club football in itself has become a money game, where heavy investments have proved to provide handsome returns. A far cry from the time when clubs had to pick and choose who they bought, given the restrictions that were placed on them.