The International Football Federations Thread

[The Lusophone]

Ew.

[DFF]

4 minutes ago, Lineker said:

The World Cup could be expanding to 48 teams.

Regardless of whether it's the correct number of teams, I'm not sure I'm fond of the idea of a team getting there to play a single game and be eliminated. Maybe a two-legged fixture would be better (could have one match in the day, and the other 3ish days later in an evening and vice/versa).

 

[Colly]

Sticker books are going to be fucking terrible.

[MDK]

4 hours ago, Colly said:

Sticker books are going to be fucking terrible.

Clearly this is the Panini/Merlin Stickerbook Cartel lobbying FIFA. Sepp was innocent after all, they were pulling the strings.

[Lineker]

North America became a stronger favorite to host an expanded World Cup in 2026 after Fifa essentially barred European countries from bidding on Friday.

[TCO]

I'm totally going if there's a World Cup in North America, US or Canada would be an amazing trip for the tournament. I'll be pushing 35 then though and may have grown up responsibilities.  

Fuck Draw Baldy and this 40 or 48 team tournament though, it ruined the Euros and it'll ruin the World Cup too. It makes the group stage effectively pointless.

[Lineker]

Infantino is saying that he hopes video replays will be used at Russia 2018.

Also, CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani has said that "the door is wide open" for a joint US/Canada/Mexico bid for the 2026 World Cup.

Global football federations are "overwhelmingly in favour" of plans for a 48-team World Cup, Fifa president Gianni Infantino says.

[Lineker]

Football's law-making body Ifab is to look at introducing sin-bins for yellow-card offences.

[DFF]

23 hours ago, Lineker said:

Football's law-making body Ifab is to look at introducing sin-bins for yellow-card offences.

Cue the "it'll ruin the game!" crowd.

I'm not sold either way, but it should definitely be trialled in some form at a professional level (league cup, maybe?). If I recall correctly, from reading elsewhere, the idea is for the sin bin to be 10 minutes long.

[Adam]

I don't like it personally, I think it's too drastic a move.

The idea of captains being the only ones allowed to speak to the referee unless spoken to, however, is something I do think should be brought in.

[DFF]

2 hours ago, Adam said:

I don't like it personally, I think it's too drastic a move.

The idea of captains being the only ones allowed to speak to the referee unless spoken to, however, is something I do think should be brought in.

Regarding the captains bit, I could have sworn that there used to be a rule back in t' day that did actually lay provision for the captain to be the only player to be able to converse with the referee. I like the idea though, seems to work well in rugby.

[Colly]

Bit more complicated in football mind, do you want your centre half sprinting upfield to contest a penalty call?

[EddieG]

In Amateur football in Holland, it's not a rule about the captains, but before kick-off I make it clear with them that only them or the managers can speak to me.

We also use the sin-bin rule, it's quite effective, there's the same amount of tackles but they all go in making sure they're clean.

[DFF]

3 hours ago, Colly said:

Bit more complicated in football mind, do you want your centre half sprinting upfield to contest a penalty call?

Technically, players shouldn't be 'contesting' anything with the official.  

[Lineker]

The use of video technology for game-changing incidents will be trialled in English football next season, almost certainly including the FA Cup from the third round, it has been confirmed, while next weekend’s FA Cup quarter-finals could feature a fourth substitution if they go to extra time.

A raft of new exploratory measures, including sin-bins, removing automatic yellow cards for players who give away penalty kicks and even a change in the order of penalty-taking in shootouts were announced at the annual general meeting of the International Football Association Board (Ifab), the game’s law-making body.

The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, was also present at Wembley and confirmed that he hopes video assistant referees (Vars) will also be in place at next year’s World Cup in Russia.

The meeting was chaired by the FA, whose chief executive, Martin Glenn, said of the possible fourth substitution in this season’s FA Cup: “With the Cup now adopting a straight knockout format, the introduction of a fourth substitute in extra time will bring extra intrigue and interest. From a technical point of view it will be interesting to see how managers use the chance to make an additional substitution in such high-profile games and the impact it has on the final result.”

Glenn added of the initiatives generally: “We see this as a sea change in our approach to the laws of the game. We are moving from a position of conservatism, of being nervous about any change of a desire to keep simplicity, to saying that technology is changing at a pace and that there is a need for experimentation in the game. Var was a major move. From being nervous we are now saying we’re going to do it. Across the world we are doing real testing, getting referees to work with video screens, to real-life match testing in the MLS. We’ve made terrific progress and the game will improve on back of it. Subject to our being fully prepared and ready you can expect to see Vars from the third round of the FA Cup in the coming season.”

Details of the Var plans remain unclear, with Glenn confirming that trials are still experimenting with a variety of models, including video referees working in a remote match centre. But there was general confidence that the schemes are working, with time taken to make decisions consistently reducing. The Vars will adjudicate on four criteria adjudged to have game-changing influence: red cards, goals, penalty kicks and cases of mistaken identity.

While not eliminating errors altogether, Infantino said, Vars would prove a real aid to referees. “Vars are positive because they will allow that the right decision is taken in a game-changing circumstance,” he said. “It prevents the referee from making a clear mistake in an occasion where he wouldn’t have seen it. It happens. It’s happened in the last 150 years. With the help of Var, such a decision can be corrected. But it will not look at every single decision.”

Meanwhile players will no longer in any circumstances receive a yellow card if they give away a penalty while making a genuine attempt to play the ball. Electronic devices will also be allowed in technical areas, for use when reviewing an incident that may have caused a player serious injury. Furthermore there will be trials that look to change the order in which penalties are taken in a shootout, with the conventional Team A, Team B order – ABAB – being replaced by ABBA.

The FA also announced it is to launch a six-figure inquiry into the potential link between heading a football and dementia in professional footballers.

Other decisions which Ifab has authorised will largely be implemented at the discretion of national FAs and at the grassroots level of the game. In leagues outside national top flights (eg from the Championship down) it will be possible to modify the number of substitutes allowed per game. Rolling, or “return” substitutions, can also be trialled at youth, grassroots and disability levels. The same will apply to sin-bin measures, removing a player from the field for a period of time in the event of them receiving a yellow card.

[Colly]

Wacky.

[Adam]

The only one of these ideas that I don't like is sin bins. No need for them in my opinion. Video refs are sorely needed but I would like maybe a trial of a challenge system similar to the NFL.

[Liam]

3 hours ago, Lineker said:

Furthermore there will be trials that look to change the order in which penalties are taken in a shootout, with the conventional Team A, Team B order – ABAB – being replaced by ABBA. 

As long as The Winner Takes It All still, can't argue too much with this one.

[Lineker]

Fifa has announced its proposed allocation of places for the 48-team 2026 World Cup and revealed that a six-nation play‑off could be used to determine the last two spots.

Sixteen direct slots are proposed for European teams at the expanded tournament, which is the quota Uefa had sought. The recommendations will be submitted to be approved by the Fifa council in May.

The plan proposed by Gianni Infantino, Fifa’s president, to expand the World Cup from 32 to 48 countries was backed unanimously by the council in January. The finals tournament, the format of which has been unchanged since 1998, is now set to feature 16 groups of three teams.

Fifa stated: “The recommendation will now be submitted for the ratification of the Fifa council, whose next meeting is scheduled for 9 May in Manama, Bahrain, two days prior to the 67th Fifa congress.”

Infantino and the presidents of each of the six confederations convened on Thursday at Fifa’s headquarters in Zurich and agreed on the proposed slot allocation.

As well as Europe’s quota being increased by three places to 16, it has been recommended that there are nine spots for teams from Africa, eight for Asia, six for South America, six for North and Central America and the Caribbean, and one for Oceania. The host country will still qualify automatically, with their place being taken from the quota of their confederation.

Fifa’s statement, outlining the plans, added: “In the event of co-hosting, the number of host countries to qualify automatically would be decided by the Fifa council.”

The proposed play-off will feature one team from each confederation with the exception of Uefa, plus one from the host nation’s confederation, with two of the teams being seeded based on the world rankings.

The unseeded teams will be involved in a two-match first round, with the two winners from that then facing a seeded team each for a World Cup berth. The play-off will be contested in the same country as the World Cup and used as a test event, and Fifa specified November 2025 as the likely month in which it would be played.

Aleksander Ceferin, the Uefa president, said in a statement that he was “satisfied” with the proposal. “We feel that Uefa will be fairly represented with a total of 16 national associations competing in the new format of the World Cup,” he said.

[Matt]

Anyone got a diagram?