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FIFA officials are planning to make important changes in the near future related to the offside rule and the application of the so-called "last opportunity" rule.
During an interview with journalists, the head of the FIFA "Task Force Football 2014" committee, Franz Beckenbauer, said: "We have been discussing how to simplify the offside rule. Currently, there are active and passive offside terms, but it is too complicated."
He continued: "The changes made so far have only made the understanding of the rule more difficult, and we see that not only fans, but also referees sometimes find it hard to grasp. Football is a simple game with simple rules, we need to go back to that. However, changes take time - in principle, we agreed on that, but it is crucial how precisely the new rule formulation will sound."
About other changes, the German said: "We also talked about the triple punishment, which is an important part of the game. Currently, if the last defender commits a foul in the penalty area, a penalty kick is awarded and a red card is shown.
The committee believes that the punishment is too harsh. We propose to give a penalty and a yellow card for a simple foul, and to only send off the player when the violation is very serious. The same would apply outside the penalty area."
The "Task Force Football 2014" committee is composed of famous former players such as Pele, Fernando Hierro, Christian Karembeu, Demetrio Albertini, Cafu, as well as referees Massimo Busacca, Peter Mikkelsen, and others.
