Reforming Football

Soccer, I mean. American football is a lost cause.

More than a few fans seem to agree with me that games like the Euro Final are mostly boring, irritating, and frequently unjust. The first few minutes, when France attacked pell mell, and the final overtime, when Portugal scored, were exciting, although the referee's disastrous miscall on the Portugal handball did help set up their goal.

The problem is that the odds are stacked against the offense, and a mediocre team like Portugal can sit back protecting the goal with all hands, and with a little luck, let the better team exhaust itself trying to attack.

The following suggestion was offered to me: prohibit two or three designated forwards from defending in their own half - or maybe 1/3. This would allow teams to create a majority attack at the risk of a strong counter. With luck, this should double or triple scoring.

In overtime, soccer should take a page from hockey, and play the overtimes with reduced sides of maybe seven or eight each.

Finally, get rid of the silly substitution rule and allow many more substitutions.

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