Perhaps, large-scale changes in football rules are waiting for us soon. At least FIFA does not exclude this for sure, testing several innovations at the tournament in the Netherlands. To do this, they even organized a special tournament-the Future of Football Cup (the Cup of Future football).

The matches involve youth teams – PSV, AZ, Brugge and RB Leipzig. Here are five new rules that are being tested at the tournament.

* Entering the ball out of the out with your feet.

* Draw free kicks alone, using dribbling.

* Unlimited number of substitutions.

* Temporary removal for 5 minutes after receiving a yellow card.

* Two halves of 30 minutes of pure time.

The Dutch are still kings in the updated football: on Thursday AZ defeated RB Leipzig (6:0) – be sure to watch this match and appreciate the unusual rules. And a few hours later, PSV won a spectacular victory over Brugge – 4:3.

At the tournament, goals are scored one by one (13 for two games), despite the shorter duration of the halves compared to the current rules – the matches were cut by thirty minutes. However, such a high performance can be explained in another way – no tournament tasks and a great mood help the young men to relax and score really a lot.

After the Future Football Cup, FIFA will analyze the impact of the tested rules and assess the possibility of submitting any of them for consideration by the International Council, which accepts their changes.

The reduction of matches was discussed back in 2017. The main supporter is the owner of “Napoli” De Laurentiis

In June 2017, IFAB (the International Council of Football Associations — an organization that regulates the rules of the game of football) was developing a new strategy called «Play Fair!», aimed at increasing entertainment.

• At that time, we also wanted to reduce the game time from 90 minutes of “dirty” time to 60 minutes of clean time – with stopwatch stops during pauses, as happens, for example, in hockey and basketball.
• The organization also expected to introduce a rule fixing a penalty kick instead of a free kick in cases when the goalkeeper picks up the ball in the penalty area after a pass with his foot from his player.

* The last of the ideas — if a player knocks the ball out of an empty goal with his hand, then it was proposed to count a goal.

Many football players and coaches have already expressed their positive attitude to changes in football rules, but the main supporter of these ideas is the president of Napoli Aurelio De Laurentiis.

• He wants to shorten the matches:

“We must look to the future, because young people are now immersed in video games. We’re sinking. In eight years, you will see that the children who were born now will not be interested in football. Already, esports championships attract a larger audience than Italian football. Previously, it was impossible to believe in this, but now it is already a reality, ” says the president of Napoli.

• Also requires two-minute timeouts to be entered:

“We should take an example from basketball and play two halves of 30 minutes each. You also need to enter two-minute timeouts. This will add piquancy to the plot, because the coach comes on stage. Tell me, what else is a coach needed for? They are not all like Carlo Ancelotti, who only talks to his players. There are also people like Maurizio Sarri. He draws game diagrams on a tablet, tries to explain something about the tactics and strategy of the game. People will be interested in watching this.”
Let’s see, maybe FIFA will also listen to this.