The away goals rule has been abolished for European games. Some thought it was a good idea, others regret the passing of one of European football’s great traditions.
But over the years many rules have come and gone, others have stayed around.
Planet Sport digs into some of the best and worst rule changes from recent years. Will FIFA ever stop tinkering?
The backpass rule
In 1992, the backpass rule was abolished. You wouldn’t have thought it was particularly difficult to grasp that you could no longer pass it back for the keeper to pick up, but it was intellectually beyond some players, who just couldn’t break the habit with hilarious consequences.
Time was you could waste a few minutes as the goalie rolled it out to the back four only for them to pass it back to him. Indeed Liverpool won many trophies doing exactly that once they were a goal up.
Instead, the back four now pass it aimlessly between themselves and the goalkeeper on the floor, which I’m sure we can agree is huge progress. Snark aside, it now looks weirdly transgressive for a keeper to pick up a back pass and the law will surely always remain as it made the game much better.
Red and yellow cards
It is hard to imagine football without the referee brandishing a card. However, they were only introduced for the 1970 World Cup having been invented by Ken Aston,…