Revolution in football rules. The Dutch are on their way

Pavel Nedvěd is clear. “Football needs to change,” he said recently in a special podcast, Water Carriers. Its protagonists are now discussing in a new episode why football needs change. And especially what they might look like.

Changes must come on and off the field, in the rules and in the presentation of football, so that it remains an attractive sport for the young generation.

Let’s start with those rules, because they are already being worked on. For example, the Dutch have tested really drastic adjustments in the last five years. If only some of them were put into operation, one could talk boldly about the football revolution. So what can change?

“According to the Dutch proposal, the cars will no longer be thrown in, but played off the ground. The referee will replace the fouling player for five minutes behind the sideline and the coaches will have an unlimited number of substitutions at their disposal, ”the Water Carriers acquaint themselves with a series of Dutch proposals.

And that’s not the end of it. Quite the contrary. The Dutch plan to introduce these changes to the world of professional football from the 2023/2024 season. It would start with the second league there, ie a relatively highly watched competition in which a number of talented fighters develop.

In the podcast, the Trio of Carriers passionately discusses what the new arrangements would bring to the football landscape. What would benefit football? And what must not happen at any cost? According to the Carriers, will football as we know it today perish? And would it be to the benefit of the cause? Listen to the whole episode and think with them about the future of football.

There was a consensus in the studio that a football fan was increasingly prone to distractions. He will not keep concentrating for the whole 90 minutes of the match.

“The spectator stops paying attention to the game itself. I perceive it more and more, not only at the level of the youngest generation, but across the entire age spectrum. When I watch football with friends, there is always someone who takes a mobile phone out of their pocket within a few minutes and goes through social networks. This will bring down an avalanche of inattention. I’m no exception. If I’m not right in the stadium, I tend to have my problems with concentration, “says Karel Tvaroh, a professional football defender.

“Football, of course, cannot be blamed for human distraction. Nevertheless, he should try to captivate the viewer and not rely on his famous history. Young people are leaving the traditional media, using new platforms and football has to go after them. See how interest in Formula 1 has literally kicked the ‘Netflix’ documentary Drive to Survive. The series approaching the daily events around the pilots became an instant hit and attracted millions of new fans to the screens, “notes Luděk Mádl, a football expert in the News List.

The key is to take the football fan experience to an even higher level. In this respect, they will try to meet the audience’s peculiar journey in Manchester City, where they are preparing the first virtual stadium together with SONY.

“This is a unique project that aims to build a virtual stand for Etihad Stadium, basically a faithful copy of the current stadium, whose galleries could be filled with any number of fans. In the virtual world, there would probably be no concept of the maximum possible capacity, “reports Tvaroh.

Wondering how such an arena could work? Play the latest Water Carriers and learn more.

As the Czech Republic’s memorable victory over the Netherlands in 2004 celebrated its 18th anniversary, the new episode Water Carriers also offers a jump into the lake of memories. The water carriers remember the most memorable international matches the Czech or Czechoslovak national team has ever played. You will learn a lot about the almost forgotten power of Czechoslovak football in the 1980s.

As part of the betting window with Fortuna, the Nosič trio tried to guess which Czech team could manage to break into the “cup Europe”. Will it be Slavia, Sparta, Plzeň or Slovácko? And what did Luděk Mádl observe while watching the stream of the FACR General Meeting?

Listen to the whole episode in the player at the beginning of the article, on Podcasty.cz or in your favorite podcast application.