The International Football Association Board (IFAB), the entity responsible for setting and amending football regulations, said it will evaluate which new rules could be effective from next year in international football.
Among these new rules, some stand out that brought football closer to rugby, a sport whose paths separated in 1823 when William Webb Ellis, a student at Rugby College, caught the ball in his hand “with good disobedience to the rules.” And on that day the sport was born. Rugby as an alternative to football.
Among these proposals are two that have been adopted by rugby for years, even centuries, and are being applied in developing its matches:
Including a temporary expulsion and prohibiting speaking with the referee except for the team captain. The latter is a custom still in force in rugby as a sign of players’ respect for the referee, whom all rugby players also address as “sir”.
Television match official
These rules are in addition to other standards that rugby has implemented in its sport for decades, and which football is gradually incorporating into its performance.
Rugby has used the TV Match Official, since 2001. It started as a tool that was only used for goal technique. Over time, its scope has been expanded to cover almost all game situations, with greater emphasis on protecting the physical safety of players.
Football copied this matter by incorporating the “VAR” technology, a technology that sparked more controversy due to the method of its use and its use protocol. In rugby, the importance of TMO is now influencing the development of the game as we saw in the recent World Cup.
The corridor and the three stages
In football, attempts have also been made to combine the lane and the three halves, but this time to no avail.
In Italy, they tried to make the two teams reach this stage at the end of the matches, as is the case in rugby matches.
First, the winning team creates a corridor for the defeated team, a corridor in which they thank the competitor for his effort and congratulate themselves on it, and immediately second, the defeated team does the same with the winner.
The Italian league tried to do this for a few seasons, but the initiative never came to fruition.
I’m sure most of you know this but for those that don’t. Football was essentially rugby until 1882 then new rules were put in place that gave each team three tries to advance the ball five yards.
That’s right Only 5 yards. How many RB would love that? Lol
I can think of a couple pic.twitter.com/o6f5mwjGBr— GotdemCards (@GotdemCards) January 2, 2023
As for the third half, it was a moment of brotherhood that the two teams experienced at the end of the match, sharing a few drinks and a meal after the rugby matches. It was another custom that football thought about implementing, but it did not bear fruit in the end either.
Microphone
Among the rules that football has also considered to be an imitation of rugby are the referee microphone rules, so that conversations with players and colleagues can be heard in the video referee’s room, in this case with TMO and calls in the rugby players’ dugouts. But it seems that neither the referees nor the footballers are up to the task.
