Richard Epstein — whom I believe, if memory serves me, is quite persuasive when it comes to articulating the reasons why the common law has evolved towards greater and greater efficiency over time — is apparently unwilling to extend that line of reasoning to the rules of soccer. He’s got some suggestions for changing the rules to make “transform a flawed game.” It’s an interesting and little-remarked-upon phenomena surrounding the spread of soccerphilia in the U.S.; Americans, I have found, are remarkably free with their suggestions, once they get a taste of the beautiful game, for measures that should be taken to make it better. Every four years, I hear from friends how if they only made the goal bigger, or got rid of the offside rule, well, then it would really be fun to watch . . .
I don’t mean to be unfair to Prof. Epstein — perhaps his suggestions (two points for a goal from the run of play, 1 for a penalty kick goal; and a hockey-like system for penalties to replace the red card/yellow card scheme) come from long study and deep understanding of the game. But I suspect not. The proposals would quite fundamentally alter a game that — lest we forget — two or three billion people are currently in love with. Hmm. It takes a lot of confidence — or chutzpah — to come in and say: I have figured out a way to make this better.
[Thanks to ajr13 for the pointer]