IFAB has announced major law changes for upcoming season

FIFA's new president, Gianni Infantino, had his hands full starting his new career as FIFA President. The Italian and his team had the 130th annual IFAB meeting yesterday with the subject of re-evaluation of the complete Laws of the Game. Following the meeting, some major law changes were announced including the DOGSO (Denying an Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity), Video Referee and an extra substitution in the extra time.

First and foremost, let's start with the most important change that would take effect on June 1st, including Euro 2016 and Copa America: DOGSO which results in a penalty kick. According to the new interpretation, if a player "genuinely" attempts to play the ball but fouls his opponent inside the penalty area, instead of a red card, the referees will now issue a yellow card. Which means, the referee will now have to assess the player's intent as well as his actions. However if the player doesn't attempt to play the ball, the decision would still be a red card and a penalty kick. Some of these actions include, pushing, pulling or holding. See the complete law change here.

Here is an example of DOGSO by pushing the opponent. Intent to play the ball does not apply here because the action is "pushing." (Better quality video can be found here)

While I understand the need to change and make the law in line with common sense, the whole purpose of this law alteration is to avoid the so called "triple punishment" for the offending player. However, one cannot help but imagine what happens if the referee "misjudges" the offending players intent and
1) gives a yellow card 
2) the attacking team misses the penalty kick 
3) the offending player scores a goal and match ends 1-0? 

Now, the so-called "triple punishment" is reversed and the offending team has gained a huge advantage, not to mention the offending player being able to play the next game as well. In my opinion, instead of putting all the workload and responsibility on the referees shoulder by avoiding the red card for the offense committed, IFAB should have decided to revoke the "next game suspension". This would have been more fair for the opposing team in the same game and the player would still be punished for DOGSO, which is more in line with the "spirit of the game".

Here is another example of DOGSO which likely explains what is going to happen beginning June 1st. (Better quality video can be found here)

The other major changes include adding a video referee to assess critical match incidents and provide the referee with instant feedback. There will be a 2 year trial period before this change is implemented in the laws of the game. Besides these major "improvements", IFAB has also decided to test a 4th substitution in extra time to see if there is team benefit to this. The last change is for the kick off. As of now, the ball has to move forward in Kick-off but beginning June 1st, the ball can move in all directions. I cannot help but think that this may completely change the way the matches start. We may no longer need two players on the ball as one player can just kick it back to his teammates to start the game.

All in all, there are major changes to laws of the game as we know and I am pretty sure that these will cause great heat among the football fans. Let's see how it shapes the world of football. See the full FIFA announcement here. What do you think about these new changes? Leave a comment here.