'Not enough goals' - Blatter gets the laws debate going again

Jul 6, 2006, 15:26 GMT

Berlin - With two matches to go and the average number of goals a low 2.27 per match, FIFA President Joseph Blatter is again encouraging any ideas that will bring more goals to football.

'Football isn't that bad - but there are too few goals,' he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 'When there are too few goals, it puts the public off. The essence of the game is goals.'

To this end, the head of the sport's world governing body said he would be encouraging fresh ideas, and possible changes, on the game's laws at the forthcoming traditional World Cup post-mortem meeting.

'We'll be organising a major symposium of the 32 World Cup national coaches, the referees, medical staff and FIFA technical study groups,' he said.

'The idea is to listen to what they have to say, and what can be done to make football more attractive.'

Blatter said he was not keen on the idea of reducing teams from 11 to 10, but it would be among ideas discussed. 'I'm letting the specialists talk about the possibilities.'

If there are no goals in the match for third place and the final, the average number of goals per match will drop below the negative record of the 1990 World Cup in Italy - 2.21 goals per match.

When that happened 16 years ago, FIFA's reaction was to introduce the backpass rule limiting goalkeepers' handling of the ball - a move generally welcomed as speeding up and spicing up the game.

Former Brazil star Socrates had already made the 10-man proposal before the World Cup began in an effort to reduce the growing influence of super-fit players and to increase the influence of the creative talents like Zinedine Zidane or Brazilian youngster Robinho.

Other law change proposals have included increasing the size of goals, allowing goalkeepers to handle the ball only in their goal areas, or tinkering with the offside law to attackers' advantage.

Blatter himself is looking to sides turning away from defensive to attacking play, as at the European Championships in Portugal two years ago, when it produced such positive headlines.

'When play is open there's enough room for 11 players, but there's not enough room with 11 defenders,' he said - adding that, if he had his way, there would be no law change: 'The game should stay as it is.'

Any change will, however, be slow in coming, as shown by the chip ball, which was originally to have been introduced at this World Cup but has now been shelved.

New laws are usually tried out in junior competitions. The final word is with the FIFA committee comprising delegates from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland plus four more FIFA delegates.