Off Script - Souness: How football can change for the better
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How has technology changed football since the past?
So how big a shift have we seen in technology from when you played for Liverpool to now?
It's enormous. I mean, changes to the game, I think we'll see more and more changes to the game. You know, I suggested before Christmas we should tweak the offside rule. I think if we're starting with a clean piece of paper and you say we want to make a game entertaining, The offside rule is one we'd look very closely at right now. It doesn't work. The game is quicker. There's a lot more pressure on referees. And I think it's a common sense one. You go back to when I played, the goalkeepers could pick it up. That's made the game more active, if you like. I think... I watch a bit of rugby. I've been to a few of the Six Nations. And I look at these rugby players and I think, because they're all so athletic today,
I know people will be screaming at me when they're listening to this. I see two groups of extremely fit young men, walk and run like the wind, powerful, powerful men, and they basically cancel each other out until someone gets semi-dazed in a challenge and there's an opening somewhere. Because they can all cover the ground, they're making the game, in my opinion, a war of attrition.
What rule change does Graeme Souness suggest for football?
It's like, Where's the running football, the running rugby, the entertaining stuff you can remember from the past? And I think there's an argument to make football, instead of 10 out-of-field players, maybe nine out-of-field players. So I think we're in the same place, yeah. I mean, we've got to remember, you know, the connoisseurs and people of my generation, I've been to this again. It's not entertainment. I mean, the Premier League has never been more interesting to people throughout the world than it is today. It's watched everywhere. And rightly so, because it's such an exciting sport to watch.
Why is the offside rule considered problematic by Souness?
But it is entertainment. And I think in our game now, when you look at the way our players are, they can cancel each other out, because they can all run like the wind. They're all terrific athletes. And I think when you see a player get sent off, all of a sudden there's openings. We'll get a lot of time. Teams retreat and they have two banks of four in there. Difficult for the team who've got 11 players. But I think if you were to take an extra player of each team, make it nine outfield players, you'd see more attack in play and more openings. People are allowed to display their skills more and more goals. That would be a huge change, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it? I don't know. People will say that altering the rule where goalkeepers could pick it up from a pass back was an enormous change.
We've never looked back since then. I think when we introduced that... That was hugely beneficial, wasn't it, to attack in play? Yeah. Well, I think the offside rule I suggested and now sort of... Some of the footballing wizards that run our game have bought into it.
Arsene Wenger said a very similar thing, didn't he? Maybe he'd been listening.
No, he said exactly the same thing. He's a wizard. He's a professor.
Go on, Graham.
Recap. So basically, I come back to, if you were starting, say someone came up and invented a game of football today, and you were saying, right, we've got to make it attractive. What do 99% of people go to football for? They want to see goals. They want to see goals with action. They want to see goals. You know, they don't go to see two teams cancelling each other out. They don't go to watch a great centre-half, you know, defend these six yard box and go to see the flair players, you know, the badge kissers and ones who run to the crowd rather than their teammates. I don't know where this conversation could go.
It's not going where I expected it to. I've got a rugby question coming.
That's why I would, that's why, you know, people go to football and see goals. Start with a clean piece of paper. The one rule we would look at is offside rule. And I'm suggesting we change it to any part being offside to any part being onside. Now, defenders wouldn't like it. But I doubt you'd find a striker who didn't like it. When a striker's trying to keep himself onside, he automatically leans forward.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How has technology changed football since the past?
0:00–1:23
2
What rule change does Graeme Souness suggest for football?
1:23–2:02
3
Why is the offside rule considered problematic by Souness?
2:02–5:48
4
How would reducing outfield players impact the game?
5:48–6:22
5
What historical context does Souness provide about football's evolution?
6:22–6:48
6
How has the Premier League transformed over the years?
6:48–8:40
7
What challenges do current football managers face?
8:40–10:31
8
How does Souness view the future of football in light of recent changes?
10:31–31:32
Speakers
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