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Napoli Owner De Laurentiis Pitches 25-Minute Halves and a Sin-Bin to Speed Up Football

He says shorter, stricter games would keep children from tuning out.

Overview

  • De Laurentiis, whose plans were reported Tuesday by Goal.com, talkSPORT and Football Italia, set out a redesign of match rules to hold the attention of younger viewers.
  • He proposes cutting each half from 45 minutes to 25, aiming for 50 minutes of actual playing time tracked on the clock rather than relying on added time.
  • He would scrap yellow and red cards in favor of a sin-bin, with five minutes out for a yellow and 20 minutes for a red, and he wants players who feign injury sent off temporarily.
  • He calls for a looser offside law to stop goals being ruled out for millimetres and to raise scoring so matches feel more “spectacular.”
  • The comments, drawn from an interview with The Athletic in Beverly Hills, drew ridicule on British radio and remain proposals only, with no sign of adoption or trials by rule-makers.