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Business News/ Specials / World Cup 2014/  Ten things soccer must change before the next World Cup
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Ten things soccer must change before the next World Cup

Here is a list of 10 things that have to change in the sport before the next World Cup

Soccer fans react as they watch a Fifa World Cup quarter final match between USA and Belgium. This was the year when an emerging market really emerged onto the World Cup scene in earnest—the US team with a meaty, wealthy fan base in tow.Premium
Soccer fans react as they watch a Fifa World Cup quarter final match between USA and Belgium. This was the year when an emerging market really emerged onto the World Cup scene in earnest—the US team with a meaty, wealthy fan base in tow.

Wilmington: Nancy was right.

It certainly wasn’t a triumph on the field for Brazil, but all the hand-wringing about its readiness to hold the World Cup added up to nothing, or little, anyway, as our guest contributor suggested on the eve of the tournament.

There were some problems, even right up to the end, but not the failure some had anticipated in the last couple weeks leading up to the start.

Brazil has to be at least mollified by not having to watch their Argentinian nemeses celebrate the championship on Brazilian soil and by knowing that the team that crushed them went on to win it all.

Fifa has to be happy, not just because it all came off okay, or that scoring was up (at least in the first round), but because this was the year when, shall we say, an emerging market really emerged onto the World Cup scene in earnest—the US team with a meaty, wealthy fan base in tow.

Americans love the beautiful game now. Not enough to call it football, but enough that we’ll have clammy hands every four years (if we qualify) like the rest of the world. Also, the world has taken a shine to the Yanks and their style of play, and that’s good, because not a lot of people outside our borders like us very much these days. (Nouri al-Maliki doesn’t count.)

So, given America’s inexorable tendency toward hegemony, we’ve taken the liberty of forging a list of 10 things that have to change in the sport before the next World Cup. You might even agree with a couple of them.

10. Enough with the Mohawks.

9. And the flopping.

8. Allow timeouts so that we have time to grab a beer. We wouldn’t want to miss the goal.

7. Put microphones on referees and leave them on.

6. Shot clock.

5. The team with the most shots on goal wins a match that ends in a 0-0 tie. Notice we didn’t say draw. Or nil.

4. Yellow card warnings replaced by time in a penalty box. You feel shame, you know. And then you get free.

3. Goals scored by headers are worth two points.

2. All national anthems are sung by Ann Coulter.

1. Call it soccer. Everywhere.

Bloomberg

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Published: 15 Jul 2014, 10:23 AM IST
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