Restricting players to 60 games a year. Replacing penalty shootouts with eight-second run-ups. Introducing orange cards and sending players to sinbins for 10 minutes.

Former Milan and Netherlands forward Marco van Basten is using his role as technical director at Fifa to propose a series of changes to soccer to stir a debate.

Rather than using his job to meddle, Van Basten highlights the need to preserve soccer as the world's most popular sport.

“I have spoken to a lot of coaches and players,” Van Basten said. “We have to promote quality instead of quantity. We are playing too much football now. We have to defend players because they have to play so much and are not fresh or fit anymore.

“That's bad for the quality of the game. Even in June when the big tournaments are played players cannot perform to their maximum because now if players are really successful they can play up to 75 official games in the year. I think that's a bit too much and maybe they should stop at 55 or 60.”

Although Fifa will expand the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams from 2026, that won't burden players with any additional games. Instead, clubs sides would have to explore reducing the number of fixtures, potentially by reducing the number of lucrative friendly games played on tours.

“That's all for money but we have to think about football and not money,” said Van Basten, who was hired by Fifa in September. “For a lot of clubs that's not easy. But there is enough money in football. (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Lionel) Messi are earning so much money. If they are earning a little bit less but performing better that's good for football.”



Asked about countries like England or France no longer playing two cup competitions alongside their league fixtures, Van Basten said: “In my opinion that should be an interesting discussion.”

Van Basten knows some of radical changes he proposes could make traditionalists uneasy. But the 1992 Fifa World Player of the Year wants to ensure the global game has a say on its future.

“We should not just let the game be organised by those with the money,” he said from Fifa HQ in Zurich. “The big clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Real Madrid who have everything. In football you need opponents, competition because if you are alone with two or three clubs controlling everything you don't have any competition.”

I think it can be very interesting watching a game without offside. Football now is already looking a lot like handball with nine or ten defenders in front of the goal. Block quote caption

Rather than burdening players with an additional 30 minutes of action when cup games are level after 90 minutes, Van Basten is suggesting going straight to penalty shoot-outs, which could also be radically altered.

“Maybe the player should start 25 metres from goal and then you can dribble the goalkeeper or shoot early,” he said. “But you have to make a goal within eight seconds. It's more skill and less luck. It's maybe a bit more spectacular. It's more football but it's still nervous for the player.”

Scrapping the offside rule could make soccer more visually appealing, Van Basten advises. “I think it can be very interesting watching a game without offside. Football now is already looking a lot like handball with nine or ten defenders in front of the goal. It's difficult for the opposition to score a goal as it's very difficult to create something in the small pieces of space they give you. So if you play without offside you get more possibilities to score a goal.”

Van Basten enjoys a close working relationship with Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa (Getty)

“We are trying to help the game, to let the game develop in a good way,” Van Basten added. “We want to have a game which is honest, which is dynamic, a nice spectacle so we should try to do everything to help that process.”

Van Basten also suggested a middle ground between players being shown a yellow card and receiving a red card and then being removed for the rest of the game. “Maybe an orange card could be shown that sees a player go out of the game for 10 minutes for incidents that are not heavy enough for a red card.”

Such an instance could be when a player commits repeat fouls that didn't warrant yellow cards or obstruct opponents. Five misdemeanors could earn a player a place in a sin bin for 10 minutes.

Any changes to the laws of the game cannot be forced through by Van Basten, however close he is to Fifa's president Gianni Infantino. He said he wants to listen to the views of world before any proposals are taken to the game's law-making body, The International Football Association Board (Ifab). Fifa controls half of the eight votes on Ifab, with the other four retained by the British associations.