A revolutionary reform proposal for football, a match lasting only 50 minutes

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has put forward a series of "revolutionary" reform proposals for football, amid concerns that the sport risks losing appeal with younger audiences.

The 76-year-old executive recently experienced a notable period of success as Napoli won the Serie A title in the 2022-23 season, ending a 33-year drought for the championship.

However, this season the Southern Italian club is unlikely to secure another major trophy, as they currently stand second in Serie A, trailing Inter Milan by nine points with only six rounds remaining, and have already been eliminated from both the Coppa Italia and the Champions League.

Concerned about football's future, De Laurentiis has proposed a series of controversial ideas to retain younger viewers. Speaking to The Athletic, his first suggestion is to shorten match duration from 90 minutes to 50 minutes, divided into two halves of 25 minutes, prioritizing actual playing time over the current stoppage-time system.

He believes this would make matches faster, more exciting, and reduce time-wasting tactics. "I would reduce each half from 45 minutes to 25 minutes. And players cannot stay on the ground, feigning injury to waste time. No, they would have to leave the field," he emphasized.

His second proposal involves completely eliminating yellow and red cards, replacing them with a "sin-bin" system similar to rugby. Accordingly, offending players would be temporarily suspended for a few minutes and then allowed to return.

Specifically, a player committing an offense equivalent to a yellow card would leave the field for 5 minutes, while an offense equivalent to a red card would result in the team losing that player for 20 minutes. "I would not use yellow or red cards. I would say: you go out for 5 minutes, or 20 minutes," De Laurentiis stated.

His final idea aims to modify the offside rule to encourage attacking play and increase goal counts. The Napoli president argues that disallowing goals due to marginal offside positions diminishes football's appeal.

He wants forwards to have more "margin" to be considered not offside when advancing toward the goal. "There are too few goals, matches are not sufficiently exciting. To score more, you must change the rules. You cannot cancel a goal just because of a few millimeters… the offside rule needs significant change," he reasoned.

De Laurentiis concludes that younger audiences are football's "gold," and if they are not satisfied, the sport's appeal will decline. He believes that without reform, football will not maintain the level of interest it has enjoyed over the past 100 years.