Which football laws would you change? Ask former PL referee Foy your questions

Penalties: One and done - no more rebounds?

Imagine when a penalty is saved or hits the woodwork and bounces back into play that the game is stopped and the ball given to the goalkeeper.

Pierluigi Collina - perhaps the most famous football referee of all time, and now head of Fifa's referees' committee - is already on board.

Collina argues that if the attacking team have squandered such a big chance of scoring, why should they be allowed a second or even third opportunity?

In recent campaigns an average of just under three goals a season have been scored in such circumstances, so is it really that important?

And would we want to risk losing some of the game's most memorable moments?

Think Chloe Kelly's 119th-minute goal for England against Italy in the semi-final of Euro 2025. Or Liverpool's Xabi Alonso netting at the second attempt against AC Milan in their dramatic comeback in the second half of the 2005 Champions League final. Or Harry Kane's winning goal for England against Denmark at Euro 2020.

Penalties: One and done? Click thumbs up to scrap the rule allowing players to score from rebounds after missed penalties, or thumbs down to keep rebounds...

'Something has to be done about timekeeping'

Dale Johnson

Football issues correspondent

Fifa in effect introduced an independent timekeeper at the World Cup, with the VAR team working out added time and taking it out of the hands of the referee. But there's a room full of VARs at the World Cup, so there's the resources to do it.

Additionally, one issue with a stopped clock is that unless you're in a ground with a scoreboard, the fans would have no idea how long there is left to play.

But more and more time is being lost to stoppages like goal kicks, throw-ins and corner kicks. All three are at their highest this season. So something has to be done about it.

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Chris Foy Q&A on stop clocks

Ask former Premier League referee Chris Foy your question - click Get Involved at the top of this page

A lot of you have had the same idea - football should use a rugby-style 'stop clock' when the ball isn't in play and get rid of injury time to remove time wasting.

Anthony and Alex say it will stop the debates over how many additional minutes should be played while Gary added that changing match duration to 60 minutes, would eliminate the problem 'in an instant'.

Here's what Chris said:

"Time is always a big talking point in football. Something could be adopted to address this, for example, an independent timekeeper as we have in other sports such as basketball.

"The referee calls time off and on when play restarts. The fans can then also see the clock counting down which I'm sure will add to the excitement."

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Get Involved - Ask former PL referee Chris Foy your questions

Click 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say

We've also been getting some fantastic ideas on how you would like to reinvent the game.

And now it's your chance to take it a step further as you can ask former Premier League referee Chris Foy your questions regarding rules new and old and what needs changing in the sport.

He is with us right now to answer all your questions and also give his take on your proposals.

So, click on the 'Get Involved' tab at the top of this page to send in your questions and suggestions.

Recap: Panel's ideas & how you have responded

A panel of former players, match officials and BBC Sport presenters have been asked how they would reinvent football by making changes to the laws of the game.

We have brought you some of their key ideas this morning as a way of getting your juices flowing, as we ask you to get in touch with your own potential improvements.

Here is a recap of the ideas we've looked at, as well as how you have responded to each post in our unscientific thumbs poll:

VAR offsides: Lose the microscopic tech? A big thumbs up for this one

Stop the clock when the ball goes out? Thumbs up have it by a ratio of 5:1...and rising!

Penalties: Make the punishment fit the crime? Initial thoughts look to be a thumbs down on complicating what constitutes a penalty

Handball: Make it like it used to be? Very little push-back on this notion

VAR: Bring in a challenge system? A tentative thumbs up

Bring in bonus points - and punish 0-0 draws? Early indication is you want the points system to remain the same - three for a win, one for a draw and nothing for a defeat

Bring in bonus points - and punish 0-0 draws?

Arsene Wenger, when he was manager of Arsenal, often spoke about giving teams extra points to award attacking play.

It never caught on widely, though he did get his way in the pre-season Emirates Cup in the summer of 2009. There, clubs were awarded three points for a win plus an extra point for every goal scored.

Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha is thinking along the same lines.

"I like the idea of a bonus point for every time you score two goals," he said. "Instead of just getting three points, you score two goals and that's four points. You score four goals, that's five points.

"From an attacking perspective, you can really start to climb the ladder. You'll see more goals in the league, which means fans would be more entertained."

There's another option.

Former Barcelona and Manchester United defender Gerard Pique flipped the logic earlier this year by suggesting teams should get zero points if a match ends 0-0.

Pique believes boring games would explode into life for the final 20 minutes because a 0-0 draw would give teams as many points as a 1-0 defeat.

The counterpoint is there could be times it would be more advantageous to take the same points as the opposition - even if that's zero - rather than take a risk and be three worse off.

Bring in bonus points - and punish 0-0 draws? Click thumbs up if you think these ideas have merit, thumbs down if you don't...

VAR: Bring in a challenge system?

Will VAR ever be accepted? Perhaps not in its current form, so how about adapting it to a challenge system?

You might not have heard of Fifa's Football Video Support (FVS), which is being trialled in several leagues including Liga F - the top flight of the women's game in Spain.

Under FVS, a coach is given two challenges per game. When they are activated, the on-field referee goes to the monitor to watch the incident back and make a decision. There isn't a VAR poring over the footage, just a replay operator to show the incident to the referee.

Sound good? It has its merits. The assumption is there will be better final outcomes, though trials have shown that's not always the case, and mistakes are still made by a referee at the screen.

VAR: Bring in a challenge system? Thumbs up for yes, down for no...

Handball: Make it like it used to be?

If you asked a football fan to define handball a decade ago, you'd get a simple answer, like: "Ball to hand isn't a penalty."

Put that question to them today, and they probably wouldn't know where to start.

Some of the confusion has come from a big rewrite of the lawbook in 2019, when the considerations for handball went from just three lines to an entire page.

Referees were served with a whole menu of reasons to give handball.

The aim was to give a "clearer and more consistent definition and interpretation". What it brought was consistently more penalties, because there were many more reasons to give one.

The micro-definition of handball has left people guessing, so how about getting back to basics? Let the referee make handball decisions how they used to - on instinct.

Handball: Make it like used to be? Should we return to the simpler definition of handball and trust the referee's instinct? Thumbs up for yes, down for no...

Penalties: Make the punishment fit the crime?

Think here about that relatively innocuous trip as an attacker is moving away from goal - or a handball decision when there's no immediate likelihood of a goal.

The result? A penalty - and a very high chance of a goal (historically, Opta says, 78%) when no such opportunity existed.

Is it fair, for example, that Brentford were given such a high chance of scoring when Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk tapped the boot of Dango Ouattara right on the edge of the 18-yard area last month?

Is a shot from 12 yards with only the goalkeeper to beat a just punishment?

We already define an obvious goalscoring opportunity for a red card, so we'd only have to tweak this to any kind of scoring chance for a penalty.

If it's a foul with no clear attacking impact, why not a free-kick?

Could this incentivise defenders to bring opponents down in areas where a penalty would not be the result? Any deliberate or cynical act would still result in a spot-kick.

Penalties: Make the punishment fit the crime? Thumbs up for yes, down for no...

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