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If you can’t beat them….try and change the rules

24 September 2005 9 Comments

Maybe I’ve just heard Arsene Wenger complain too much the last few years, but I love this one.


‘In France, we had a system where you got a bonus point if you scored three goals in a game but it didn’t work at all as, even if you lost and scored three goals, it was the same as a draw,’ he revealed.

‘But what could happen is that the difference between goals scored and goals conceded gives you more points - for example, if you won 6-3 or 7-2.

‘If you won by three clear goals, you could get another point. That would encourage the team that was leading 2-0 or 3-0 to carry on going forward and the team that was behind not to concede any more.

‘It’s important that the team which takes the initiative wins. Your intention at the start has to be to try to win the game. You can still end up with a poor game, but a negative attitude is to say that getting a point would be fantastic.’


Chelsea have started the season well (ok, that’s an understatement) but have been attacked for what many call “Boring Football”. Funny how I’m talking about something the Boring Boring Arsenal manager said. ;)

Of course, this would help Arsenal at this point. If the bonus point were in effect now, they would only pick up one additional point…so would Boring Boring Chelsea.

Funny thing, didn’t the NASL have some bonus point system based on the number of goals you score? I’m not saying something like this wouldn’t work…it’s just ironic that something which was viewed as a silly Americanization of the sport is now getting some attention in England. Personally, it could be worth trying. I know if FIFA brought up the idea…MLS would be the first brownnoser to volunteer to try it.

Speaking of Americanization of the sport…Wenger goes on to talk about the salary cap idea they’ve been throwing around over there.

‘I don’t think it would work. It is incitement to cheat because you couldn’t control it. How can you stop someone with an international company from paying our grandfather who lives in Belarus £2million a year?’ he asked.

‘Secondly, unless you did it in every country in Europe, you would soon see all the best players moving out to a different country. If you want to entertain people, you want the best players in the best teams.

‘We have to accept that if Manchester United have six million supporters in the world, they will have a bigger income than Coventry because their success has decided that.

I have to agree there. Unless there’s a FIFA mandated cap, it’s just not going to work. Of course, the cap that MLS has in place in part explains why teams have difficulty playing teams in regional competition.

And then Wenger has to get one last jab in at Chelsea

‘However, the problem in English football with resources is that Chelsea’s resources are now not linked to their natural potential.’

Actually, that sounds like the plan the Championship chairmen proposed a couple of years ago when they set a voluntary cap at something like 15% below their income.

Oh, and what’s up with the former Big Guns Man U today? They are miles from where they were a few years ago. Drawing at home to Man City…losing at home to Blackburn!!! Just like the Ferrari F-1 team, all dynasties come to an end eventually…Arsenal’s has…and so will Chelsea’s.

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9 Comments »

  • gclark said:

    i really like the idea of extra points for > 3 goals over yr opponent. there’s probably not a chance in hell it’d ever happen, though.

  • Anonymous said:

    It could happen. I’m pretty sure that like the NHL, the english league has in the distant past had a a 2-1-0 points system and then tried to goose offense by raising points for a win to 3.

    -bulb

  • Eric PZ said:

    Back when I were a lad…It was 2-1-0. I was changed in the early 80’s if I remember correctly.

    Not sure if it will produce the desired effect though. After all, the reason they changed things to 3 pts for a win was to encourage teams to go for a win rather than settle for a draw.

    I think I’d rather see a switch back to 2 pts for a win and 3 for a win > than 3 goals.

  • kj said:

    Early 90s, I believe, first tried in one of the World Cups.

    I don’t want to see bonus points for blowouts. Bah.

  • Eric PZ said:

    I looked it up…the change was made at the start of the 80-81 season.

  • kj said:

    Wow, I sit corrected. I thought I remembered the change being a topic of discussion in the 90s, apparently that memory was a hallucination. ;)

    (After a quick lookup on the World Cup site, which I should have done earlier, it seems that the first WC played with three-point wins was 1986. I’m not even sure I knew the World Cup existed at that point. Now I’m really wondering what that “memory” of the change to three points is…)

  • daz said:

    i have a great idea, why don’t we give a team six points for a goal followed up by a penalty kick to add one more point. Also we can give three points if the ball hits the woodwork. In order to put more people in the stands can have pretty young girls in short skirts and tight sweaters dancing on the sidelines. that should do away with the boring jibes.

  • bulb said:

    How about bankshots off out of bounds boards and an extra ball in the last five minutes of each half. No wait that’s Preki and . . .

  • Eric PZ said:

    Doesn’t the indoor league have a 3-point line?

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