Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

Yahoo!’s very own FIFA World Cup pundit, Lee Sharpe, has been asking questions on Answers over the last few days and we’ve had such a great response we thought we’d highlight some of your answers.

Seeing England lose another penalty shoot-out was painful for the whole of the nation. Lee asked for suggestions on an alternative method of settling draws without penalties so perhaps the agony can in future be avoided.   

Golden goals, replays, shoot-outs before the game and the most attempts on goal were some of the suggestions you offered.  However, Lee went for the answer from Paul S who suggested taking into account results and performances in previous performances.  This is especially feasible in FIFA World Cup games, and as Paul points out, it would mean “the third group match for teams that had already qualified would still be worth playing.”

We have seen some scandalous diving throughout this World Cup, as Thierry Henry ably demonstrated in the game against Spain.  Lee’s second question was how diving could be eliminated from football for good.  Many of you had similar thoughts to Lee on this one, namely that retrospective action and punishment are key to eradicating this cheating.  Lee chose Mark J’s comprehensive answer. 

Enforcing diving was a suggestion that came up several times in answering Lee’s final question: what one new rule would you add to improve football? Sin bins, video replays and most radically of all, removing the offside rule were some other suggestions. 

Lee went for oyster250′s suggestion to make it an offence to gesture to the referee, something that is far easier to implement.  

Thank you for your excellent answers to Lee’s questions.  We at Yahoo! have enjoyed reading them just as much as Lee has.

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team