A late suggestion.
Did any of you watch any of the hockey games in the Commonwealth Games recently?
Many years ago I played hockey, but the game has changed for the better since then.
Part of the reason lies with a number of rule changes, which have made it an unrelentingly fast game.
I reckon one or two of these changes would benefit football similarly.
The equivalent of a throw-in or free kick gets taken immediately - the ball-boys have spare balls
(no joking please!). They place one on the touch line where the ball went out.
And in both of these set pieces the player is allowed to pass to him/herself, if you see what I mean.
So as soon as (say) Lennon picks himself up, he can take the free kick, and in effect continue with his run.
That would (a) speed the game up; and (b) drastically reduce "professional" fouls (they become pointless).
Imagine the advantage to the fouled player!
Equally, at a throw-in, the thrower simply drops the ball at his feet and carries on.
A slightly more debatable idea is also from hockey.
Maybe we should have a rule that alows a specialist striker (if we had one!)
to come on as a substitute for the corner..... they then have to go off again after that play is completed.
And why do we have to stop the play for an injured player?
They don't in rugby union, unless it's clearly a serious situation.
That'd be a good way to deal with diving!
By the way, we've borrowed rules from rugby before -
like the ten metres further back if you debate a decision excessively.
There you go. Just a few late additions to the ideas pool.
Cheers, chaps.