Alan Hardy in favour of proposed football rule changes

Notts County owner Alan Hardy has given his seal of approval to a number of changes being proposed by football's lawmaking body.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) are discussing a number of proposals to make the game quicker and more attractive for fans.

There are plenty of changes which will go up for discussion, with one of the more notable ones involving two halves of football at 30 minutes each, with the clock stopped when the ball is not in play.

Other suggestions include players being able to dribble from their own free kicks, penalties awarded to the opposition if a goalkeeper picks up a back pass, and "penalty goals" awarded if a defending player handles on the goal line.

"I think the changes that have been mooted are fabulous," Hardy is quoted as saying by the Nottingham Post. "I am all for progression and we need to give the fans excitement, value for money and more enjoyment.

"We have to eradicate diving, which is what they have done with retrospective action, and time wasting. Too often the ball gets kicked into row Z for no reason when it could just be tapped out of play. The ball then takes an eternity to come back. Anything we can do to reduce blatant time-wasting must be looked at.

"Everybody seems eager for the rule changes especially the self-taking free-kick which is just one way they are looking at speeding the game up. It's all about bringing pace into the game.

"For me, players being allowed to dribble straight from a free-kick is the most radical while I suspect most will say it's the 60-minute games. But I think the self-taking free-kick will speed it up and get the team in an offensive position much quicker than normal."

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