A task force led by former German international Franz Beckenbauer has recommended changes in the offside rule and punishments for red cards. Beckenbauer said definitions of active and passive offside are too confusing, and sending off a player for a penalty-area offense that also mandates a penalty kick is too severe. Both proposals are likely to go before the next meeting of the IFAB, soccer's rule-making committee, in March.

"We have a situation with active and passive offside at the moment, I think we should stay away from complicated expressions, we should go back to making it more simple, not like it was at the beginning but somewhere in between," says Beckenbauer, who won a World Cup with West Germany in 1974 and coached West Germany to its triumph in 1990.

"In my time it was very simple, offside was offside, it didn't matter where the ball was. It's a nonsense, it's too complicated."

Beckenbauer believes only a deliberate handball on the goal line or a violent foul should be punished by a red card if a penalty kick is awarded, "If it's a simple foul in the penalty area, where you try to get the ball but are a second late, a penalty and yellow card are enough," he said. "If it's a violent foul, which would have been a red card anywhere on the field, then it this case its a penalty and a red card."