This business of foreign coaches in MLS -- why does it drag on? Have we not learned enough during the 20-plus years of MLS activity that these guys do not do particularly well here

Alongside the changes in the organization and wording that David Elleray and his team have brought to the revamped rule book go what I think of as "mood" changes -- the business of modernizing the rules, of making them "more accessible," etc. Tucked away in that category is a time-bomb of a phrase that makes its first appearance in Rule 5, which tells us that referees, in making their decisions, will factor in not only the rules but also the spirit of the game.

No doubt it was asking too much of ex-referee David Elleray and his colleagues to turn soccer's rulebook, almost overnight, into an easy-to-understand, organized, readable document.