How to reduce fouling

Football, especially Premiership and Serie A football, has a problem: players can foul as many times as they like with no fixed penalty. It’s at the referee’s discretion to levy a yellow card for consistent fouling during a game and up to the media to flag players for dirty playing tendencies. It's not enough, but what else can be done?

To solve this I’d suggest a novel solution: give out a mandatory yellow card for a player’s first 4 fouls and then a red card if a player fouls 3 more times during the 90 minutes, then allow an extra foul (or deduct a foul) for extra time. To avoid too many red cards, wipe the slate clean after the first “aggressive” yellow which didn’t come as a result of a harsh tackle, etc, and give the player a maximum of 3 fouls before being sent off.

What this would do is begin taking action against the “professional” foul. Fouling is destroying football and its time that we got serious about it. Stopping play damages the flow of the game. There are too many stoppages of play to the detriment of open football.

What would be the best benefit of my suggestion? More goals. Players would have to be more careful about their tackles AND referees more careful with their whistles. Too often referees are at fault for calling touch fouls because of exaggerated reactions by the offensive player. It’s so pathetic to watch a millionaire flail on the pitch from a brush on his shorts. Enough. Referee's too often give the attacker the call because there is no reason not to give the benefit of the doubt.

More goals would come as a result of defenders having fewer tools at their disposal to stop the attacker. Defenders already have enough leeway. Football is one of the hardest sports in the world to score in. I’d like to see more real chances created thru open play resulting in a goal rather than free kicks. Lets reign in the fouling and start seeing 4-3 scores becoming the norm rather than the exception.