The following is the agenda for the March 9 meeting of the International Board in Rio de Janeiro. Any decision on allowing Major League Soccer to experiment with larger goals in 1996 would have to be made at this meeting, at which eight representatives have votes (four from FIFA and one from each of the four British associations).
Presentation of text: regarding technical points of quality control of soccer balls.
Substitutions: FIFA proposal to use three subs from list of seven in official competitions and up to seven subs in all other matches.
Advantage rule: England proposal that if referee applies the advantage rule and the anticipated advantage doesn’t happen, the referee can still immediately punish the original offense.
Linesmen: Scotland proposal to formally allow for the lineman’s role in signaling offside or other incidents that take place behind referee’s back and Northern Ireland proposal to place a linesman on the goalline to signal whether the ball has crossed the line during penalty shootouts.
Fouls and misconducts: England proposal to rewrite Law 12 to better define the various offenses.
Role of fourth official: Scotland proposal to make the fourth official more responsible for recording incidents occurring during matches.
Discussion: guidelines for increasing actual playing time (instructions to referees regarding speedier substitutions and need for more spare balls around the field, etc.), safer portable goals (recommendations regarding design and fixation), reinforcement of principle that a referee’s decision on points of fact are irrefutable and current and future experiments (no experiments are specifically mentioned).