GIVE a former professional – especially one of the greats of a game – a desk job and a fancy title and you can be sure he will make a point of coming up with ideas to cause a stir.

Marco van Basten, the former Ajax, Milan and Netherlands striker, and now technical director at FIFA, has done just that with his proposals that include scrapping offside, replacing extra-time and penalty shootouts with ice-hockey style contests with eight-second run-ups, and sin-bins to replace yellow cards.

More substitutions, stopping the clock every time the ball goes out of play in the last 10 minutes and allowing only the captains to speak to the referee.

As you might guess, there has been a certain amount of opposition to the van Basten plan, but none better expressed than the one from Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp who quipped: “I thought most of the teams already play against us without the offside rule.

“This wonderful game does not need rule changes. He can invent another game – that’s no problem.”

Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger, widely thought of as the deepest thinker in the game – he has regular been referred to as The Professor – was also against scrapping offside.

“Offside is what makes teams good together – it is an intelligent rule.”

It is also one that causes more arguments than any other every week, but we will let that pass.

So, if Klopp, Wenger and co are in the majority it looks like a case of back to the drawing board for Marco van Basten, proving that it takes more than a new desk and a title to change the world of football.

THE same can be said for former England captain Nigel Melville, the director of professional rugby at Twickenham.

The one-time Wakefield and Otley scrum half has decided that there are far too many players standing idle at the weekend, so he has suggested a formal link-up between Arriva Premiership clubs and the Greene King IPA Championship, so that any who surplus to requirements for the 'big' club can get a game with their Championship partner.

Now, far be it from me to advise the RFU how to run their business but, being a man of Leeds, Mr Melville will probably have noticed that the Rugby Football League have an almost identical system in place.

The RFL don’t have a fancy name for it like his own suggested Player Development Contract (PDC). It is known simply as Dual Registration. But one thing we can pass on for his benefit. It is one of the most divisive systems ever devised by the game of rugby league and it benefits nobody in the long-term.

Simply put – it doesn’t work.

IT has been said many times before and this won’t be the last time you hear it, but… where would snooker be without Ronnie O’Sullivan?

Brilliant, mercurial, a troubled genius –he has been called all of these things but he is also the Grand Master of the Green Baize after his 10-7 win over Joe Perry in front of a 2,000 crowd at London’s Alexandra Palace.

It was a record seventh Masters title and it is not often we can claim to have seen the greatest-ever, whatever your sport. But, let’s face it, without The Rocket, snooker would become just another TV parlour game.

BARROW AFC came in for a lot of 'keyboarders’ stick' when they were beaten by bottom-of-the-league York City on Saturday.

That was the same day that Premier League title chasers Liverpool were beaten at home... by bottom-of-the-league Swansea City.

Don’t know exactly what that tells us, except that these things happen, so perhaps the grumblers should get a grip on reality.

Barrow are still just one win away from a play-off place and could put things right when they take on leaders and FA Cup giant-killers Lincoln City tonight.

Now, wouldn’t that be a good way to fill a few forum boxes?