Could use it for say the professional fouls (deliberate Handballs, repeated fouling and last man fouls ) and keep the yellow/reds for various levels of reckless /dangerous play 2 footed tackles high tackles elbows etc. Would be interesting as the current leap from a yellow to a 2nd yellow (converting to a red) can be either very harsh - 2nd yellow awarded for nothing (Pienaar v QPR last season) or not awarded at all even when probably warranted.
However I think better revisions would be to look at Review panels for some situations and looking at the penalty area.
Use review panels for Simulation (perhaps some other offences) - the ref puts the situation on report and lets play continue instead of carding. Review panel then looks at the footage from all angles and decides a ban based on criteria. This is already used in a variety of sports and already for reviewing the ban for red cards and other infractions.
Penalty area is a good idea but a penalty should be given for illegally stopping someone from a legitimate attempt at goal. what is now happening is you get a massive variation on what sort of fouls will get called if they are in a penalty area. Holding at set pieces by defenders rarely gets called compared to similar offences by the attacking side however an attacker with back to goal almost on the touch line can often get a penalty when clipped by a defender.
I would argue that my holding a striker at a set piece is probably more likely to stop a goal attempt than the ankle clip on someone who almost certainly is not going to shoot.
Also players can shoot from longer distances more reliably now than when the penalty area was introduced.
keep the penalty spot for fouls that stop legitimate goal opportunities regardless where they are committed (last man fouls etc) and use red cards more for the dangerous play wherever committed.
Remove the penalty area and come up with an alternate system for fouls awarded close to goal - indirect frees or move back to another marking line (say a dotted semicircle ) to allow directs from a point inline with where the foul was committed relative to the goal.
Just some ideas
