Professional foul Football League, recommended in 1982 that any offence that denies the attacking player an obvious scoring opportunity should be deemed "serious foul play" by English referees and would therefore receive a red card, in order to deter offenders. The subcommittee produced several suggestions, including making the professional foul a mandatory red card offence, which they submitted to the IFAB for consideration. All the suggestions were defeated. The rule was finally fixed into the Laws of the Game by IFAB in 1990 and referees were instructed by FIFA for the 1990 World Cup to send off players for a professional foul.
Professional foul constitutes an obvious goalscoring opportunity is left to the discretion of the referee; however, several factors are given to help referees decide. These are: the distance between the offence and the goal, the likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball, the direction of the play, the location and number of defenders. The offence is informally known as DOGSO, an acronym for "Denial of an Obvious Goal-Scoring Opportunity". Even if a foul unambiguously prevents a goal, the Laws of football have no provision for awarding the score (there is no equivalent of the penalty try seen in rugby). Thus,