SOCCER fans may not have noticed, but on Saturday night the International Football Association Board (IFAB) meets in Zurich, the home of FIFA.

IFAB’s charter (under the chairmanship of FIFA president Joseph Blatter) is to discuss and decide upon changes to the laws of the game.

Its intentions may be admirable, but IFAB moves with the speed of a glacier.

Saturday’s agenda, for instance, will finally approve the use of headscarves by female players.

This overturns the previously ridiculous ban which saw the Iranian team disqualified from an Olympic qualifier against Jordan in 2011.

Other items on the agenda include banning players from displaying slogans on their undergarments; the start and restart of play with a dropped ball; fouls and misconduct by handling the ball and the use of electronic performance and tracking systems, which have been used by AFL footballers for several years now. It should be a wow of a meeting.

IFAB has condoned two significant changes to the laws of the game in recent years: the use of goal-line technology to help decide whether the ball has completely crossed the line; and the amendment to the off-side rule.

It still has much work to do.

For all its global popularity, soccer has significant flaws which could be swiftly eradicated if IFAB was more pro-active and sensitive to the frustrations of the fans.

Criticisms of soccer elicit more response than any other topic, particularly if the critic has not played the game at the highest level.

However, among all the hysterical maniacs who contaminate the social media sites, there sometimes is a voice of reason.

I receive regular correspondence from a soccer fan whose love of the game is as intense as is his passion to see the game improve.

He tolerates my intolerance of the flaws of the round-ball game and his mild rebukes are in total contrast to others who fall out of their trees as they spew their vitriol.

He chooses to remain anonymous but his observations go straight to the heart of the biggest problems in soccer.

Number one is the amount of games – important games as well - that are decided by penalties awarded to a player who has taken a dive in the box (it’s an issue close to the hearts of all Socceroos fans).

Second, is the feigning of injury. Soccer will never be regarded as a man’s game until players stop collapsing as if they have been shot, and writhing in agony when there has been little or no contact.

It is astounding that in the 21st century with television cameras covering every angle, the referees are still conned by this form of cheating.

There are other minor frustrations. How is injury time determined and measured? Why are those agonisingly slow substitutions allowed to occur when a team is in the midst of a final momentum charge? Why does a player who has been stretchered off usually make a miraculous recovery as soon as the stretcher hits the sidelines? Why should I kick the ball away when a player is on the ground feigning injury?

Then there is the lack of incentive to win. Some of the best coaches in the world deliberately coach their teams not to lose, which often results in boring nil-all draws.

Hopefully we will see some recent innovations in the World Cup.

The use of a “vanishing” spray to mark the 10m distance after a foul should eliminate that other frustrating form of cheating when the wall continually creeps closer and closer to the ball. This should result in more scoring.

IFAB won’t change the soccer world in Zurich on Saturday night.

For a start, it has a major flaw in its structure with the four countries of Great Britain having half the votes on the board.

However, small steps eventually become vast distances. At least those first steps have been taken.