Dave Portnoy calls for soccer to add power plays to fix ‘viewing experience’

The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup is underway, with Canada, Mexico, and the United States serving as the host nations. The event, which is still in the group stage, has delivered on all counts so far, for most people.

However, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who claims that he has “World Cup Fever,” still feels that the viewing experience on television could be improved, and he offered some drastic changes to the sport on Monday’s episode of Wake Up Barstool.

“I don’t think any of these are great viewing experiences from an American fan,” Portnoy said of the World Cup gamses.

“I have a couple suggestions,” he added. “Make the nets about 100 times bigger, all right? Have power plays, have different things. I got a lot of things that I think soccer purists wouldn’t exactly love hearing me say, I don’t think once you get the ball past midcourt or that center line, you can go backwards. You throw them out when you’re going backwards. You go forward and you kick it all the way backwards.

Dave Portnoy has a couple suggestions to fix soccer

“I am pro-soccer right now, I’m in World Cup fever… but I have a couple suggestions, make the nets 100x bigger, have power plays… I got a lot of things that I think soccer purists wouldn’t exactly love hearing me say…” -… pic.twitter.com/he19ksPbdJ

— Wake Up Barstool (@wakeupbarstool) June 22, 2026

“It’s like backcourt, half-court violation, you lose the ball. So I have a couple viewing tips that I think could make this game a little more American. Maybe you get one full tackle per, per half where you don’t have this, you can just tackle the guy. A couple things to make the viewing experience a little better, but I’ll get into that after the World Cup because I have World Cup fever.”

As far-fetched as Portnoy’s suggestions are, the MLS adopting some of his changes just might be the thing to increase the sport’s popularity stateside.