While that may seem unfair to a player who has been scrupulously clean and has not made a single foul, how about this for making up the coach's mind: If an individual player has made five fouls, he gets a yellow card. That puts him on warning that the next time he commits a serious foul, he will be off anyway. If the coach has to make up his mind who should be ejected, he might be more likely to choose his dirtiest player.

FIFA says such an idea has been considered and rejected, never getting as far as the international board, soccer's rules-making panel.

"We have had proposals of this type, but they just don't add up," said spokesman Andreas Herren. He said it would put even more pressure on the referee to keep count of all the fouls, then decide whether the next one warrants a red card for a player.

The persistent foul play at this World Cup ¡ª one called every 2 1/2 minutes ¡ª may prompt soccer's governing bodies to look at the laws and clean up the game. But FIFA says the rules already are good enough. The players were warned long ago and don't seem to be listening.