Reminds me of the old “change one rule about a sport to make it more entertaining” thing that was popular on AskReddit for a while.

My personal rule change is that the cooler for the ice rink gets turned off ~20 minutes before a hockey game starts, and it turns into a heater instead. Anyone who has ever tried to skate on wet/melting ice knows that you just stick to it like it’s made of clay. All other rules stay the same. As the game progresses, the ice will melt more and more, until the players are basically playing water polo, with like six inches of water on the concrete subfloor.

It would lead to a whistle and restart the same way you can't just sit on a ball to waste time. Not sure what the rule is called but yeah it's covered in the rules

Enders Game (of soccer)

I think this would probably be covered by unsporting behaviour or dangerous play.

There might be some stuff that would consider the ball out of play in this scenario too as no specific player has possession, but that might be a stretch

Pretty sure this will trigger offsides, unless they also trap an opposing team player and take them with them...

You just reinvented Rugby. Wait till you develop that into American Football.

I had a similar idea for american football.

1. Recruit an offensive line entirely of ex-sumo wrestlers
2. One holds the ball
3. The rest form a protective ring around them
4. They casually walk down the field
5. Anyone who attempts to tackle them is thrown unceremoniously aside like trash
6. Touchdown!

Thus is basically the same as the, now banned, flying wedge in rugby. The manouver aparently lead to twenty two fatalities, as well as inumerable injuries, in a single year.

Well if they keep the ball like that, they'd score together! That way the score would always be even! So we could also choose to leave the ball on the spot and just grab a nice pint in the pub.

Bold move, let's see how it plays out for 'em, Cotton.