Referees will award corners, not indirect free-kicks, if goalkeepers try to waste time by holding onto the ball for more than eight seconds from next season.
The change is among several tweaks to the Laws of the Game that were decided at the 139th annual general meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in Belfast.
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Law 12.2 currently says goalkeepers can only hold onto the ball for six seconds but it has not been properly applied for years, which is why it has become such an effective, and frustrating, way to waste time.
But IFAB has been trialling the change in youth leagues in England and Italy and Malta’s top flight this season, with referees using a visual five-second countdown to indicate to goalkeepers that they are on the clock. They have been doing this by raising an arm and then bringing it down to their side like the second hand on a clock.
According to IFAB, four corners have been awarded in the more than 400 games that were part of the trial but referees used the visual warning in almost every game.
Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of FIFA’s referees committee, told reporters in Belfast the trials on the eight-second rule in Italy had been hugely successful.
In 80 games in Italy’s under-20 Primavera 1 league, goalkeepers had possession of the ball a total of 856 times and released it within five seconds in more than three quarters of those situations.
“This is much better than what we’ve been seeing in Serie A and the other big leagues, where goalkeepers can have it for 20 seconds or more,” said Collina, who also revealed that he had never given an indirect free-kick for time-wasting by a goalkeeper during his illustrious career.
The 65-year-old Italian also explained that the clock will start when the goalkeeper is deemed to have “effective possession” of the ball, which is intended to stop them from catching the ball and then theatrically falling to the ground to steal a few more seconds before standing up again.
The change will come into effect worldwide from the start of July but will be used for all of this summer’s Club World Cup, which starts in Miami on 14 June.
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While this was the most significant change to emerge from the meeting, this year’s AGM was unusually productive.
Any competition that wants to apply the “only the captain” approach which several leagues, including the Premier League, have been using this season, will now be able to do so. This means global football will become like rugby union in that only team captains will be able to speak to referees about decisions.
In another rugby-themed move, competitions will also now have the option for referees to explain VAR decisions via stadiums’ public address systems, as was first trialled at the Women’s World Cup in 2023.
And the final change to the laws is that indirect free-kicks will be given if a team official, substitute or any other player who is not meant to be on the field touches the ball as it is leaving the field of play and there is no intent to interfere with play unfairly.
But IFAB, which is comprised of the four British home associations and FIFA, has not come to any firm decisions about proposed changes to the offside law.
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FIFA’s global development officer Arsene Wenger has been pushing for a major relaxation of the law for several years. The former Arsenal manager believes attackers should only be considered offside if there is clear daylight between them and the penultimate defender.
This idea has been trialled in youth competitions but IFAB’s technical experts believe Wenger’s idea would swing the balance too far in favour of attackers.
A possible compromise would see the scrapping of so-called “toe nail” offsides, as feet, legs and heads would no longer be considered offside, providing the attackers’ torso was in line with that of the defender.
Either way, IFAB has agreed to keep trialling these ideas, with Irish Football Association boss Patrick Nelson, this year’s host, saying “fresh wind” was required before any firm decisions were made.
More and wider trials will also be approved for three initiatives IFAB has been considering for several years.
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The first is related to player-behaviour and the retention of referees, particularly at the grassroots level, as IFAB agreed to “further test and support” the use of body cameras by referees in England.
FIFA also confirmed its intention to put cameras on referees at this summer’s Club World Cup, although that is more about improving the televisual product than player behaviour.
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The second continued experiment involves the push to extend VAR throughout global football via Football Video Support, a cheaper version of the controversial technology as it uses fewer cameras and a laptop for referees to play back incidents.
And, finally, IFAB will also be rolling out its “suspect and protect” concussion-awareness campaign to more countries and competitions.
(LEE SMITH/POOL/AFP)
