Goalkeepers have adapted to many new rules, but how might the countdown law change football?

The sight of a goalkeeper gathering a simple shot, collapsing to the ground and taking an age to part with the ball is an infuriating one if your team are trailing. If your team are leading, it is a beautiful form of expressive art.

The room for such theatrics is set to be squeezed, however, as the International Football Association Board (IFAB) has acted on what it sees as the rising trend of goalkeepers getting away with time-wasting.

A goalkeeper being cautioned for delaying too long at a goal kick is not uncommon, but how often do you see an indirect free kick awarded for a goalkeeper holding the ball in their hands beyond the six-second limit? That rule may even be news to your ears it is so rare.

IFAB — comprised of the four home nations of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland plus FIFA — voted to make a law change that will see the opposition awarded a corner kick rather than an indirect free kick if a goalkeeper holds onto the ball for longer than eight seconds. It will come into effect in June’s Club World Cup in the U.S.

The theory is that the less severe punishment should make it easier for referees to enforce the rule.

Goalkeepers will also not be able to feign surprise over their delays anymore. In the trials IFAB have been conducting this season in the youth leagues of England and Italy, as well as Malta’s top flight, referees have been providing goalkeepers with a visual five-second countdown by raising an arm and then bringing it down to their side like the second hand on a clock.

Only four corners have been awarded in the more than 400 trialled games with goalkeepers in Italy’s under-20 Primavera 1 league releasing the ball within five seconds more than 75 per cent of the time, according to IFAB. Given how dedicated set-piece coaches have led to corners becoming a huge weapon for some teams, it suggests it can act as an effective deterrent.

The fact that Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of FIFA’s referees committee and one of the sternest officials of his generation, never gave an indirect free kick for time-wasting in the entirety of his 18-year career highlights how little it has been enforced for years.

“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,” he told reporters at IFAB’s annual general meeting in Belfast.

The Premier League is on course to record a new season record for the number of yellow cards shown to goalkeepers for time-wasting. Last season they set a benchmark at 30 but this year’s total already stands at 26, with 11 match weeks remaining.

Between 2006-07 and 2013-14, the average number per season was just 10 and between 2014-15 and 2019-20 the average rose to 15. But there has been a stark rise the past five years, which coincides with another major rule change related to goalkeepers.

In 2019, IFAB decided that the first pass at a goal kick no longer had to leave the penalty area. It was designed to help teams build possession and make the game more attractive on the eye, as it meant outfielders could receive the ball unopposed, as close to the goalkeeper as they liked.

Its impact on the game has been profound. The number of goal kicks played short in the Premier League last season was more than double what it was before the rule came into effect in 2018-19, when around three-quarters of them were launched long.

It is the latest in 160 years of tweaks to the parameters of the goalkeeper position. In the early days of association football, it was not even a distinct position. Any player could catch or knock the ball with their hands, but that then changed to no players being able to do so, until 1871, when the goalkeeper role was created.

They were able to handle the ball anywhere inside their own half of the pitch, as long as they did not carry it, which was a divergence from the sport of rugby.

Welsh goalkeeper Leigh Roose put his own spin on the rules, becoming famous for running up to the halfway line while bouncing the ball before making a pass. It is thought that the 1912 law change, which restricted goalkeepers to handling the ball inside the penalty area — which was only created in 1901, having previously stretched across the entire width of the field, and changed from a semi-circle to the rectangular shape we know now — was in reaction to his exploits.

Things settled until 1931, when goalkeepers were allowed to take four steps with the ball in hand, which was two more than had been the case.

In 1992, however, a seismic change happened which saw the backpass rule introduced. Goalkeepers were no longer allowed to pick the ball up if their team-mate deliberately passed directly to them. Similar to IFAB’s latest tweak, it was an attempt to cut down on time-wasting, as players in the winning team would monotonously chip the ball back into the arms of their goalkeeper to erase any sense of risk.

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At the turn of the millennium, the four-step limit with the ball in hand was changed to become a six-second time limit as goalkeepers would repeatedly bounce the ball in a stationary position to delay the game.

So, how might this new eight-second rule, with the threat of a corner kick for time-wasting, change the game?

At the most basic level, the time restriction could promote more risky decision-making from goalkeepers as they will be under pressure to release it. On the flip side, it may incentivise the opposition to push up and shut off simple early passes, which could mean goalkeepers go long more often with less time to pick the perfect option. Goalkeepers may even have to travel in their own box if they wish to create the angle they want.

Goalkeepers will be under more pressure to release the ball quickly (Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)

There will always be ways to adapt and stretch new rules. Perhaps goalkeepers will hold onto the ball until the very last second before dropping it and moving into space. To counteract that, attackers may stand a couple of yards in front of the goalkeeper knowing that they are under pressure to release it quickly.

With regards to time-wasting, the clock will start as soon as they are deemed to be in control of the ball. It should mean that the modern tactic of a goalkeeper laying prone after claiming a cross, while the defenders form a queue to pat their head, is unlikely to continue.

Goalkeepers will need to have eyes on the referee’s count. The issue with any new rule is that its implementation will inevitably lead to complaints about how strictly and consistently it is applied. Referees are often seen waving at goalkeepers to hurry up with goal kicks — some teams are taking around 40 seconds to play the ball now — but it usually takes several warnings and an extreme delay before a yellow is shown.

Goalkeepers may have to move more before releasing the ball (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

Recent clampdowns on dissent and kicking the ball away at free kicks saw an immediate spike in punishments but then slackened off. That could create resentment among fanbases if their team has conceded from a corner due to a second delay being penalised, while in a different game a team gets away with a longer delay.

Referees are human beings and so no arbitrary time restriction will be adhered to every single time. The question then is: how strict are officials going to be advised to be?

Are we really going to see referees being such sticklers for the rules that they award corners in the dying minutes at the biggest grounds because a goalkeeper took nine seconds?

In theory, the rule should engender positive change to the game by keeping the ball alive for longer but, as with any amendment, the proof will be in the pudding.

(Photo: Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)