The International Football Association Board, which is the body that decides the rules of the game, met recently to discuss a revamp of Football’s ‘Laws of the Game’. The new rulebook attempts to be more user-friendly and will introduce a host of rule changes, which will be ratified at an AGM in March and enforced from the 2016 European Championships in June.
The revamped rulebook has been halved to a more readable 12000 words, down from the 22000 magnum opus it used to be. David Elleray, a former referee who oversaw the changes on behalf of the IFAB, spoke to The Guardian, saying, “We have tried to use much clearer language.”
“We tried to avoid a lot of unnecessary repetition and we tried to make it up-to-date. Because the laws have evolved piecemeal and no one has done a comprehensive review there have been inconsistencies.”
Chief amongst the proposed rule changes are allowing the game to kick-off in any direction, as most players now take a touch forwards and then immediately pass the ball backwards to comply with the current rule, which only allows for a forward kickoff. In addition, the IFAB now allows the referee to send off players before kickoff, allowing treatment on the field for victims of a carded tackle, a quick return for a player who leaves to change his boots.
Other unique incidents are also clarified in the new rulebook, with clarifications to what happens when an off-field player who grabs an opponent and prevents him from coming back on is carded. The restart will now be a free-kick / goal-kick / penalty depending on the the area of offense where it previously was just a drop ball.
Perhaps the most comical rule clarification, but one that’s necessary because of it occuring in a couple of instances in the recent past, is that of a non-playing substitute or staff blocks a certain goal; currently the offense only leads to an indirect free-kick or drop ball but will now result in a penalty or direct free-kick.
Another rule change involves a player being sent off during a penalty shootout; the opposing team will also have to be reduced to 10.
The offside law has also been clarified, with the free-kick location now coming from where the offense was caused, instead of from where a player touches the ball to be called offside. A few common sense laws will also be ratified, such as club logos on corner flags, which were illegal but were commonplace in the Premier League.
In addition, the IFAB meet also paved the way for experimentation with video assistance for match officials, but that will only be reviewed at the AGM in March.
