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On Saturday, March 1, a new law was approved by the International Football Association (IFAB) unanimously in their recent annual general meeting in Northern Ireland, which will help referees to stop goal-keepers from wasting time on the field. As per the new law, if a goal-keeper keeps hold of the ball for more than eight seconds, then their team will be punished with a corner awarded to the opposition, and it will be applicable for the first-time at the FIFA Club World Cup, which will be played from June 15 to July 13 this year in the USA.
Notably, as per the current law, the punishment for the goal-keepers was there for holding the ball more than six seconds with the referee awarding an indirect free kick to the opposition, but it wasn’t implemented regularly enough. As per the CEO of the Football Association of Wales (FAW), Noel Mooney, the implementation of the current law had “dissolved over time” according to the report from BBC Sport, while he hoped for the new law to reduce the time wasting from goal-keepers.
We had the test and the test was very successful: Mattias Grafstrom on new law
The new eight-second law has been put to trial usage in more than 400 matches across three different football competitions, which included the Premier League. It’s implementation during the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup 2025 in the USA will involve the referee warning the goal-keeper with a five-second countdown before penalising his team by awarding a corner to the opposition.
Mattias Grafstrom, the Secretary General of FIFA, remarked the following about the new eight-second law, “We had the test and the test was very successful. The referees didn't have to signal for a corner [often]." Moreover, in another development, the IFAB voted to continue holding trials for offside wherein the attacker will be adjudicated as onside if their torso is level with the second to last defender.
