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IFAB Law Changes for 2025/26

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Being over zealous and extra strict with 8s carries a risk of counting to quick and penalising at 7. This i would find significantly less acceptable than what happens in this clip.
 
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As long as the official is then consistant with his 8 second count thats all that matters - nothing worse than as someone mentoned a quick 8 second count then the next one being a more relaxed count.

I suspect give it a couple of game pre-season and players will start counting for us...
 
It's not hard to count to 8 and then blow the whistle.

A lot of excuses being made to keep the status quo.

I still most refs will be creative and ignore or make excuses.

If a goalkeeper "goes to ground" for pointless time why should the ref wait for them to get to their feet?

Collina's statement was VERY unhelpful.

He should "tow the line" in his position.
 
I don’t see anyone defending the status quo. Seems to me that all posters are in favour of the attempt to speed up the game .. the debate is the rigidity with which it can / must be enforced.

Think my main concern is the choice to vilify this particular referee for the exact time to blow the whistle. I’d rather we were praising him for showing to everyone that the change to the law will be enforced.

There’s only two possibilities here …
1) there hasn’t been even one other occasion in this competition where a GK has exceeded the 8 seconds … this would clearly demonstrate the law change has worked as the deterrent hoped and/or
2) there have in fact been other occasions and we should instead be questioning why those referees have failed to apply the law
 
Runner Ref said:
Not finding fault with the process, I think the process is just fine. I have issue with the application of it. Based on people's feedback here, this is going to be very very inconsistent. Which would suggest they may as well not bother.
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Perfect is the enemy of good.

It will never be perfect.
 
JamesL said:
Being over zealous and extra strict with 8s carries a risk of counting to quick and penalising at 7. This i would find significantly less acceptable than what happens in this clip.
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If only referees had a device that allowed them to accurately measure time. Especially the officials at the top of the pyramid. It's almost as though they don't have access to communicate with each other, so that one of them can count the referee down.......
 
A similar 4 second law has been implemented in futsal (and i hear for beach soccer) strictly for years with no issues (with the exception of some lazy grassroots referees).

I can confidently say if we are going to apply it with flexibility, it will only take a few years to get back to where we are now.

I am not saying be overzealous. Just be as accurate as you can without deliberately counting slow or starting the count late.
 
Runner Ref said:
If you said this 10 years ago, I'd agree with you 100%. Nowadays they are attempting to make football perfect. That is basically why VAR was brought in.
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Disagree. I think VAR was brought in to make it better, not perfect.

It has made it better, evidentially so. It can never be perfect because it involves humans and elements of subjectivity.
 
Viridis1886 said:
Disagree. I think VAR was brought in to make it better, not perfect.

It has made it better, evidentially so. It can never be perfect because it involves humans and elements of subjectivity.
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In what way has it made it better? We have to sit for 5 minutes for someone to check whether someone's toenail was offside.

The nth degree that they go to with VAR would suggest they're looking for the perfect outcome.
 
Kent Ref said:
It's not hard to count to 8 and then blow the whistle.

A lot of excuses being made to keep the status quo.

I still most refs will be creative and ignore or make excuses.

If a goalkeeper "goes to ground" for pointless time why should the ref wait for them to get to their feet?

Collina's statement was VERY unhelpful.

He should "tow the line" in his position.
Click to expand...
Runner Ref said:
If only referees had a device that allowed them to accurately measure time. Especially the officials at the top of the pyramid. It's almost as though they don't have access to communicate with each other, so that one of them can count the referee down.......
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Sorry both but as a former keeper I think you've got this wrong. There are still defending and attacking players in his box for a few seconds after he has stood up and could prevent him releasing the ball. So entirely possible it's only 9 seconds before the referee blows from when you could reasonably expect the keeper to release the ball.
 
OnlyUseMeWhistle said:
Sorry both but as a former keeper I think you've got this wrong. There are still defending and attacking players in his box for a few seconds after he has stood up and could prevent him releasing the ball. So entirely possible it's only 9 seconds before the referee blows from when you could reasonably expect the keeper to release the ball.
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I played in goal myself, so I'm fully aware of how things work. The goalkeeper is up and has control. Yes, someone may challenge him. If they do, deal with that in the same way you would deal with any other challenge.

You can't not implement something, simply because of something that may or may not happen
 
Runner Ref said:
I played in goal myself, so I'm fully aware of how things work. The goalkeeper is up and has control. Yes, someone may challenge him. If they do, deal with that in the same way you would deal with any other challenge.

You can't not implement something, simply because of something that may or may not happen
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But you wouldn't punish it if the keeper kicks it off a player making an effort to retreat, as all the defenders are, but they're still in the way for the first few seconds so he cannot release it.
 
one said:
A similar 4 second law has been implemented in futsal (and i hear for beach soccer) strictly for years with no issues (with the exception of some lazy grassroots referees).

I can confidently say if we are going to apply it with flexibility, it will only take a few years to get back to where we are now.

I am not saying be overzealous. Just be as accurate as you can without deliberately counting slow or starting the count late.
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Yes we use it in Beach soccer. Benefit it is gives a direct shot at goal... ;)
 
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Just an idea. I havnt really thought it through but sharing anyway. Would it make more sense and more practical if the count is done by the near AR (if one appointed). Do the count with the non flag hand and flag when on 0.
 
OnlyUseMeWhistle said:
But you wouldn't punish it if the keeper kicks it off a player making an effort to retreat, as all the defenders are, but they're still in the way for the first few seconds so he cannot release it.
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If the goalkeeper kicks it off a player, that's his fault. I can have sympathy for such things at lower levels where the skill level isn't as high. But if a professional goalkeeper can't see a way around that situation, thats their problem.
 
Runner Ref said:
If the goalkeeper kicks it off a player, that's his fault. I can have sympathy for such things at lower levels where the skill level isn't as high. But if a professional goalkeeper can't see a way around that situation, thats their problem.
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So he has to move around the players to release it, and therefore might take longer!
 
I must say I don't think any football fan wants a situation where the 8 seconds is a test to see if the goalkeeper can find a suitable way to release it in time, I think it's just to stop people taking the p*ss. For that reason I'd agree I don't think it should start until such a point where the goalkeeper has space to release the ball if he wanted... but I shall apply the law as advised when we no doubt get more information at pre-season training events
 
Runner Ref said:
If you said this 10 years ago, I'd agree with you 100%. Nowadays they are attempting to make football perfect. That is basically why VAR was brought in.
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VAR absolutely was NOT brought in to make football perfect, they were very clear to say that from day 1. It is to correct clear and obvious errors, if the intention was to make it perfect then it would obviously need to correct 100% of errors.
 
OnlyUseMeWhistle said:
Sorry both but as a former keeper I think you've got this wrong. There are still defending and attacking players in his box for a few seconds after he has stood up and could prevent him releasing the ball. So entirely possible it's only 9 seconds before the referee blows from when you could reasonably expect the keeper to release the ball.
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Don't forget in law it's 8 seconds from when the GK has control of the ball, not 8 seconds from when he can be expected to release the ball.

Maybe Turpin forgot to start counting straight away, maybe his counting just ended up being a bit slow, but ultimately we're now going to be in a position where the law won't be completely ignored, and keepers will know they can't take the piss anymore.
 
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