As per usual, IFAB has not thought through some of these changes, their wider impact and consequences
Law4.
Accessories/jewellery - I think giving the referees the discretion is good. There will be some pain short term to set the benchmark for what is acceptable and what is not. After that I think the change is for the better.
Law 5,
Advantage on incorrectly taken restart - This is
opening a can of worms as the restart laws are not 'properly' defined to accommodate it. There will be many more changes to come. What is an "incorrectly taken restart" for each restart? They are open to a variety of conflicting interpretations. The criteria for ball being in play is independent of the rest of the procedures. For example, on kick off which of these can we play advantage on (there are many other scenarios just on kick off)
- Ball is kicked and clearly moves but team mates are on the wrong half of the field
- Ball is kicked and clearly moves but the ball was not stationary at the time of the kick
- Ball is kicked and clearly moves but the ball was placed 10m away from the centre mark
- Ball is kicked and clearly moves but referee had not signalled yet.
Some other restarts will become even more complex.
Law 8,
.."unless it
hit a match official or outside agent"... being pedantic but I would have much preferred using the word "touched" to make it consistent throughout the laws. IFAB can really benefit from having a copy writer / technical writer. I can picture a player telling me but it only barely touched you ref, It didn't hit you.
Law 10,
The use of the word "deliberately" is unnecessary and would have unwanted consequences. Scenario, taker kicks the ball into the bar and it pops up. Kicker turns back and the ball accidentally hits the taker on the back of the head and goes into goal. This is now a legal goal using the new wording.
Law 12,
Removing "cheating" forms of disciplinary actions is fine if it is replaced by other forms of punishment. But in the cases of when advantage is played, both for DOGSO and when a defibrate handball attempt to stop a goal, there is no actual punishment, the natural flow of the game produces negative outcome for the offender which would have happened anyway even without the cheating. That natural outcome is not a punishment. As mentioned by others (and I in other threads) this encourages cheating. Basically cheating is now almost always a risk worth taking.
Law 14,
"deliberate" is unnecessary. Same as law 10.
Laws 15, and 16
I like it
General note: A lot of cross-referencing creeping into the LOTG which I don't like. Cross-references add a level of complexity to the comprehension of a law or a point being made. There is also the risk of future 'broken links'.