27 Jul 2016 12:04:54
Hopefully this will give us something different to talk about for a bit.
So today a lot of laws have been slightly changed so I'll run through the most important ones.

The 'triple-punishment' law has been scrapped, which means that if a goal scoring opportunity is prevented by a foul in the box, a penalty being awarded restores the opportunity so the punishment should be more lenient, i.e a yellow instead of a red. If the opportunity is prevented outside the box it will be a red card offence, as the goal scoring opportunity has been taken away. This rule excludes hand balls preventing a goal scoring opportunity in the box though, you will still be sent off for that.

Injuries will now be treated on the field, as getting fouled then having to go off field for treatment left your side a player down was deemed unfair, so expect more injury time at the end of games.

If you stop completely right at the end of your run up for a penalty it is now a bookable offence, although stuttering in your run up is still fine.

Infringements by club officials/ subs will now result in a free kick or even a penalty, as opposed to a drop ball or indirect free kick.

Deliberate handballs will now only result in a card if they prevent/ interfere with a 'promising attack'. It is no longer a bookable offence if the handball only 'prevents an opponent from gaining possession'.

And as you've all probably heard dissent towards referees is being cracked down on, running up to the ref to contest a decision will result in a yellow and offensive language/ gestures to the ref will be a red.
The sky article showed a picture of a few United players near the referee for this point, which was wonderful.

Personally I think the triple punishment amendment is silly, if you bring down a player in the box who's through on goal it should really be a red card.
I find the hand ball law daft as well because it just introduces more uncertainty as now it is up to each referee to decide what is a promising attack or not, so there will obviously be even less consistency and more arguments from this.
The other changes I tend to agree with, what do you all make of them?

1.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 12:39:00
Andy,

I like pretty much all of the rule changes, it seems we have an extra sub allowed in extra time in the FA cup as well which I think is a sensible rule change also.

It is like somebody with a football brain has made the changes this time around, the kick off being changed makes total sense, gets the game going quicker without a pass forward that has been unneeded since football began.

I like the whole triple punishment thing, the whole point is that if the team gets a penalty then they still have their goalscoring opportunity so it would be wrong to send somebody off for stopping it, makes sense to me, it ruins the game if a team scores a penalty and the opposition goes down to 10 men, especially if it is early in the game.

Agree with you about the handball, will have to see how that one pans out, I've never understood players getting cautions for a 'deliberate' handball, all handball should be deliberate, so I think it does give more guidance to refs and hopefully helps people understand the rule better, but like you say, it then makes the ref's opinion matter as to whether it was a promising attack, and their definition of what promising means.

All in all though good rule changes. Surprised they haven't done anything about timekeeping yet which in my opinion is embarrassing, we could stop all time wasting and give the ref one less job to do by having a clock that stops when the ball is out of play for longer than 10 seconds. It works perfectly in rugby, whereas in football we have a ref pretending to stop his watch and then adding on exactly 3,4 or 5 minutes depending on what time he needs to be home for his tea, but guess that one is for another day.

2.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 13:04:20
Players only get treated on field if it was a bookable offence.

3.) 27 Jul 2016
27 Jul 2016 16:54:17
Surely the defenders being able to shield the ball using any means necessary as it's going out for a goal kick needs adressing. That does my mammary glands in!