Football is a constantly evolving sport, with the rules changing and adapting to the modern game.
Each year, the International Football Association Board, or IFAB – the governing body in charge of the Laws of the Game – reviews the current regulations to identify places to improve or alter the rules to better fit how the game is played today.
Usually, rule changes are announced in March to allow teams and players time to prepare for when they are implemented in the summer.
Ahead of the 2025/26 season, while nothing major is changing, there are a few rule alterations that will be noticeable to fans who watch a fair number of matches. Many of these were put into place for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup earlier this summer and will now see implementation in the Premier League.
The Sporting News reviews all the known changes to proceedings for the coming English top-flight campaign.
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Goalkeeper eight-second rule
First and foremost, the biggest rule change involves the goalkeeper’s time to have the ball in his hands. The time they are allowed to keep hold of the ball has increased from six to eight seconds, with the punishment also altered. Instead of an indirect free-kick given in the event of a keeper holding the ball for too long, an infraction will now result in concession of a corner kick to the opponent.
The point of this alteration is not to punish goalkeepers, but instead to make it easier for referees to clamp down on blatant time wasting. With the offence now punishable with a corner rather than indirect free-kick very close to goal, it should allow referees to be more comfortable blowing the whistle without feeling as though they are unfairly swaying the game in favor of the attacking team.
This rule change has already been in place for matches in the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, the two biggest continental club tournaments in South America. Over the first 160 matches played, only two infringements were penalised.
Pierluigi Collina, a former official now head of FIFA’s refereeing committee, mentioned that “referees will be flexible when goalkeepers need time to recover from a demanding save”. However, in other less strenuous situations, “there is no need to fall down on top of the ball,” and therefore, counting will begin in a timely manner.
Indeed, referees will clearly signal to keepers when they are counting down towards a possible corner being given.
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“Only the captain” communication directive
FIFA issued a clear directive that only the captain may converse with the referee in major match situations, in order to prevent players from surrounding the match official. This was adopted by UEFA for last season’s Champions League and will now be used in Premier League games.
There will be a focus on punishing players for surrounding referees or aggressively protesting decisions, with yellow cards issued for such actions.
Players and match officials will still have leeway to converse regarding “normal interactions” throughout a game, as IFAB sees this communication as both regular and important.
In the end, not much is likely to change here, as referees already issue yellow cards for dissent relatively regularly, and it’s hard to envision the referee booking half a team for surrounding the official after a key match decision. Such a move would only increase the temperature of the situation and cause more chaos on the pitch.
“Double touch” penalty kick
Seemingly in direct response to the incident with Julian Alvarez in the UEFA Champions League knockout round, IFAB introduced reduced punishments for penalty takers who accidentally double touch the ball during their attempt.
Alvarez was deemed to have taken an illegal penalty after his plant foot slipped, causing a “double touch” of the ball en route to goal in which he brushed the ball with one foot before connecting with the other. The old Laws of the Game stated that this resulted in the penalty being deemed a miss, which resulted in Atletico Madrid losing their shootout against Real Madrid and subsequent elimination from the competition.
The law’s original intention was to eliminate a particular kind of feint or trickery that takers could utilize to create a penalty attempt against the spirit of the moment. However, it did not take into account the extremely rare possibility that a player could accidentally contact the ball twice on its way to goal. With the introduction of high-tech video replay as well as contact sensors in the ball, we can now discover even the slightest of touches, leading to the Alvarez incident.
Under the new laws, if the officiating crew deems the double touch on a converted penalty was accidental, the kick would be re-taken. In the event the crew deems the infraction was intentional, the penalty attempt would still be nullified.
In the shootout at the end of the Euro 2025 final, England forward Beth Mead had to retake her penalty after touching the ball twice. Her second effort was saved, but England went on to win the trophy anyway.
VAR in-stadium announcements
As other major tournaments across football have done over the past year, the Premier League will institute the option of in-stadium announcements for VAR decisions. This means fans inside the stadium will be given a clearer picture as to why a decision has been taken, or changed, following a VAR review.
After the league delayed implementation of this feature, such announcements were instead used in the semifinals of the Carabao Cup last season.
In 2025/26, they will only be made for decisions during which the referee goes to the touchline to review at the video screen. An announcement will not be made for other checks that do not result in a review recommendation.
The Premier League has long been a proponent of allowing VAR communications to be open to the public, but IFAB has not allowed such a move as of now. IFAB’s stance, at this time, is that opening up VAR communications to the public could subject review officials to a level of scrutiny that could affect their judgement and/or their level of communication between one another.
‘More penalties expected’ for holding offences
On the eve of the first game of the season, Howard Webb announced there would be a crackdown on holding offences during 2025/26 – and that more penalties will likely be awarded for this offence.
Referees have been encouraged to reduce the level of grappling between defenders and attackers at set-pieces. The new guidance, following feedback from clubs and players, is for more fouls to be awarded when a player impedes the movement of his opponent.
Webb, the former referee who now heads up the PGMOL, the body that manages match officials in England’s professional leagues, said: “We have to identify those situations that do fall in line with the feedback that we had, that there are just a few too many examples of players clearly pulling people back, impacting their ability to move to the ball or some clear extreme actions are not being penalised. They’re the ones I expect us to catch. Therefore, I would expect this time next year to have been a few more penalties given for holding offences than what we’ve seen this year. But not a huge swing of the pendulum because that’s really difficult to sustain over a period of time.”
Players who hold onto their opponent while paying little attention to the ball are likely to be penalised more often, but “mutual holding”, i.e. both opponents grappling to the same extent, is usually allowed more leeway.
Referees have been encouraged to analyse the severity of a holding offence by deciding whether it is sustained or impactful, having a clear impact on a player’s ability to challenge for the ball, or an obvious attempt to inhibit an opponent’s movement.
Other minor rule changes
There are a few other small rule changes eagle-eyed viewers may spot throughout the coming Premier League season.
After a stoppage of play, a drop ball can be given to the team that did not touch it last if the referee deems they would have gained possession had play not been stopped.
Also, under the old rules, if a coach or player on the sideline touched the ball before it went out of play, it would have by rule resulted in a yellow or red card. Under the new rules, there is some leeway for referees to let small, unintentional infractions slide. If any player off the pitch touches a ball in play, but the referee determines there was no intent to harm the match and the ball was clearly heading out, an indirect free-kick can be awarded without a card shown.
Finally, there is a minor point of clarification to the offside rule, specifically with regards to goalkeepers. Usually, offside is determined based on the “kick point,” otherwise known as the passer’s first point of contact with the ball. Now, that will change slightly when a goalkeeper is releasing with a throw, as offside determined on the last point of contact with the ball. This seems intuitive but has not been codified until now.