Every year we see some tweaks to the rules that can have different impacts on the game, but the introduction of VAR has caused a lot of issues.
It has looked much better at Euro 2020 as it’s not taking ages to review marginal decisions and games are flowing better, so there will be hopes that we see something similar in the Premier League next year.
The handball law also caused absolute chaos last season, so here’s what to expect next season with some new rules being reported by The Mirror:
Handball law:
A foul will be given if a player deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm or moves it towards the ball, while it will also be a foul if the ball touches their arm/hand if it’s in a position which has made their body unnaturally bigger.
Hopefully that means we won’t see so many cheap penalties when the ball hits a hand as a player is trying to jump to head a ball in the box. It’s also stated that goals will be disallowed if the goal is scored with a hand/arm or if it touches the player’s hand/arm immediately before scoring, even if that is ruled to be accidental.
The main change here states that if a teammate accidentally touches the ball with their hand/arm in the build-up then this will no longer be given as a foul.
Offside Law:
There has been plenty of controversy about the offside lines and where the body starts and stops, so it’s been clarified that the bottom of the armpit is now being classed as the part of the body where offside calls will be measured from.
It has also been confirmed that the concussion sub trial is still in place for a season so that will continue as before, and it will be interesting to see if these tweaks improve the game.