Football’s law-makers have approved a series of rule changes for the upcoming season, targeting greater respect towards officials and stricter limits on time-wasting.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB), guardians of the Laws of the Game, confirmed six key modifications that started with effect from 1 July 2025. These include allowing only captains to approach referees, a new 8-second time limit for goalkeepers holding the ball, clearer dropped-ball procedures, and adjustments to offside and VAR protocols. The changes, approved at IFAB’s 139th Annual General Meeting in Belfast, are intended to improve on-field communication, fairness and game flow. Below, we break down each of the major updates in detail.
Only Captains Allowed to Talk to Referees
One headline change is a guideline empowering competitions to insist that only the team captain may approach or question the referee during matches. Under these “only the captain” guidelines, each team’s captain – wearing a clearly identifiable armband- is the sole player permitted to engage the referee in discussion about decisions.
This measure is designed to curb the mass confrontations and dissent referees often face, thereby instilling more respect and orderly communication on the pitch. IFAB noted that stronger cooperation between referees and captains can reinforce fairness and mutual respect, as captains will be responsible for helping keep their teammates at a distance during any exchanges. The new captain-only approach was successfully trialled in several competitions last year, including UEFA tournaments, and competitions worldwide can opt to implement it from the 2025/26 season. Notably, the English Premier League has signalled it will adopt this rule, meaning from 2025–26, only captains will be allowed to address the referee about major decisions.
Goalkeeper time limit: 8-second rule and corner-kick sanction
A significant law change aims to deter goalkeeper time-wasting. Goalkeepers will now have 8 seconds to release the ball from their hands, up from the previous 6-second guideline – but crucially, the punishment for exceeding the limit will no longer be a rarely-enforced indirect free kick. Instead, if a goalkeeper holds the ball for more than eight seconds, the referee will award a corner kick to the opposing team. To assist keepers, referees have been instructed to visibly count down the last five seconds with a raised hand.
This replaces the old six-second rule (which technically required an indirect free kick for violations) with a sharper consequence. The change followed positive results in trials this season, which indicated that the threat of conceding a corner is a strong deterrent against time-wasting. In hundreds of trial matches (including in Premier League 2 and competitions in Malta and Italy), goalkeepers were penalised only four times under the new rule, suggesting keepers quickly adjusted their behaviours.
IFAB acknowledged that under the old rule, referees rarely enforced the six-second limit, partly because stopping play for an indirect free-kick felt overly harsh and disruptive. By switching to a corner-kick sanction, the lawmakers hope to make enforcement simpler and more impactful, encouraging goalkeepers to play quicker and thus reducing delays.
Dropped ball restarts clarified
The laws around dropped-ball restarts have been refined to eliminate confusion about which team gets possession when play is stopped. The new clarification is straightforward:
if play is halted while the ball is inside the penalty area, the restart will be a dropped ball exclusively for the defending team’s goalkeeper.
This confirms the current practice that any stoppage in the box (for example, an injury or outside interference) returns the ball to the keeper. If play is stopped with the ball outside the penalty area, the drop is given to a player of whichever team last had clear possession of the ball. In cases where no clear possession is evident, the referee will drop the ball to a player of the team that last touched the ball before play was stopped. In all situations, the ball is dropped at the spot where it was when play was halted. These adjustments to Law 8 are meant to ensure fairness and consistency, effectively giving the ball back to the team that had it (or would have gained it) before an unnatural stoppage, rather than the old contested drop-ball that often felt arbitrary.
Ball out of play contact by non-players
Another tweak addresses situations when substitutes or team officials unintentionally interfere with the ball as it is going out of play. Under the updated Law 9, if a team official, substitute, substituted or sent-off player (or any player temporarily off the field) touches the ball while it is exiting the field, the game will be restarted with an indirect free kick and no disciplinary sanction, provided the interference was not done to unfairly affect play.
In other words, if someone in the technical area or a player off the pitch casually touches a ball that is already going out (for example, catching a ball that’s gone into touch) and there’s no deliberate attempt to gain an advantage, the referee will simply award an indirect free-kick to the opposing team from where the contact occurred. There will be no card issued in such innocuous cases. This change clarifies a grey area, ensuring that accidental or non-malicious contacts by non-players don’t result in disproportionate punishments, while still preventing any unfair benefit. (Of course, if the interference is deemed deliberate or stops a promising attack, officials retain the power to penalise misconduct more harshly.)
Offside rule adjusted for goalkeeper throws
Offside judgements have been adjusted for one specific scenario: when a goalkeeper releases the ball with a throw. Previously, there was ambiguity about the exact moment to judge offside on throws (as opposed to kicks). Now, the law explicitly states that the last point of contact when the goalkeeper throws the ball will be used to determine an attacking player’s offside position. In practice, this means offside will be judged at the instant the ball leaves the keeper’s hand on a throw, aligning it with the principle used for kicks (where offside is judged at the moment the ball is played). This minor change to Law 11 closes a loophole and ensures consistency: whether a keeper distributes the ball by foot or by hand, the timing for offside calculation is the same. Attackers will need to be mindful that if they stray past the second-last defender before the keeper lets go of the ball, they can be flagged offside once the throw is released. While such situations are relatively uncommon, the clarified wording should help avoid confusion for players and officials alike.
VAR decisions to be announced, new Assistant Referee positioning
The introduction of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) continues to evolve. Competitions now have the option to let referees announce VAR decisions to the crowd, bringing more transparency to fans inside the stadium. IFAB’s updated VAR protocol will permit the referee, after completing a VAR review (or a particularly long “check”), to make a brief public announcement explaining the final decision via the stadium PA system. This practice was trialled successfully at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and more recently in English football, for example, referees in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup semi-finals have used in-stadium microphones to explain overturned decisions. The goal is to enhance understanding and reduce confusion for match-going supporters by clarifying why a goal was disallowed or a penalty awarded after VAR intervention. These announcements will remain optional for competition organisers, but we may see more leagues and tournaments adopting them to improve communication with fans.
A referee equipped with a microphone prepares to communicate a VAR decision to the stadium. Under new protocols, competitions can authorize referees to publicly explain the outcome of video reviews via loudspeaker.
In tandem, assistant referees’ duties are being subtly realigned in matches that use VAR and goal-line technology. Traditionally, at penalty kicks an assistant referee would station themselves at the goal line (by the goalpost) to help judge if the ball crosses the line and watch for goalkeeper foot faults.
Now, recognising that technology can monitor these details, IFAB’s guidelines recommend that during penalty situations with VAR in place, the assistant referee should instead take up position in line with the penalty mark (12 yards from goal) – effectively positioning themselves with the offside. In this spot, the assistant can focus entirely on monitoring offside or other infringements at the moment a penalty is taken (for example, attackers encroaching into the box too early), while the VAR will check for any goal/no-goal decisions and goalkeeper encroachment on the line. This adjustment ensures the assistant referee won’t be caught out of position if play continues.
For instance, if a penalty rebound leads to a quick offside decision, the AR is already on the offside line rather than sprinting back from the goal line. It’s a niche change that will only apply in the small percentage of matches that have video review or goal-line tech, but it reflects how officiating duties are evolving with technology. The bottom line: in VAR-monitored games, assistant refs will stand near the penalty spot during spot-kicks, leaving the cameras to judge the goal line, so that they are better placed to do their primary job of calling offsides and monitoring open-play.
When did these changes come into force?
All the approved law updates are part of the 2025/26 edition of the Laws of the Game and became officially effective worldwide from 1 July 2025. However, competitions have flexibility on implementation timing. IFAB allows leagues or tournaments that begin before that date to introduce the new laws early, or delay adoption until the start of their next season (as long as it’s no later than summer 2026). Some high-profile events are using the changes slightly ahead of time, for example, FIFA has confirmed the new rules (like the goalkeeper’s 8-second corner-kick punishment) have been applied at the expanded FIFA Club World Cup in June 2025.
Fans, players and officials can therefore expect a slightly different look to games as these tweaks bed in. The hope is that these modifications, from empowering captains and referees’ communication to discouraging time-wasting and clarifying odd scenarios, will make the beautiful game fairer, quicker, and more respectful as we head into the new season.
