Players to have eight seconds to take goal-kicks
Ifab focused on limiting disruption of play
Football’s law-making body has backed plans to extend the use of the video assistant referee system, allowing it to intervene on second yellow cards and the awarding of corners, provided the process “does not slow the flow of play”.
With the speed of the game in mind, the International Football Association Board (Ifab) also expanded the “countdown principle”, where goalkeepers have eight seconds to release the ball from their hands, to include the taking of goal-kicks and throw-ins.
According to Ifab, VAR will intervene on second yellow cards only if there is “clear factual evidence” that they have been wrongly awarded and led to a red card. The same would apply to cases where the wrong team had been penalised for an offence leading to a card. On corners, decisions can be reviewed if they were clearly wrong, provided the check “can be done immediately and without delaying the restart”.
