From this summer onwards, goalkeepers will be allowed eight seconds from catching the ball to releasing it, in the latest attempt to cut down on time-wasting.
Positive results in trials across England, Italy and Malta have prompted the games rule-makers, the International Football Association Board (Ifab), to change the law for the start of the 2025-26 season.
Where does this apply?
This rule will be implemented worldwide by 1 July, at all levels of the game from elite to amateur.
It will also be in place for the Club World Cup, which runs from 15 June to 13 July.
How will referees punish it?
Referees will punish goalkeepers holding on to the ball for more than eight seconds by awarding a corner to the opposition.
How will referees indicate it?
Goalkeepers will be warned by the referee when they have five seconds remaining to get rid of the ball. The referee will raise their arm and start a visual countdown with their hand.
Wasn’t this already a rule?
Yes. Well, kind of, as it was rarely enforced. The current law states if a goalkeeper holds on to a ball for six seconds, then an indirect free-kick is awarded to the opposition.
What has Ifab said about the rule change?
During trials, Ifab said there had only been four instances where goalkeepers have been penalised in hundreds of matches, even with the rule being strictly applied.
Ifab technical director and former Premier League referee David Elleray told The Times: “Good law changes are where you have a very strong deterrent which everybody implements and then the problem effectively disappears.
“If it speeds up the game, if it’s more positive, it means that it could be one of those very effective deterrents.”
What can we expect?
The Club World Cup features Manchester City and Chelsea, so Premier League fans will be able to see how Ederson, Stefan Ortega, Robert Sanchez or Filip Jorgensen cope with that countdown for the first time.
More corners, at least at the start of the season. Set-piece coaches will start receiving even more air-time.
Early casualties. We already know how strictly rules are enforced when they are first brought in – just ask Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard, who both got handed second yellow cards early this season for delaying the restart.
The sound of the crowd sarcastically counting down when the opposition goalkeeper picks up the ball.
Expect players to get involved, too. If a team is trailing in the dying minutes of a game and a goalkeeper has the ball, there will be players who tell the referee to count quicker… or even count for them.
Are there any stats – which keepers waste time?
Unfortunately, there are no Opta statistics available for this particular ‘dark art’ metric – but you only have to watch football semi-regularly to spot a goalkeeper catching and diving to the ground in elaborate stages.
Elleray gave an example involving Brighton stopper Jason Steele from their 3-1 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford in September 2023.
Steele held on to the ball for an average of 14.8 seconds, compared to Andre Onana’s average of 4.8 seconds.
Exploring the ‘dark arts’ in Man City v Arsenal
What impact has longer added time had on matches?
Does football need a 60-minute ‘stop-clock’?
‘Rules being made by people who never played’ – what do ex-keepers think?
Former England and West Ham goalkeeper Rob Green:
Back in the day there was the six-second rule and that has slowly faded away – I don’t know why – I think that was enough of a deterrent. Maybe they are thinking the punishment being a bit more lenient may get things going. It seems a strange one to reintroduce, but if we can get more football in the 90 minutes then I’m all for it.
As a percentage there’s only around a 4% chance of scoring from a corner so it isn’t that much of a threat but at the end of the game, the last thing your team-mates want to do is defend a set-piece if you’re winning.
I think we see it every year, they will implement it right from the start but in a couple of years’ time we may be having this same conversation.
Former England and Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson:
These rules are being made by people that have clearly never played the game. They are giving corners?
Goalkeepers used to have six seconds – then that went out the game so goalkeepers have started game management and timewasting. Now they are giving an extra two and it’s eight.
‘I feel for the refs’ – what BBC reporters and commentators think
Shamoon Hafez:
It feels like a rule that may be strictly enforced when first implemented, before it gets forgotten about.
Just think back to how much injury time was being played when officials decided to clamp down on time-wasting and how much is added on now.
It also feels like there could be a pantomime scenario during matches, with players and the crowd counting the seconds when the keeper has ball in hand.
Burnley striker Ashley Barnes was signalling seconds on his fingers in Saturday’s FA Cup game against Preston as Freddie Woodman held on to the ball. How many other players will we see attempting to pressure the referee into enforcing the new rule?
Alex Howell:
It will be interesting to see what impact the eight-second rule has on the way teams think about their build-up play.
It could also then have a knock-on effect on the way teams press. The trend with a lot of teams is to press high to keep the opposition under pressure, but maybe now knowing the ball has to be released in eight seconds could push sides even further forward and impact the speed of games everywhere.
Conor McNamara:
I have quite a bit of sympathy for the referees who are going to have to implement this.
In essence, the law was to be a deterrent to stop excessive holding on to the ball for 20 seconds and more. But in this highly-analytical world we now live in, any new ‘measurable initiatives’ will be given the full ‘offside by a toe-nail’ treatment.
The conspiracy theorists will love it all.
Also, to implement this to the letter of the law, the poor referees will have to start shouting five-second countdowns each and every time a goalkeeper has had the ball in their hands for three seconds.
Semi-automated offsides may divert some of the personal insults away from the officials, but implementing this new law will see the individual referees catch plenty of slack again.
Alistair Bruce-Ball:
One thing’s for certain – goalkeepers would be wise not to hang on to the ball against Arsenal next season given their prowess from corners.
Anything that prevents players from time-wasting is obviously to be applauded but I can already foresee arguments about the consistency in the application of this law.
I also wonder if it’s something the referees will be very hot on in the first couple of weeks before it gets forgotten, not deliberately but subconsciously, and the time allowed starts slipping.
Nick Mashiter:
Nottingham Forest’s Matz Sels will be on red alert with the new eight-second rule.
The goalkeeper has been booked twice for time-wasting this season, while Jose Sa at Wolves has also been known to slow the game down to his side’s advantage.
The Premier League is already played at a frantic pace and this will only help maintain that speed, but the focus could be better served improving the video assistant referee and avoiding prolonged delays – including the eight-minute wait to rule out Milos Kerkez’s goal for Bournemouth against Wolves on Saturday – which only frustrate fans and slow the game down further.
John Murray:
An interesting move but how often we will see it implemented, I wonder?
I suspect it is simply another tool to try and increase the amount of playing time, which the authorities have been working on for some while.
And the likelihood is it will be used only very much as a last resort and more as a warning to make it clear to goalkeepers that they need to get on with it.
