IFAB confirm new rule that will punish goalkeepers for timewasting

Positive results in trials this season prompted the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to change the law for the start of the 2025-26 season, replacing the current law where goalkeepers are supposed to concede an indirect free-kick if they hold on for more than six seconds.

There has been a recognition that referees were hardly ever enforcing the six-second rule, in part because an indirect free-kick seemed too harsh a sanction, as well as the difficulties and the time required to set an indirect free-kick.

The eight-second rule has been trialled in Premier League 2 this season, plus competitions in Malta and Italy.

The IFAB said there had only been four instances where goalkeepers have been penalised in hundreds of trial matches, even with the rule being strictly applied on all but one occasion, which suggests goalkeepers do see the threat of conceding a corner as a significant deterrent.

Keepers will have no excuse for being unaware of the time limit either, with referees instructed to count down the final five seconds on a raised hand.

FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom said his organisation intended to use the new law for its inaugural 32-team Club World Cup in the United States this summer.

‘You can see it has a significant impact on goalkeeper behaviour,’ Patrick Nelson, the chief executive of the Irish Football Association and an IFAB director, said at a press conference in Belfast.

He said the six-second rule, and the failure to enforce it, had ‘been a bane of many people’s lives for quite some time’.

‘Some action has been taken on that. The results of (the trials) have been very, very positive, and so we are going to move forward to try and put that into the laws of the game as soon as possible.’

There could be consideration given by the IFAB in the future to also awarding corners where goalkeepers take too long over dead ball goal kicks.

The IFAB has also agreed to continue and expand trials of the so-called ‘daylight rule’ for offsides.

The law change has been championed by former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger who believes it encourages attacking play, but trials were hampered initially by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.