Dale JohnsonJun 12, 2025, 01:27 PM ET
The FIFA Club World Cup and the Concacaf Gold Cup, which are both being held in the United States, kick off on Saturday and will look a little different with a few laws having been tweaked.
Those two competitions, plus the UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals, which started on Wednesday, and the UEFA Women's Euros, kicking off on July 2, will be playing with the new regulations.
In addition, FIFA is trialling the latest enhancements to its semi-automated offside technology, and testing cameras placed on a referee's headset to give fans a new perspective on the game.
What should we expect to see, and what does it all mean?
Goalkeeper holding the ball for too long
We know the situation. A shot comes in or a corner is floated over, and the goalkeeper first flops the ground for 10 seconds. Then he stands up, surveys his options, and looks around. Maybe then he'll release the ball, though after some 30 seconds have been lost. Spread that across a game, and it can have a real effect on a match.
It's been a bug-bear of supporters for quite a while. A tactic most often by used by away teams trying to protect a lead in a difficult match, it has evolved somewhat to become part of a team's tactics simply to frustrate the opposition.
The old law, which said a keeper should release within six seconds or be penalised with a free kick, hadn't been applied for many years. Now the keeper will get eight seconds, but with a clear punishment process thereafter.
Once a goalkeeper has control of the ball, they will have eight seconds to release the ball. The referee will raise his arm to indicate there are five seconds left. If the ball hasn't been released, a corner will be awarded.
Fans will be sceptical it won't just go the same way as the old law, the difference being there is now a hand signal which the referee is bound to.
Trials were held throughout the 2024-25 season in Premier League 2 (academies) and in Maltese and Italian football. Across over 400 games only three corners were awarded -- 3 in England and 0 in Malta. In Italy, a different trial was held which led to the award of a throw, which was penalised once.
Since the IFAB approved the change to the law, it's already been adopted in the professional game in South America, in the CONMEBOL Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana -- its version of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. In 160 fixtures to date, only two corners have been awarded. Boston River goalkeeper Bruno Antúnez conceded a corner at Independiente when he took too long assessing his options, and the whistle blew just before he took a long punt upfield.
Pierluigi Collina, FIFA's head of referees, insists the aim is not to try to penalise goalkeepers, but to encourage the flow of the game. He doesn't expect the law to be applied super strictly, but a goalkeeper laying on the ball for no good reason will be looked upon dimly.
"I don't think that any spectator likes the goalkeeper keeping the ball within the hands for such a long time," Collina said. "So [we gave them] a couple of seconds more because they may need this time to get teammates reshaped on the field. But they have to know that once the time is over, the eight seconds is over, the referee will enforce the law.
"We are confident that there won't be many corner kicks awarded. We are confident that the goalkeepers will respect the limit of eight seconds.
"The objective of this law is not to punish the goalkeepers. So referees will be a bit flexible when the goalkeeper has the need to recover from, say, a demanding save. But there is no need to fall down on the ground. This is only something to waste time."
There will be no yellow card for an infringement, just the corner.
The double-touch penalty
Julián Álvarez was "incredulous" after his penalty kick was disallowed in Atlético Madrid's Champions League round-of-16 defeat to Real Madrid in March. The Argentina international had accidentally touched the ball twice when taking the kick, with the VAR stepping in to cancel the goal. Atletico boss Diego Simeone still hasn't got over it.
Earlier this month, the IFAB announced a "clarification" to law, after it had been lobbied by UEFA.
As is often the case, it takes a high-profile incident to force change. After all, no one remembers Aleksandar Mitrovic's disallowed penalty for Fulham against Newcastle United in January 2023, do they? The circumstances were the same, with the Serbia international scoring a penalty via touching the ball twice after slipping in his run up.
Yet within weeks of the controversial Álvarez incident, the law has been rewritten.
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UEFA release Julián Alvarez penalty frame-by-frame footage
Footage provided by UEFA shows Julián Alvarez making "minimal" contact with the ball for his penalty during Atlético Madrid's Champions League defeat to Real Madrid.
Referees the world over have also treated any double touch on a penalty as an offence, even if accidental. Now the IFAB says that's never really been the true intention, and it should only apply to a deliberate second touch, like the ball coming off the post, and not the ball being kicked against the standing foot.
So from now on, in the rare case that the VAR identifies such a offence and the ball goes into the net, it will be a retake. If the player misses, the referee should give a free kick to the opposition (or it stays as a miss in a shootout).
Collina explained: "We thought that this should have been clarified because the double touch was intended to be related to something done deliberately. We decided it was better to clarify by adding two separate scenarios one when it's still deliberate and the other one when it is accidental.
"I think in this way the spirit of the game and the spirit of the Laws of the Game are respected."
Club World Cup only: Enhanced semi-automated offside tech
Is it the end of the delayed offside flag? Only in some limited situations.
After holding trials during the Intercontinental Cup in December, FIFA is ready to roll out offside tech that's supposed to stop delayed offside flags when they aren't necessary, such as the one which led to an injury Nottingham Forest's Taiwo Awoniyi last month. The striker was clearly offside, and play should not have continued.
It will most often be used when there's one player running through on goal. The assistant will get an audio message in their earpiece which says "offside, offside."
So what's a clear offside? The tech will be activated when a player is 10 centimetres or more offside. Only when that player touches the ball will the assistant receive the alert, and play will immediate be halted by the flag.
FIFA reckons it could be useful four or five times per game, but we're yet to see full data.
FIFA's higher-grade SAOT, which features a chip in the ball, enables it to make instant decisions on the kick point both of the pass and the offside player.
"We have in each stadium 16 tracking cameras, we have the sensor inside the ball and they're using artificial intelligence," said Johannes Holzmüller., FIFA's director of innovation. "The system then notifies the assistant referees directly so that the assistant referees can immediately flag for offsite.
"Everything above 10 centimetres, we call it high confidence, then this is sent directly to the assistant. Everything below this threshold will go anyway to the VAR because we call it very close offsite incident.
Collina added: "The assistant referees were told in case of doubt, keep the flag down because if you raise the flag, you kill everything including the possibility that the VAR can help you. Keeping the flag down, you give the technology the possibility to support you. Probably they went a bit farther, so what was doubt became bigger and bigger and bigger.
"We have reminded our assistant referees to be a bit braver, more courageous. When the offside is two meters offside, it cannot lead to a doubt."
Club World Cup only: Ref-worn body cameras
Get ready for a whole new view of the game: as the referee sees it.
Refs will wear a camera fixed to their headset, with the footage immediately available to DAZN, the competition broadcaster.
But don't get any ideas about pressing a button and switching to "ref cam." Live footage cannot be shown, except before the game in the tunnel or during the coin toss.
We can expect to see goals from the referee's perspective, but alas we won't be shown controversial incidents. At least at first, that is.
It's described more as an entertainment add-on. It may evolve as the tournament progresses, perhaps around penalty incidents, but don't expect too much too soon.
However, it's unlikely to be used in VAR reviews.
"All footage which is available to viewers has to be available to the video match officials," Collina explained. "Otherwise the system would not work. Imagine that all the world has access to footage and the video match officials do not.
"So basically everything is public, or can become public, has to be available also to VAR. So I would say yes and no. Yes, but in reality it is no. Can you believe that a camera position just besides the referee's eyes can see something that the referee's eyes cannot? Honestly, I think it's difficult to believe. So basically yes and no. Yes it can be used but no it won't be used."
Club World Cup only: Referees announce VAR decisions / big screen replays
Fans inside stadiums at the Club World Cup will be able to watch on the big screen what the VAR is shown the referee at the pitchside monitor.
However, the audio of the conversation between referee and VAR will remain behind the cloak of secrecy.
This already happens in the Australian A-League, so FIFA is jumping on the back of that. But it seems to be of limited value if there is no context to the pictures.
Referees will also announce the outcome of a VAR review over the stadium public addresses system and to TV viewers, which we've seen in several competitions -- first trialled at the 2023 Women's World Cup.
"TV spectators can listen to the referee explaining first the background of the decision, and why he or she's taking a decision," Collina explained. "And then at the very end, the final decision taken; very simple, very straightforward.
"I think it can bring transparency and clarity to what the referee does on the field of play."
The dropped ball
A more simple change, which covers the ball hitting the referee.
In the old wording of the law, if the ball hit the ref, then the dropped ball would go to the team who were last in possession of the ball. Now, it's about who would take possession.
Usually, this is a pass between teammates so there will be no difference. But if it's very clear that the play of the ball was going to the opposition, then the opposition gets the dropped ball.
In most cases we are likely to see the referee err on the side of caution and give the dropped ball to the team who made the pass, as it would need to be beyond doubt a change of possession was going to take place.
No red card for coaches who touch the ball when in play
In the Champions League in the 2024-25 season, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta grabbed the ball before it had gone out of play in a match at Internazionale. A direct free kick was awarded and Arteta was booked, but by the Laws of the Game he should have been sent off. But most leagues have been dealing with this with a caution, as a red card was seen as too harsh for such a minor infringement.
And here's the change: if a coach picks the ball up while it's in play, and it was no more than an attempt to get play moving again, it will be no sanction (not even a caution) and an indirect free kick.
But trying to stop the opponent from restarting play will remain a red-card offence.
Only captains can speak to the referee
This has already been seen in various competitions, but was officially added to the Laws of the Game this summer.
It's supposed to prevent a referee from being crowded by players. While this might be easier to apply in short competitions like the Club World Cup and Gold Cup, it has proved to be more challenging in a 380-game domestic seasons.
