On Saturday, the International Football Board (IFAB), which creates football regulations, unanimously adopted amendments to Rule 12.2 (indirect free kick).  The referee will now give the other team a corner kick rather than an indirect free kick if a goalie holds onto the ball for longer than eight seconds.

 The IFAB announced a number of changes to the game rules after the 139th Annual General Assembly in Belfast. FIFA will begin implementing these changes at the Club World Cup on June 14.

The IFAB explained that the change to rule 12.2 states that the opposing team will be awarded a corner in place of the current indirect free kick that is applied after six seconds if the goalie keeps the ball for more than eight seconds (with the referee visually counting down from five seconds).

A modification to regulation 3.10 concerning team leaders is one of the other authorized adjustments that will take effect on July 1.  Only the captain will be permitted to speak with the referee under the new rules in certain circumstances.  “The IFAB agreed that enhanced cooperation and communication between captains and referees, who often face verbal and/or physical disagreements in decision-making, can help instill greater levels of fairness and mutual respect—core values of the game,” according to the notice.

The governing board also stressed that in order to follow these rules, referees, players, and tournament organizers must work together.

 The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will mark the implementation of the new regulations.

 “If the ball is outside the penalty area when play is interrupted, it will be dropped for the team that had or would have had possession of the ball, if evident to the referee; otherwise, it will be dropped for the team that last touched it,” according to rule 8.2, which was approved by the IFAB.  When play was stopped, the ball will be dropped in the same spot.

Furthermore, modifications will be made to rule 9.2 (ball in play) to state that “if a team official, substitute, or player temporarily off the pitch touches the ball as it is leaving the field, provided there was no intention to unfairly interfere, an indirect free kick will be awarded without disciplinary sanction.”

 In terms of VAR protocol, the regulations will specify that following a VAR review or extended VAR check, the referee may choose to declare the outcome of the tournament.  The assistant referee must stand in line with the penalty mark, also known as the offside line, because VAR has the ability to review goal/no goal decisions and goalie encroachments.

 Body cams will be worn by referees for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.

FIFA’s pledge to test body-worn cameras for referees in competitions in order to find possible future applications and create safety and quality standards was endorsed by the IFAB.  FIFA has stated that it plans to use this technique for live match broadcasting during the 2018 Club World Cup.

 In order to promote attacking football and goal-scoring opportunities, the organization has also made the proactive decision to look for tournaments to hold further offside trials.  FIFA has informed the IFAB that it intends to expand the experiments with Video Support for Football (VSF), a low-cost system that uses a small number of cameras and was successfully tested in several FIFA competitions in 2024. FIFA will conduct these trials at several of its upcoming tournaments.