The English Premier League have introduced new rules for the upcoming 2024/25 campaign.
The English top-flight league season commences on Friday, August 16, 2024, with Manchester United hosting Fulham at Old Trafford, and there will be significant changes in the regulations guiding the conduct of teams in the division.
An announcement over new rules for the upcoming season was made via a statement shared by the Premier League on their website.
The statement read: “There will be a difference this campaign in how match officials will be applying the rules of the game.”
Subs Warming Up
The Premier League have revealed a slight alteration to the number of substitutes allowed to warm up at the same time on the perimeter of the pitch during a match.
The number of substitutes allowed to warm up at the same time has been increased from three to five players per team.
According to the Premier League, this rule was tweaked in order “to correspond with the fact that teams are able to make five substitutions at any one time.”
Multiball
The Premier League will make use of the multiball system in the 2024/25 season, with 15 balls provided at match venues to speed up the game.
When the match ball goes out of play and can’t be recovered quickly, players must head to the nearest cone to get a replacement ball themselves to recommence action.
The Premier League has expressed sternly that ball assistants are not allowed “to return a ball to a player but should return it to a vacant cone.”
They have also noted that a slight exception to the rule has been put in place.
This exception basically is for ball assistants stationed behind the goals, as they are allowed to return a ball to the goalkeeper when it goes out of play.
Moreover, the punishment handed to a club’s technical area staff who deliberately delayed the restart of play still remains.
Any technical area crew who delays the resumption of action either by holding on to the ball, kicking the ball away, etc will be dismissed.
If a player conducts himself in a similar manner, he will be handed a yellow card as retribution for his troubles.
More Accurate Calculation Of Added Time
The Premier League have made it known that from the 2024/25 season, when a goal is scored, match officials will only “start adding time on to the end of the match when the pause in play between the goal and the subsequent kick-off exceeds 30 seconds.”
The reason cited for this rule is to “allow natural time for both teams to resume their restart positions” after a goal is scored.
Additionally, the statement put out on the Premier League website pointed out that this rule could result in a noticeable drop in stoppage time in the 2024/25 campaign.
An average of 3.28 goals were scored per game in the Premier League last season and any addition to stoppage time in the upcoming term will only be made based on the aforementioned rule.
It will be fascinating to see how teams will abide by the new rules in order to avoid punishments that could put a dent in their results.
Manchester City are the defending champions of the Premier League, having won the title for a record-setting 4th consecutive time last season.
Clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester United amongst others are hoping to exude brilliance all through the campaign in order to dislodge the Cityzens from the throne.
