The world football governing body, FIFA, is considering introducing five new rules to the game of football which might change the way the game is played forever. The football governing body is currently carrying out a trial of the five new rules using an amateur tournament.
FIFA had to organize the ‘Future of Football Cup’ youth tournament to try out the five new rules before the football governing body can attempt to introduce them to professional football.
The teams involved in the youth tournament include the under-19 sides of RB Leipzig, Club Brugge, PSV, and AZ Alkmaar.
Below are the five new rules FIFA is considering to introduce to football
- 60 minutes of football to replace 90 minutes
The World football governing body, FIFA intends to change the traditional 90 minutes of regular football to 60 minutes of football. This means that the two halves would no longer be 45 minutes apiece but 30 minutes apiece.
This change is directly similar to what is obtainable in basketball and futsal. And it could have been inspired by the failed European Super League because the chairman of the failed league and Real Madrid president Florentino Perez revealed that matches in the league would be shorter than usual.
More so, FIFA intends to introduce the use of a stopwatch. That is, whenever the ball goes out of play, the referee would stop his watch to avoid time wastage.
- Unlimited substitutions
FIFA intends to allow teams to make as many substitutions as they want instead of the regular three substitutions per game.
Recall that in 2020, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body that determines the laws of football, permits teams to make as many as five substitutions per game. That might be increased to an unlimited number of substitutions based on the ongoing trial.
- Yellow card sin bins
Based on the ongoing FIFA experiment, the yellow card is expected to carry a heavier punishment than usual. In the proposed changes in the game, if a player receives a yellow card, such a player would have to leave the pitch for five minutes.
This approach of momentary outnumbering is similar to what is obtainable in rugby.
- Kick-ins to replace throw-ins
Based on the proposed changes, FIFA intends to replace the regular throw-ins with kick-ins. This means that footballers would no longer use their hands to throw in the ball. Instead, they will kick the ball into play from the sideline.
- Continue play from corner kicks
This implies that players are allowed to continue play from corner kicks. That is, they can start dribbling into play from the corner flag instead of kicking it into the box or passing it to a nearby player alone.
As mentioned earlier, the aforementioned changes are still in trails stage. If the trials are successful, FIFA would have to take it to the International Football Association Board (IFAB) for deliberation and adoption into the law books of the game. If this happens, the game of football would never remain the same.
