Football is the greatest sport on earth. It is played in every country and at many different levels. The Laws of the Game are the same for all football throughout the world from the FIFA World Cup™ final through to a game between young children in a remote village.
That the same Laws apply in every match in every confederation, country, town and village throughout the world is a considerable strength which must be preserved. This is also an opportunity which must be harnessed for the good of football everywhere.
Football must have Laws which keep the game ‘fair’ as a crucial foundation of the beauty of the ‘beautiful game’ is its fairness – this is a vital feature of the ‘spirit’ of the game. The best matches are those where the referee is rarely needed as the players play with respect for each other, the match officials and the Laws.
The integrity of the Laws, and the referees who apply them, must always be protected and respected. All those in authority, especially coaches and team captains, have a clear responsibility to the game to respect the match officials and their decisions.
The changes for 2020/21 are relatively few and are mostly clarifications, as the major revision of the Laws has been completed. The main changes are:
- Handball – the boundary between the arm (handball) and shoulder (not handball) has been defined and the wording for accidental handball offences has been made clearer.
- If a penalty kick misses the goal or rebounds from the goal, the goalkeeper is not penalised for encroachment unless it clearly affected the kicker.
- The goalkeeper is warned for their first offence at the taking of a penalty kick, and then cautioned (yellow card) for any further offence(s).
- Cautions are not carried forward into kicks from the penalty mark.
- In VAR matches, there is an expectation that there will be an on-field review if the decision being reviewed is subjective, i.e. the referee will look at the replay footage in the referee review area.
The IFAB will continue to experiment with significant Law changes and in the coming year, there will be trials of special substitution procedures for a player who has sustained a head injury and may have, or develop, concussion.
The Future
The IFAB’s ‘play fair!’ strategy for 2017-22 was established to examine and consider proposed changes to see if they will benefit the game. It has been well-received throughout the football world and there has been strong approval of its focus on three important areas:
- Fairness and integrity
- will the proposed change strengthen the game’s fairness and integrity on the field of play?
- Universality and inclusion
- will the proposed change benefit football at all levels throughout the world?
- will the proposed change encourage more people from all backgrounds and abilities to take part in and enjoy football?
- The growth of technology
- will the proposed change have a positive impact on the game?
During 2020/21, The IFAB, working with its expert panels, will continue to consult widely on a number of important Law-related topics, including player behaviour and potentially enhancing the role of the captain.
By focussing on fairness, universality and inclusion, and technology, The IFAB will continue to develop the Laws to promote a better game on every football field in every part of the world.
The significant Law changes in recent years have begun to make a major contribution to increasing playing time, fairness and the attractiveness of the game. Along with the impact of VARs, player behaviour is also expected to continue to improve. All this will make the game even more enjoyable to play, watch and referee.
The IFAB greatly enjoys engaging with people throughout the world and we are always very pleased and interested to receive suggestions or questions relating to the Laws of the Game. Indeed, many of the recent Law changes have come from suggestions from people from many different parts of the world.
