This time next week the 126th AGM of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) will be taking place at Pennyhill Park Hotel in Surrey, IFAB being the body that determines the laws of the game, with the board being made up of the four associations of the United Kingdom, in the FA, the SFA, the FAW and the IFA, as well as FIFA. There are plenty of things on the agenda too as far as new laws or amending old laws is concerned, with each United Kingdom association getting one vote each, while FIFA have four as they debate making changes, with the full agenda in all its own glory being available to read at - http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/ifab/01/57/76/27/6152ifabagenda_final3_withoutcrops.pdf
If seeing the full details of a potential change in commercial advertising boards isn’t your bag though then I’ll just cherry pick some of the ones that are more relevant to us as normal football fans. The first one to catch my eye certainly being an interesting one as, following a recommendation by the FIFA Football Task Force 2014 we could have a change in the laws regarding substitutes. The proposal being that in cup competitions that instead of having the usual three replacements a side would be able to make a fourth change during the extra-time period.
Meanwhile, standing in the Paddock I get used to hearing the shout of handball any time the ball hits anything apart from the boot of an opposing player, and that’s where there could be a slight tweak in the laws when a caution for unsporting behaviour is required. The current law on that being that it is needed when a player ‘deliberately and blatantly handles the ball to prevent an opponent gaining possession’, with the proposed change being that the word ‘blatantly’ is removed. The theory being that doing that makes it easier for the referee in his interpretation of the law as a handball could be very important but also inconspicuous at the moment.
What we would probably see as the biggest amendment though would come in changing what IFAB are describing as the triple punishment of a penalty, red card and player suspension. So, at the moment you are red carded for ‘denying the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball’, or for ‘denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or penalty kick’. Note too that as far as the latter of those two laws is concerned there is no ‘last man’ reference despite how many times it gets mentioned throughout the game.
The proposal then for the future being that the handball law stays the same but as far as the foul tackle law is concerned there would be changes. That being the law would be broken down into three chunks as follows. The first two points being that ‘denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards a player’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick outside the penalty area’ and ‘denying an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by holding or an offence committed from behind inside his own penalty area when he HAS NO OPPORTUNITY to play the ball’ would still result in a red card.
However no red card would be shown, it would be a yellow card offence instead, if the player involved ‘denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by holding or an offence committed inside his own penalty area when he HAS THE OPPORTUNITY to play the ball’. The theory behind all this being that the triple punishment is too severe, although that remains to be seen in my opinion whether that will lead to more fouls or not as a player would now know that he could risk a challenge in the box without as much fear of a red card, while it will also perhaps lead to interpretation problems, did he or did he not have the opportunity to play the ball?
Don’t worry though if none of this really interests you as you are more of a sock man as there could be a change there as well. A proposed new law being that ‘if tape or similar material is applied externally it must be the same colour as that part of the stocking it is applied to’. The scenario there being that with players now sticking large amounts of different coloured tape around their socks it makes it more difficult for an assistant referee to judge who the ball came off last. Seems like a sensible new law to me, and it was proposed by the FA too. Cripes.