One of the more controversial decisions again concerns the offside rule. This has been changed so that, “in the definition of offside position, “nearer to the opponents’ goal line” means that any part of his head, body or feet is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent. The arms are not included in this definition”. Law 11 has been changed to reflect the fact that since a player cannot use his arms to control the ball, they are, in effect, obsolete.
Secondly, the definition of active play has been clarified. It is now described as:
“*Interfering with play means playing or touching the ball passed or touched by a team-mate;
*Interfering with an opponent means preventing an opponent from playing or bring able to play by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line or vision or movements or making a gesture or movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent;
*Gaining an advantage by being in that position means playing a ball that rebounds to him off a goal post or the crossbar having been in an offside position or playing a ball that rebounds to him off an opponent having been in an offside position”
Brian Clough’s ascertation that, if a player is not interfering with play then he is not involved properly in the game, springs to mind.
In order to define when a referee is going to report an incident, he is now authorised to take disciplinary sanctions “as from the moment he enters the field of play until he leaves the field of play after the final whistle”. This does not affect the referee’s right to report an incident after the participants have retired into the tunnel.
Also in Law 12, which concerns Fouls and Misconduct, the text has been modified so that a tackle from any position, and not just from behind, “which endangers the safety of an opponent, must be sanctioned as serious foul play”. This is an automatic red card offence, and makes all poor challenges a dismissible offence.
Law 14 regarding the penalty kick has seen the Laws of the Game clarified. If either the penalty taker or a player on the side of the penalty taker infringes the Laws, the new text states that, “if the ball does not enter the goal, the referee stops play and restarts the match with an indirect free-kick to the defending team”. This replaces the previous version, which declared that the kick was not retaken, and was demmed confusing.
Throw-ins have also been modified. Due to the recent trend for players to stand directly in front of the throw-in taker, “all opponents must stand no less than 2 metres from the point at which the throw-in is taken”. This brings Law 15 into line with all other areas of the Laws of the Game regarding standing a reasonable distance away from a set-piece taker. The only area where players are allowed to be closer than this remains a drop-ball.
Other information has also been passed down from the Federation Internationale De Football Association (FIFA), that states that a yellow card should be shown to anyone that infringes and delays the restart of play by standing within the two metre distance. This includes players collecting the ball from inside the goal having just scored.
Finally, goal line technology is set to be used at the FIFA Under-17 World Championship in Peru and the FIFA Club World Championship TOYOTA Cup in Japan, where the experiment will be assessed. If successful, it would be used in other areas, although League One could be a little too far down the pyramid for it to be reasonably expected that clubs should pay for this system.
Robert Craven
www.thelittlegazette.com