The International Football Associations Board (IFAB) announced that there will be several rules changes for the 2026 World Cup, which begins June 12.
RULE CHANGES
• VAR — Can now be used to review if fouls occurred against defenders on set pieces — Can be used to overturn wrongly issued second yellow cards — Can be used to determine/overturn corner kicks and mistaken identity
• LEAVING THE PITCH
— Red cards for any player who leaves the pitch in protest of a refs decision — Red cards for managers who encourage that behavior — Teams that force a match to be abandoned will forfeit
• DELAY TACTICS
— No "tactical timeouts." Refs can prevent players from gathering on the sideline for coaching during a player injury — Players being subbed out have 10 seconds to leave the pitch and must leave from the nearest sideline. Failure will prevent players subbing-in for them from entering until the next natural stoppage after one minute from the time the substitution was to happen, leaving the team down a man (or men) until the natural stoppage — Any non-goalkeeper receiving on-field medical attention must leave the pitch for at least one full minute of game action before re-entering
• OTHER
— Players are not allowed to cover their mouths when speaking to opponents in an attempt to eliminate racist language. — There will be a three-minute hydration stoppage every half, held at the referee's discretion
My take: VAR takes forever, so I hope this is more of an NFL eye-in-the-sky situation where the ref is just informed through an earpiece. Good changes for the delay tactics.
THE ASYLUM
World Cup rules changes
The International Football Associations Board (IFAB) announced that there will be several rules changes for the 2026 World Cup, which begins June 12.
RULE CHANGES
• VAR
— Can now be used to review if fouls occurred against defenders on set pieces
— Can be used to overturn wrongly issued second yellow cards
— Can be used to determine/overturn corner kicks and mistaken identity
• LEAVING THE PITCH
— Red cards for any player who leaves the pitch in protest of a refs decision
— Red cards for managers who encourage that behavior
— Teams that force a match to be abandoned will forfeit
• DELAY TACTICS
— No "tactical timeouts." Refs can prevent players from gathering on the sideline for coaching during a player injury
— Players being subbed out have 10 seconds to leave the pitch and must leave from the nearest sideline. Failure will prevent players subbing-in for them from entering until the next natural stoppage after one minute from the time the substitution was to happen, leaving the team down a man (or men) until the natural stoppage
— Any non-goalkeeper receiving on-field medical attention must leave the pitch for at least one full minute of game action before re-entering
• OTHER
— Players are not allowed to cover their mouths when speaking to opponents in an attempt to eliminate racist language.
— There will be a three-minute hydration stoppage every half, held at the referee's discretion
My take: VAR takes forever, so I hope this is more of an NFL eye-in-the-sky situation where the ref is just informed through an earpiece. Good changes for the delay tactics.
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