The International Football Association Board (IFAB) has officially sanctioned new rules for goalkeepers that will come into effect starting the 2025-2026 season. According to the latest regulations, if a goalkeeper holds the ball for more than eight seconds, the opposing team will be awarded a corner kick as a penalty. Previously, goalkeepers were only allowed to hold the ball for a maximum of six seconds. If they exceeded this time limit, the referee would award an indirect free kick to the opposing team from the goalkeeper’s position. However, under the new rules set to be implemented on July 1, 2025, this violation will result in a corner kick for the opponent if the ball is held for more than eight seconds.
The decision was made after IFAB conducted a series of trials throughout the 2024-2025 season. The trials were carried out in the English Premier League 2 (the English academy competition), as well as leagues in Malta and Italy. Out of over 400 tested matches, only three instances of violations resulting in corner kick penalties occurred, all in England. Meanwhile, in the trials in Italy, a similar violation only occurred once, with the penalty being a throw-in for the opponent. The trial results showed that this rule is effective in reducing time-wasting practices without giving the opposing team too much advantage. Therefore, IFAB decided to implement this new rule in all official competitions starting from the 2025-2026 season.
In their official statement, IFAB revealed that referees have often been reluctant to enforce the six-second time limit rule because indirect free kicks were seen as providing too much advantage to the opposing team. Some of the main reasons for the implementation of this new rule include the difficulty of executing close-range free kicks on goal, the high likelihood of scoring from free kicks, and the unfair tactic of wasting time by holding the ball too long. By enforcing this new rule, IFAB hopes to reduce or even eliminate time-wasting tactics used by goalkeepers. Furthermore, this rule provides a fair punishment in the form of losing ball possession without directly providing a significant goal-scoring opportunity to the opponent.
This new rule will begin to be enforced in all official competitions on July 1, 2025. This means that all leagues and tournaments under FIFA and IFAB jurisdiction must follow this regulation starting from the upcoming season. The implementation of this new rule for goalkeepers is expected to make matches more fair and reduce time-wasting practices. For football fans, this change will certainly be a major focus in the upcoming competition season. Will this new rule have a positive impact on the game? We will have to wait and see how goalkeepers adapt to the new regulations starting from the 2025-2026 season.
