Overview
- Senior figures have indicated that timed restarts are being explored to boost effective playing time and improve the fan experience.
- The consideration follows encouraging early results from this season’s eight-second rule for goalkeepers, with referees visibly counting down the final five seconds.
- Any expansion would proceed through trials to test practicalities, protect player safety, preserve reset time and identify unintended consequences, including effects on long throws.
- Stats Perform data from the first 40 Premier League matches shows average ball-in-play at 54 minutes 21 seconds, down 133 seconds on last season, which some attribute to a resurgence of long throws.
- IFAB’s annual general meeting in Wales in February is the next formal point for discussion of potential trials and law changes.