Overview
- Serie A formally communicated the new rules on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, under referee chief Daniele Orsato and technical director Domenico Messina as the league moves to raise effective playing time.
- Substituted players must leave within 10 seconds of the board or referee signal and any late outgoing player forces the substitute to wait, which can leave the team temporarily one player short until the next stoppage.
- Players treated on the field must leave and may only re-enter after one minute of effective play has passed from the moment the ball is back in play, a rule meant to deter on-field treatment that stops the flow of the game.
- VAR’s remit is widened for narrowly defined, immediate fixes: it can revoke an evidently wrong second yellow, correct player misidentification, and perform fast silent checks to overturn an obviously incorrect corner, with intervention limited to decisions that can be corrected without delaying play.
- Rules also enforce 'Only the captain' for referee communication, relax bans on non-dangerous personal or religious accessories, and leave Open Var format and broadcaster coordination under discussion with FIGC and DAZN ahead of wider IFAB steps due July 1, 2027.