Premier League 2024/25 rule changes: More penalties won from corners?
The Premier League returns this weekend with the 2024/25 season getting underway.
There are some new quirks and features coming aimed at improving the experience for supporters both in and away from the stadium. For example, team news will now be released 75 minutes before kick-off — 15 minutes earlier than in previous years — while the Premier League have launched their new @PLMatchCentre account on X, which will provide explanations and updates on officiating situations in matches.
But that’s not all. The English top flight will have a slightly different feel to it this season with some official rule changes brought in. Here’s a look at what you need to know:
Semi-automated offisdes
Semi-automated offside technology proved a big hit at Euro 2024. While it still harshly punished players at times for basically having a larger boot size than their opponent, at least the decision was made efficiently and without the need for ridiculous periods of in-stadium confusion as the VAR operators drew their infamous lines. Instead, we knew whether a player was offside and if a goal stood or not within seconds, meaning we could get on with the game with minimal fuss.
VAR will still not be perfect by any means, but the Premier League have taken steps to improve things by integrating this technology.
A league statement read: “Computer vision cameras powered by Genius Sports will be installed in every Premier League stadium. These cameras around the ground will track the ball as well as thousands of data points for each player and the ball.
“When a match-defining moment occurs, such as a penalty, a goal or a red card, the technology will track to see if any attacking player involved in the build-up to the incident was offside. If a player receives a ball in an offside position, the technology will send an alert to the officials in the VAR Hub.
“They will check that the point of contact with the ball and automated offside line have been correctly recorded. The VAR will then inform the on-field officials if an offside has been recorded.
“The hope is that on average offside decisions will be made more than 30 seconds faster than last season under the old system. There will be occasions of occlusion of the ball (it being hidden from the cameras among a group of players), ‘edge decisions’ or subjective decisions of whether an offside player was interfering with play, which will require intervention from the VAR, and possibly the on-field referee in the latter instance.”
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Stoppage time change
The Premier League have confirmed that referees will only add on stoppage time for a goal if the delay between the goal being scored and kick-off goes beyond 30 seconds. It’s thought this could result in a notable drop-off in stoppage time during the course of the season.
Multiball
A new ‘multiball’ system is being introduced in the Premier League that will see 15 balls used throughout the stadium on matchday in a bid to cut down on time wasting.
Ball assistants won’t be allowed to return a ball to a player — with the exception of those behind the goal being allowed to return the ball to a goalkeeper — instead putting it on a vacant cone. However, players will have balls placed on cones around the pitch that can be quickly retrieved themselves.
Warm-up changes for subs
In previous seasons, there was a limit of three substitutes per team allowed to warm up on the sidelines at any time during the match. This has now been increased to five, reflecting the number of changes a manager may make in the course of a game.
Set-piece clampdown
According to a report from The Times, referees are set to get tough on holding, blocking and obstructing from set-piece situations such as corners and free-kicks.
On the one hand, this could hurt last season’s set-piece specialists Arsenal and Everton, who were the top scorers in these situations with 20 and 19 goals, respectively. But on the other hand, the box can also be rife with defenders pulling back an opposition attacker, which means we could see a lot more penalties conceded in these instances.
The last time there were big sweeping changes to rules like this was at the 2018 World Cup, in which a competition record was set for penalties award (29), scored (22) and missed (7).
Also on the menu of changes is a relaxing of the policing of handball and encroachment offences, while referees have been instructed to use the pitchside monitor only for subjective calls and incidents involving serious foul play — the latter will have a replay shown first at full speed, followed by a slow motion playback to demonstrate the point of contact.
