As soccer Fans await the commencement of the 2024/25 football season, the English Premier League has introduced new rules for the upcoming season kicks off on Friday, August 16, 2024, with Manchester United slugging it out with Fulham in the opening match.
A statement on the EPL website says significant changes will be implemented in how match officials apply the rules.
According to the statement, while Teams are allowed five substitutes per match, a continuation from the previous season, only three substitute players from each team may warm up at the same time.
Fiurthermore, when the match ball goes out of play and is not quickly retrievable, players must collect a replacement ball from the nearest cone, while Ball assistants are not permitted to return the ball directly to players but must place it on a vacant cone.
However, an exception allows ball assistants behind the goals to return the ball to the goalkeeper for a restart.
Also, Referees will send off technical area staff who deliberately delay the restart of play by holding or kicking the ball away and Players in the technical area who do this will receive a yellow card.
It makes it clear that Match officials will only start adding time to the end of the match when the delay between a goal and the subsequent kick-off exceeds 30 seconds.
