The players have been taking advantage of weak referees and Pierluigi Collina the 66 year old ex referee renown for his no nonsense approach is changing the rules for the better of the game.
The FIFA World Cup currently being held in the US, Canada and Mexico saw some minor tweaks to the football rules. I have to admit I have not really been watching many of the games as the interest is just not there.
What has me slightly bemused is how the referees are letting the games flow not being fooled by the play acting we hate in football. Football is meant to be a contact sport and for as long as I have been watching any contact has been penalised which makes a total mockery of the game.
In any sport you can be injured which is often more accidental than intentional and there will be legitimate red cards for foul play. This World Cup has shown a more exciting side to football with the game being allowed to flow which should be the case for all matches going forward. The stop start which has plagued the sport for so long is the enemy of the game and the allowing the game to continue should be commended.
When you look at the data from the 2025/26 English Premiership season the ball was in play for an average of 55 minutes with most matches running for 100 minutes. The other 45 minutes is wasted time by the players with deliberate slowing down tactics which robs the fans of game time.
The refreshing part is the referees waving play on when a player is looking for a foul even when it was a 50/50 challenge. Those players recover pretty fast when the play continues knowing their acting did not work. There is hope that next season we shall see "men" playing football and not "pussies" because that is what they have been. The players are soft and protected and this should not be the case when playing a contact sport.
I know what rugby players think of footballers in general and you can guess what that would be and they are not wrong in their thinking. Football has not been a refereed as a contact sport and it should have been. Just think if you pull someone's hair it is a red card which is I guess correct, but when you can run through a player legally why worrying about pulling someone's hair?
Last season Arsenal pushed the laws to the limit when it came to time wasting and these have been addressed by FIFA at this World Cup and will continue in the domestic leagues in Europe this coming season.
Substitutes/Replacements will be allowed 10 seconds to make the switch and if not made in time the team forfeits 60 seconds with only 10 men on the field. In the EPL we saw substitutions take a minimum of 30 seconds so this will impact player behavior and is no longer going to be used as a delaying time wasting tactic by teams.
If a physio comes on to treat a player then that player has to leave the field for a minimum of 1 minute so the player has to really need treatment otherwise the team is losing a player and the delay tactics would back fire. A goalkeeper needing treatment is the only exception for this rule.
When goalkeepers suddenly sit on the ground asking for a physio it normally is done for tactical reasons. The team normally discuss tactics with their coach and once completed the goal keeper miraculously recovers. The new rule bans players talking to the coaching staff and they must remain on the pitch and not go to the technical area on the side of the field.
5 seconds for a throw in or goal kick and if delayed could be over turned and become the opposing teams throw in or a corner. I think this no nonsense approach is all positive for the game and unsurprisingly the man behind the changes is none other than ex referee Pierluigi Collina who was so respected by all the players. No player dared to question his decision and he did not need VAR to back his decisions either.
