Quick Bit: The 2022/23 Premier League season kicks off on August 5 and a number of changes have been made to the rule book that concerns all 20 teams.
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The 2022/23 Premier League kicks off on Friday, August 5 with Crystal Palace hosting Arsenal at Selhurst Park in the opening fixture. After a long summer, the waiting is nearly over for football fans across the country and around the world.
Manchester City and Liverpool are expected to be the frontrunners once again at the top of the table with Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur all hoping to make improvements.
Bournemouth, Fulham and Nottingham Forest have come up from the Championship after winning promotion and will scrap to avoid relegation and keep their place in the Premier League.
All 20 teams, and their players, will have to be aware of a series of changes made to the Premier League rule book ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.
Five substitutions
Premier League managers will once again be able to make five substitutions during the course of a match. This rule was introduced for the 2020/21 season as a way to mitigate the impact of fixture congestion caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but was removed for the 2021/22 campaign.
This was at odds with most other major European leagues who made the decision to keep the five substitutes rule, much to the annoyance of managers like Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp who publicly questioned the change.
While Premier League managers will be permitted to make five changes per match, they must still make these changes within a maximum of three “windows.”
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‘Multi-ball’ system
The Premier League is to introduce a new ‘multi-ball’ system for the 2022/23 season designed to cut down on time-wasting and speed up the play in matches.
Last season the ball was in play for an average of 55.07 minutes across Premier League games.
One ball will be in play, one with the fourth official and eight will be placed at various points around the pitch on cones.
Two will be behind each goal and two along each touchline. Those behind the goal must be positioned such that they do not interfere with the Hawk-Eye goal decision system.
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Foot behind line for penalties
A recent rule change stipulated that goalkeepers must have at least one foot on the goal line when facing a penalty kick. Now, though, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) have tweaked the rule which caused much discussion and debate among the goalkeeping community.
Premier League goalkeepers will now be allowed to have one foot behind the goal line at the point of contact of a penalty kick, meaning they can now start from a deeper position to build up momentum to help them make a save.
Only goalkeepers can handle in the box
Every football fan is well aware that only goalkeepers are permitted to use their hands in their own penalty area, but IFAB has clarified the laws of the game for the 2022/23 season to ensure there is no confusion on this matter.
Indeed, IFAB have added the line that no player can handle the ball “except a goalkeeper within their penalty area.” It was about time they cleared that up!
New way to restart match
In the event of a player leaving the pitch to get involved with a non-player (defined as an “outside agent” by IFAB), the referee will now have the power to restart the match with an indirect free-kick from the position where the player left the pitch.
Of course, if the player leaves the pitch during a stoppage in play there will be no change to how the match is restarted.
Official coin tosser
Until the 2022/23 season, nothing stipulated which match official or person should perform the coin toss that takes place before each match to decide which team takes kick off.
Now, though, IFAB has clarified that the referee must be the one who tosses the coin.
Originally found on Sporting News Read More
