The 2023-2024 Premier League season is officially starting later tonight with a game between the reigning champions of the league, Manchester City, and the newly promoted Burnley who are the reigning champions of the English second-tier league.
While football fans are focused on the action on the pitch, there are some adjustments to how things will be done throughout the season that might be stunning if one is not fully abreast of the new changes to the Premier League rules.
Below are the changes to the Premier League rules ahead of the 2023-2024 Premier League season
1. Injury
From the 2023-2024 season, it is a bookable offense for a Premier League player to feign an injury and refuse to be attended to by a medical team.
2. Timekeeping
From 8 p.m. today, August 11, when Manchester City will clash with Burnley at Turf Moor, the 2023-2024 Premier League games could last as long as most games lasted during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The league body has decided to cut down on time wastage by adding up time lost on goal celebrations, free-kicks, and penalties. This will make every minute of the official 90 minutes of game time count, thereby prolonging the length of a live game.
3. Offside
From this season, there’s no longer a guarantee that a player will be deemed onside if the ball touched an opponent before him.
This is in line with a written EPL rule that ‘an offside player should not become onside on every occasion when an opponent moves and touches the ball’.
4. Denying goalscoring opportunity
From this season, a team’s last man might not necessarily receive a red card for tackling a player who is goal-bound.
From the 2023-2024 Premier League season, fouls committed by players who try to play the ball will result in a yellow, while only fouls committed intentionally would result in an immediate red.
The player will be dismissed for any additional infractions like holding, tugging, shoving, or failing to play the ball.
According to the new FA rules, a player would receive a warning if they handled the ball to thwart or hinder a likely attack.
A caution will also be issued if the referee decides to give a penalty kick for an offense that was an attempt to play the ball, except in the aforementioned situations.
According to the current referee rules, any challenge that is found to be “careless” will be considered a foul, and that is “reckless” will result in a yellow card, and any player who “endangers the safety” of an opponent will be dismissed.
5. Goalkeeper sportsmanship
The Goalkeeper sportsmanship rule which is also referred to as Emiliano Martinez law, inspired by the penalty antics of the Argentine and Aston Villa goalkeeper at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, makes it clear that goalkeepers will be punished if they seek to unfairly delay the execution of a penalty.
Additionally, they are not allowed to delay the kick by touching the crossbar, goal, or goalposts.
6. Time Wasting
Goalkeepers routinely get sent off for idly wasting time in the dying seconds of a game, so seeing them get a card for it this season might not be too strange.
However, time-wasting is no longer only illegal in the closing moments of a match, referees can also issue an early warning if they think the keeper is taking too long.
Additionally, rather than merely penalizing overt behaviors like kicking the ball away, referees will be harder about punishing “clear and impactful actions” that lead to time wastage.
7. Manager behaviour
From the 2023-2024 Premier League season, club managers will receive an automatic yellow card if there is more than one coach in the technical area during games.
Also, managers who leave their technical areas will face stiffer penalties. They or their coaches will be sent off for acting violently toward the authorities or the opposition.
Red card recipients will no longer be allowed to watch from the stands or on top of the dugouts but must be outside the playing area.
If managers begin to request cards as players do, as Arsenal’s coach Mikel Arteta did in the Community Shield win over Manchester City earlier this month, they will be punished.
Recall that the Spanish tactician was shown a straight yellow card when he decided to wave an imaginary yellow card in reaction to a challenge from Rodri on Kai Havertz.
8. Crowding referees
The Premier League has long had a problem with players crowding around referees to complain about their decisions.
Most teams have engaged in it, and one recent example occurred at the end of the previous campaign when Simon Hooper was encircled by Liverpool players who were unhappy with a tackle from Manchester City’s Rodri.
Along with other teams, Liverpool were charged and fined by the FA, but from the 2023-2024 Premier League season, players should anticipate more punishment on the field.
In the 2023-2024 Premier League season, whenever multiple players approach the referee, at least one of them—and possibly more—will automatically receive a yellow card.
Any footballer that approaches match officials from afar is more likely to receive a booking immediately this season.