By Henshaw NYONG.
The English Premier League has unveiled new regulations for the 2024/25 football season, TheHILL can confirm.
As the league kicks off on Friday, August 16, 2024, with a match between Manchester United and Fulham, several rule changes will come into effect, according to a statement on the EPL website.
The statement highlights that this season will see changes in how match officials enforce the rules.
Previously, teams were limited to warming up only three substitute players simultaneously, but this will now increase to five. This adjustment aligns with the rule allowing up to five substitutions during a match.
Additionally, the Premier League will implement a multiball system with 15 balls to accelerate play.
When the match ball goes out of play and cannot be quickly retrieved, players will need to collect a replacement ball from the nearest cone themselves.
The statement also notes that ball assistants are prohibited from returning balls to players, instead, they should return them to a vacant cone.
However, an exception will be made for ball assistants behind the goals, who may return balls to the goalkeeper for a restart.
Further, any technical staff who delay the restart of play by holding or kicking the ball away will be sent off, and players who do the same will receive a yellow card.
Another change affects stoppage time. Match officials will now only add time at the end of the match if the delay between a goal and the subsequent kick-off exceeds 30 seconds.
This aims to provide a natural pause for teams to resume play, potentially reducing overall stoppage time.
With an average of 3.28 goals scored per match last season, this new rule may lead to a noticeable decrease in stoppage time.
