Football’s lawmakers have approved a significant rule change that will allow goalkeepers to hold onto the ball for eight seconds instead of six, starting from the 2025-26 season.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) made the decision after successful trials in competitions such as Premier League 2.
Under current rules, keepers who exceed the six-second limit should be penalised with an indirect free-kick, though this is rarely enforced.
Punters often watch keepers persistently time waste without punishment, especially if a team are trying to hold onto their lead.
With the updated law, referees will signal the final five seconds with a visible countdown.
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If a goalkeeper holds onto the ball beyond the eight-second mark, the opposing team will be awarded a corner rather than an indirect free-kick.
Alongside this change, IFAB has also decided to continue offside trials aimed at encouraging more attacking play.
FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom admitted that the failure to utilise the old six second rule had “been a bane of many people’s lives for quite some time”.
And he told an IFAB congress in Belfast that it will begin to be used by his organisation from the inaugural 32-team Club World Cup in the United States this summer.
