The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be a tournament like no other both on and off the pitch.
In the 12 years since Qatar was handed the honour of becoming the first Middle Eastern country to host the World Cup, the country's abhorrent human rights record has rightly dominated the build-up and cast a shadow over what is usually one of the most celebrated month in the football calendar.
But because of the wholesale changes to the 22nd edition of the World Cup, none more so than it being held in the winter, the showpiece finals in Qatar will have an unusual eerie feel to it.
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However, there will also be a string of distinctive changes to the rulebook this winter for the first time in World Cup history.
The ECHO takes a look at the changes viewers could notice over the next four weeks of action.
Players, players and more players
For the first time in FIFA history, managers will be allowed to name 15 players on their bench for a World Cup fixture and will also be given the luxury of making five substitutions during the contest. Squad sizes have been increased from 23 to 26.
However, like the rules that have been introduced in the Premier League this season, the five changes will have to be made within three windows over the course of the 90 minutes.
Should matches in the knockout stages be forced into extra time, each team will be handed one additional substitution.
Five substitutions have been seen in the European game - apart from the Premier League, until August - since the 2019/20 campaign which was distributed by Covid.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola had been two of the biggest advocates for five substitutes to be introduced on a permanent basis, but the duo faced backlash from Chris Wilder and Sean Dyche at the time who believed the pair were acting selfishly due to the quality of players they boasted on the bench.
However, at a Premier League shareholders' meeting earlier this year it was finally agreed that the top-flight would sanction five changes per-game for managers from the start of the 2022/23 season onwards.
Which technology is in use?
Video Assistant Referee, which has become part of the European game's furniture in recent years, will make its second World Cup appearance in Qatar this winter.
The technology was first used on the international stage back at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where its implementation was praised due to the swift speed at which it was able to decipher correct and incorrect decisions.
Avid watchers of the Premier League will have become all too aware of the controversies of VAR, which is currently in its fourth season in the English top-flight and still yet to earn the complete trust of some supporters, pundits and managers.
However, for the first time in World Cup history, VAR will be joined by a semi-automated offside technology, which FIFA claims will enable officials to make "faster, more accurate and more reproducible offside decisions on the biggest stage of all".
According to a press release from FIFA earlier this year, the technology will "use 12 dedicated tracking cameras mounted underneath the roof of the stadium to track the ball and up to 29 data points of each individual player, 50 times per second, calculating their exact position on the pitch.
"The 29 collected data points include all limbs and extremities that are relevant for making offside calls."
The official World Cup match ball, created by Adidas, will be fitted with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor to track the exact movement of the ball.
Handball rule
The 64 games that are set to take place over the duration of the World Cup will be underlined by the same handball rules as the Premier League, if they are required.
Last season the International Football Association Board provided more clarity on what should be judged as a handball offence, with new revised rules aiming to provide some much-needed clarity ahead of the new campaign.
The following situations would see a player penalised:
- The hand/arm is clearly away from the body and outside the "body line".
- The player clearly leans into the path of the ball.
- The ball travels some distance.
- The ball touches a hand/arm that is clearly raised above the shoulder.
- The player falls and the hand/arm is extended laterally or vertically away from the body.
- A deflection clearly makes no difference to the ball touching a hand/arm that is clearly extended away from the body and/or above the shoulder.
- Immediately after touching the ball with the arm, even accidentally, the player scores a goal or creates a goal-scoring opportunity.
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