Football Explainers 19 Jul 2026 · 5 min read

New football rules for 2026/27: what’s changing (and why not every league agrees)

A new football season means a new set of rules — but for the first time in a while, not every domestic league is playing by exactly the same ones. Here’s what’s mandatory, what’s optional, and how the Premier League has chosen to apply it.

The changes every league has to make

From 1 July 2026, IFAB’s updated Laws of the Game bring a handful of changes that apply everywhere, with no opt-out — sitting alongside long-standing rules like offside, which still trips up new fans as much as anything below.

10-second substitution limit

Substituted players now have just ten seconds to leave the pitch once the board goes up. Miss the window and the replacement is held back until the first stoppage after a full minute of play has passed — the player is only booked if the delay is excessive.

One-minute injury treatment window

Any player who receives on-field medical assessment, or whose injury stops play, must now leave the pitch and stay off for a minute once play restarts — double the old 30-second rule. There are sensible exceptions: goalkeeper injuries, clashes between team-mates, head injuries and the like.

5-second countdown on throw-ins and goal-kicks

If a referee thinks a team is deliberately delaying a throw-in or goal-kick, they’ll start a visual five-second countdown. Run the clock down and possession switches — a throw-in goes to the opposition, or a delayed goal-kick becomes a corner.

Tidying up the penalty spot

No more automatic yellow card for a kicker who accidentally double-touches a penalty while the goalkeeper also encroaches. Small change, fewer needless bookings.

Player accessories are also permitted now, as long as they’re not dangerous and are safely covered — and the captains-only protocol for approaching referees, already encouraged, becomes compulsory everywhere from 1 July 2027.

The optional trials — and who gets to choose

A second batch of changes are “competition options” rather than global law — each association or league decides for itself whether to use them:

VAR on second yellows and mistaken identity

Reviewing red cards that came from a clearly wrong second yellow, or a card shown to the wrong player, is now standard VAR territory everywhere.

VAR on wrongly awarded corners

Competitions can let VAR overturn a corner kick if it can be corrected immediately, without delaying the restart.

Red card for covering the mouth

Aimed at stopping players hiding abusive or discriminatory comments from officials, this is optional for each competition.

Sending-off for walking off in protest

Players or team officials who leave the field, or tell others to, in protest at a referee’s decision can now be sent off — again, a competition option rather than a blanket rule.

What the Premier League is doing

England has confirmed its position directly. The Premier League is applying all the mandatory changes above, plus VAR review of red cards from a clearly incorrect second yellow.

The Premier League has explicitly ruled out the optional expansion of VAR to incorrectly awarded corners, judging the extra stoppages aren’t worth it. It’s also made its own separate call on hair-pulling: a red card only applies where there’s a clear, deliberate pull with excessive force or brutality — otherwise it’s a yellow.

Scotland — and elsewhere

The mandatory package above applies north of the border too, with no opt-out available. The SFA is one of IFAB’s four founding member associations, sitting on both its Board of Directors and its Technical Subcommittee, and the Laws of the Game are global by design — there’s no mechanism for a competition starting after 1 July to apply a different rulebook.

Where it genuinely is still an open question is the optional trials above: whether to take any of them up is a call for whoever organises the competition itself, not the SFA — for Scottish football, that’s the SPFL, the same relationship as the Premier League (not the FA) deciding for English football. We contacted the SPFL directly for clarification on 9 July, and again on 15 July — as of publication, we hadn’t received a response. Should that change, we’ll update this section accordingly.

Awaiting response
Should the SPFL respond to our enquiries, we’ll update this post with the relevant information.

Same sport, slightly different rulebooks depending on where you’re watching — which makes knowing your kick-off times more useful than ever.

Whatever the rules say, you’ll still want to know when the match is on

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Written by Graeme Geddes

An avid sports fan from Glasgow, who created Watchsport because he was tired of hunting through countless platforms and channels to find where to watch sporting events.