Governing Bodies
Rule Change in Football: time-wasting by goalkeepers will incur a corner kick
Goalkeepers who hold onto the ball for longer than eight seconds will concede a corner under a new rule approved by the International Football Association Board on Saturday.
Currently, Law 12.2 states that a goalkeeper has six seconds to release the ball before the opposing team is awarded an indirect free-kick but this has now been amended and the change will come into force next season.
On-field referees will be aided in their decision-making by a visual five-second countdown.
“After trials have shown a major positive impact where goalkeepers have been holding onto the ball for too long, The IFAB has unanimously decided to amend Law 12.2,” IFAB said after its 139th Annual General Meeting, hosted by the Irish FA.
“The amendment means that if a goalkeeper holds the ball for longer than eight seconds (with the referee using a visual five-second countdown), the referee will award a corner kick to the opposing team (rather than the current indirect free kick for more than six seconds),” added the statement.
IFAB also announced that any competitions will be able to introduce laws meaning only captains of each team can approach the referee. The Premier League adopted that rule this season and it was enforced at Euro 2024.
“The IFAB agreed that stronger cooperation and communication between captains and referees, who often face verbal and/or physical dissent when making decisions, can help instil higher levels of fairness and mutual respect, both of which are core values of the game.”
Another tweak, to Law 8.2, concerns how a drop ball is instigated. From next season if the ball is outside the penalty area when play is stopped, it is dropped for the team that had or would have gained possession if this is clear to the referee.
Otherwise, it is dropped for the team that last touched it. The ball is dropped at its position when play was stopped.
The rule changes will be operational at the FIFA Club World Cup which kicks off in June. That tournament will also be used to expand a trial for referees to wear body cameras as part of the live match transmission.
“It was agreed that the successful use of body cameras worn by referees at grassroots level in England should be further tested and promoted given its positive impact on player behaviour,” IFAB said.
The IFAB is comprised of the four British football associations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) with one vote each, and world governing body FIFA, covering the remaining 207 national associations, with four votes.
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International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach will resign as a member of the Olympic body after handing over to his presidential successor in June, the IOC said on Wednesday.
Bach, an Olympic fencing champion in 1976, steps down from his post this year after 12 years in charge. He will hand over on June 23 to the new president to be elected on March 20.
“The IOC Executive Board today agreed to accept the resignation of IOC President Thomas Bach as an IOC Member, effective after 23 June 2025,” it said in a statement.
Bach, 71, could have stayed on as a member until the age of 80, having joined the IOC in 1991.
There are seven candidates to succeed Bach at the March 20 vote at the IOC session in Greece.
They are World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, multiple Olympic swimming champion Kirsty Coventry, who is Zimbabwe’s sports minister, as well as Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch, son of the late former IOC president.
International cycling chief David Lappartient, Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, International Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe and Olympic newcomer and multimillionaire Johan Eliasch, who heads the International Ski Federation, complete the candidates’ lineup.
-Reuters
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Governing Bodies
Ahead of new court hearing, former FIFA boss Blatter says he is victim of witch hunt
Summary
- Blatter and Platini face appeal from Swiss Federal Prosecutors
- Pair were cleared of fraud at 2022 hearing
- Blatter confident his acquittal will be upheld
- Platini’s lawyer says client is confident of being cleared again
Sepp Blatter, the former head of soccer’s global governing body FIFA, is looking forward to clearing his name at a new court hearing into allegations he made corrupt payments to French footballing great Michel Platini.
Blatter, who was president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015, told Reuters on Tuesday he was innocent and the victim of a witch hunt ahead of the appeals hearing which starts on Monday.
The 88-year-old is due to appear in court in Switzerland alongside former France captain and manager Platini, once seen as his eventual successor at the top of world football.
Both were cleared in 2022 at a lower Swiss court following a seven-year investigation into a payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.24 million), a decision contested by Swiss prosecutors.
“The Federal Criminal Court in 2022 said the contract between Platini and me was correct, and I expect the new court will confirm this first decision,” Blatter told Reuters, adding the upcoming appeal was “absolute nonsense”.
“It’s a witch hunt against me, it feels like a vendetta,” Blatter added. “I am completely confident I will be cleared, I am an honest man.”
The case goes back to a payment FIFA made to Platini when he was boss of European football’s governing body UEFA in 2011, with Blatter’s approval, for work done 10 years earlier.
In the 2022 case, a judge said the pair’s account of a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ for FIFA to pay Platini 2 million Swiss francs for consulting work between 1998 and 2002 was credible, and that serious doubts existed about the prosecution’s allegation that it was a fraudulent payment.
“The payment was made based on a contract and the first court agreed,” said Blatter. “It was correctly implemented and there was no bribery in any way.”
Platini, a three-times European footballer of the year, also denies the fraud charges “100%” said his lawyer Dominic Nellen.
The 69-year-old Frenchman, who after hanging up his boots helped organise the 1998 World Cup in his homeland, was confident he would be cleared again, Nellen said.
“My client was clearly acquitted by the court of first instance. It is incomprehensible the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has appealed the case,” Nellen told Reuters.
As a result of the investigation, Blatter and Platini both lost their jobs and were banned from the sport for several years.
In the upcoming Swiss hearing, federal prosecutors are seeking sentences of 20 months against both Blatter and Platini, suspended for two years.
The proceedings, due to take place at the Extraordinary Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Criminal Court, will start in Muttenz, near Basel on Monday, with a verdict expected on March 25.
Blatter said he was looking forward to putting the case behind him, adding he was happy following international matches on television and local games in his home canton of Valais.
“I truly hope this ends the matter,” Blatter said. “I’ll be happy when everything is over and I can live in peace.”
-Reuters
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Wadie Jary, the former president of the Tunisian Football Federation (FTF), has been sentenced to four years in prison on corruption charges.
A spokesperson for the country’s sports ministry told the AFP news agency that the conviction related to an “unlawful contract between the FTF and a technical director” during Jary’s time in office.
The 52-year-old’s lawyers say he will appeal against the verdict.
Jary was first elected head of the FTF in 2012 and faced multiple allegations of impropriety during his reign, including match-fixing, financial misconduct and money laundering, all of which he denied.
Local media also reported on disputes between Jary and the sports ministry, while in January 2021 he received a four-year ban from the Tunisian National Olympic Committee after it claimed he had “breached national and international Olympic ethics codes”.
Despite that ban, Jary was elected to the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) executive committee just two months later.
He remained on the the committee while awaiting trial, with Caf general secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba telling the BBC last year that the organisation was “not protecting crooks” and would make a decision on Jary once a verdict was delivered by the Tunisian legal system.
After the charges against him emerged, Jary was taken into custody in October 2023.
-BBC
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