The Premier League is preparing to introduce a broad set of rule changes for the 2026\/27 season, with every measure having already been trialled at this summer\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
The stated aim is straightforward: limit timewasting, keep the ball in play for longer and do so without increasing stoppage time at the end of each half, according to BBC Sport. There will be no hydration breaks, but there will be several stricter controls on restarts, substitutions and VAR intervention.<\/p>\n
One of the clearest changes concerns substitutions. Players being replaced must now leave the pitch within 10 seconds and do so at the nearest available point. If they fail to comply, the substitute will be made to wait a minute before coming on and the team will temporarily continue with 10 men. After that minute, the substitute must wait for the next stoppage. The only exceptions are injury concerns or situations where safety would be affected.<\/p>\n
Throw-ins are also being tightened. A five-second countdown will begin once the referee decides a player is deliberately slowing the game. If the player still takes too long after the countdown starts, possession will go to the opposition. Long throws are exempt unless they are judged to be taking too much time on purpose.<\/p>\n
At goal kicks, referees will be able to award a corner if a restart is delayed for too long. There is also a clearer ruling on handball during these phases: once the ball has been kicked by the goalkeeper or a defender, the restart is considered live. If a defender then handles it, the result will be a penalty; if a goalkeeper handles it, the opposition will get an indirect free kick.<\/p>\n
Injury delays are being treated more strictly too. Players needing treatment from club medical staff will now be kept off for 60 seconds, rather than 30. Those who prevent a restart will also have to sit out for a minute, unless the foul has already led to a booking or dismissal.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper timeouts are being curbed as well. If a goalkeeper asks for treatment, the manager must remove an outfield player within 10 seconds, or the captain will be forced off instead.<\/p>\n
VAR will also have more to do. It can now review second yellow cards when a player is sent off for two bookable offences, but only where the foul itself was an obvious error. It can also check whether a foul happened before a set-piece if that incident directly leads to a goal, penalty or disciplinary action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Premier League rules are changing in 2026\/27, with new limits on timewasting, restarts and VAR.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,172],"tags":[1836,1162,59],"class_list":["post-18492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics-stats","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}