When Arsenal host Coventry City on 21 August, the Premier League will start a season carrying an unprecedented number of new laws. Almost all were rolled out first at this summer's World Cup, and almost all are aimed at the same thing: the minutes of a football match in which no football is played. The on-field laws run right through the English game, from the EFL down to Sunday league, with only the video changes confined to the levels that have video officials, and they have already caused confusion in the first round of the Carabao Cup.
The five-second countdown
The headline change targets players who deliberately delay a restart. A referee who judges a throw-in or goal-kick is being strung out blows the whistle, raises an arm and counts down five seconds in view of the ground; if the time runs out, the throw goes to the other team. Leaving the ball on a cone or dropping it for a team-mate can trigger the count. Long throws are exempt as set-piece routines, though the countdown can start once players are in position. A goalkeeper who dawdles over a goal-kick can now concede a corner, extending the eight-second rule introduced last season.
Substituted players have ten seconds to leave the field at the nearest point. Miss that and the replacement cannot come on for at least a minute, or until the next break in play, leaving the team with ten men. Middlesbrough's Will Lankshear was the first punished, scoring in the 80th minute of a Carabao Cup tie against Wrexham and then jogging off slowly while applauding the crowd despite his manager urging him to hurry. He said afterwards that he had not known about the rule.