This weekend marks the return of the UK Premier League with Fulham and Arsenal getting the 20/21 season underway, but after the long delays seeing many rule changes in order to help with the ongoing pandemic there may be some underlying rules that you have missed. Whilst it is still expected that fans won’t be attendance as the big change, there are some others to keep an eye on.
A new ball – With kick off on Saturday, the new Nike Flight ball will be introduced into competitive play for the first time – the Premier League has said this ball has taken eight years to design with the goal to offer improved aerodynamics through revolutionary design. The shape of the grooves should help the ball through the air and could lead to some interesting set pieces throughout the year.
Changes to VAR – We had seen some small adjustments to VAR during the pandemic to prevent too many officials being close together, but this has since been adjusted, these VAR adjustments will instead tackle key areas on the pitch.
- Referee Review Area (RRA) – Increased usage of the RRA space for subjective decisions in three key areas – penalty kicks, goals, and red cards.
- Goalkeeper encroachment on penalty kicks – This protocol will make decisions around goals score by penalty kicks change, there isn’t any tolerance levels here however so it can be confusing
- Player encroachment on penalty kicks – In a similar fashion to the goalkeeper encroachment, again taking into account the position of the player when the kick is taken
- Offsides – The new protocol doesn’t allow for tolerance levels
- Marginal offside offenses – Assistant referees will now keep their flag down if a goal-scoring opportunity is likely to occur to allow the passage of play to complete, if a goal is scored then the VAR will be reviewed to indicate the initial offense.
New handball rules – There are a number of changes here that largely revolve around accidental handballs – if a defending or attacking player accidentally touches the ball with their hand immediately prior to a goal or a goal-scoring opportunity, then this is a handball offense. If the ball travels some distance through a passing play or dribble before a goal or scoring opportunity, this is not a handball offense. This changes handball rules to allow for some leeway on accidental touches throughout a passage of play.
It’ll be an exciting season for punters too – the start of the year saw many fans turn to alternative forms of entertainment through online casinos whilst sports betting was still unavailable which had surged in users despite the regulation change when looking at the best casinos to play on whilst waiting for sporting events to return – fortunately the 20/21 season will be broadcast from the offset and allow plenty of opportunities to get involved in the games throughout the season where many experts suggest betting will be at an all-time high as the majority of fans are stuck watching from home.
