World Cup 2026: The law explained – VAR, time-wasting and substitutes

Fixing time wastage has been one of Colina’s main concerns for a few years.

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Italian told the officials to be precise and add everything during the break.

The opening games all lasted over 100 minutes, with 24 minutes added on in both halves as England beat Iran 6-2.

The plan for this World Cup is to get players to stay in the game and make up for lost time that way.

The idea is not strict enforcement, but deterrent measures to change player behavior.

Goal kicks and throws (five seconds) If the player deliberately delays the restart of play, the goal kick will be a corner kick or throw-in to the opposition.

The countdown does not start when the ball goes out of play. If a player is taking too long, a referee may choose to activate him.

Like Eight seconds count After the goalkeeper catches the ball, the referee counts by moving his arm up and down.

This rule change should deter goalkeepers who take long shots late in games.

Previously, the only tool a referee had was to show a single yellow card. And the guard may continue to do so, knowing that an officer will not be forced to take it twice and leave.

It is expected that the goal-to-goal corner kick will be a more effective defense.

Timed Substitution (10 seconds): Substitute players have 10 seconds to leave the field at close range. If they fail to do so, the substitutes cannot enter the field for at least one minute and the team must play with 10 players.

There are two exemptions – if the player is injured or there are security concerns about where he can go, although the latter should not be an issue at the World Cup.

The new rule states that the substitute cannot come on until the next game is stopped. This means that a team could theoretically leave 10 players out for several minutes.

Take the May 31 international friendly between Japan and Iceland.

The team had to play with 10 men for more than two minutes because an Iceland player took too long to come off the field. The game was stopped for the first time when Koki Ogawa scored the only goal of the game for Japan.

The idea is not to make teams play with 10 men, but to prevent players from wasting time on substitutions.