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Football’s lawmakers are considering taking action against the most fashionable trend in the game: long throws.
The International Football Association Board has discussed the possibility of limiting how long a player can spend on a throw-in, in a bid to increase the amount of time the ball is in play during a match.
Goalkeepers are limited in the amount of time they can hold on to the ball after new measures were introduced this season. A corner is now awarded if a keeper fails to release the ball within eight seconds. That countdown is signalled by the referee with his fingers.
The possibility of introducing a similar proposal for throw‑ins and goal‑kicks was discussed on Tuesday at a virtual meeting of Ifab’s football and technical advisory panels.
There has been explosion in long throws in the Premier League this season, with a process that often involving lengthy preparations in the same manner as at an attacking free-kick, leading to a drop in the amount of in-play time, a key metric for the game’s administrators.
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According to Stats Perform, there were more than twice as many long throws in the Premier League in the opening weeks of this season, compared with last season as a whole, with an average of 3.44 per match compared with 1.52 in 2024-25. In the first 40 games of the season there was also a significant drop-off in in-play time, at 54 minutes and 21 seconds per match that is 133sec lower than last season.
Among other amendments to the rules considered by the Ifab advisory panels was the possibility of extending the VAR protocol to allow video officials to intervene if they adjudge a second yellow card has been awarded incorrectly. At the moment, VAR adjudicates on goals, penalty kicks, cases of mistaken identity and the awarding of direct red cards.
There was also an agreement to look further at the offside law, with officials asked to consider “whether the main objective should be to reduce marginal offside decisions in modern football to promote more attacking play”.
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These measures will be considered when Ifab holds its annual business meeting in London in January.
