All of the law changes to football ahead of new Premier League season

The Premier League will look a bit different for fans and players next season, with four rule changes coming from August onwards.

It barely feels that long ago that we've not had any club football to enjoy, even if some days seem to drag for the need of a football fix.

Despite the fact that Manchester City's Champions League victory was less than a month ago there's already only 38 days until the start of next season.

City will kick off the defence of their title and the attempts to become the first English side to win the league title four years in-a-row against Burnley.

By the time the season does kick off at the beginning of next month most of the teams will have gone through some drastic makeovers.

Whether that's the new kits they'll be wearing, none as dramatic as Barnsley's of course, or the new transfers they'll have made over the weeks.

But it's not just the new look of the teams that will leave fans having to get use to, with the league set to introduce four new rules.

IFAB, the International Football Association Board, who make the rules have given details on what will change for the new campaign.

First up there will be a 'greater allowance' for time lost due to goal celebrations meaning that more time could be added on at the end of each half if teams take a long time to celebrate.

Players will be more harshly punished for time wasting after goals. Image: Getty

As has been well documented previously, goalkeepers will no longer be able to cause a distraction to penalty takers ahead of their spot kicks.

That means they "must not behave in a way that unfairly distracts the kicker," which considering the taker already has a huge advantages seems unfair, it hasn't gone down too well.

Reserve assistant referees will now also be able to get more involved and have the same assistance to the ref as those 'on field' officials the man in the middle usually works with.

Next up is the fact that players can avoid being booked for 'unsporting behaviour' if they are making a deliberate attempt to play the ball.

Lastly is the change to the controversial offside law and whether a defender deliberately plays the ball or not, as seen from Cody Gakpo's disallowed strike against Aston Villa last season.

The law now stresses that, "a player who is clearly offside should not become onside on every occasion when an opponent moves and touches the ball."

Topics: Football, Premier League

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

@Sidler28