Football lawmakers to make major rule change which goalkeepers will hate following successful trial

Referees are set to award corner kicks to the opposition if a goalkeeper holds on to the ball for too long, under a new system being considered by football’s lawmakers, according to reports.

Under the proposed changes to the current rules, goalkeepers will not be able to keep hold of the ball for longer than an eight-second period.

As part of the ‘change’, referees are expected to count down from five seconds to zero, according to The Times’ journalist Martyn Ziegler.

The new rule has already passed trials in the Premier League 2.

Trials, which have also taken place in other nations such as Malta, are now set to extend further to Italian youth football.

The time-wasting ‘deterrent’ will likely be adopted on a wider scale if further trials are successful.

Currently, referees can award an indirect free-kick if ‘keepers take too long to release the ball.

However, this is rarely enforced as it leads to a ‘goal-scoring’ chance.

Patrick Nelson, the Irish FA’s chief executive and a board member of the International FA Board (Ifab), which is responsible for the laws of the game, said: “The data that’s coming out of it so far is very, very interesting, in that the two trials so far have been that if the goalkeeper is holding on to the ball too long, the referee will award a corner.

New rules may be introduced (Credit:Getty)

“The instances of corners being awarded are almost non-existent, which would indicate to us.

"Certainly looking at the data, that the deterrent is exactly what we would want it to be at this point, and it’s speeding up the goalkeepers letting go of the ball and bringing it back into play."

“The wrath of any coach for any goalkeeper who’s given away a corner or a throw-in that leads to a goal is always certainly going to mean the goalkeeper is not going to do that twice,” Nelson explained.

“It’s going to change goalkeeper behaviour.”

The report from The Times also explained how of Ifab are "looking at the offside rule" with trials continuing to take place. The proposed changes to offside rule have been backed Arsene Wenger, FIFA's chief of global football.