Ref Watch: New season, new laws

With the season underway in both the EFL Sky Bet Football League and Scotland, Dermot Gallagher is back to explain how the new rule changes in the game were implemented this weekend.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) announced in May more than 95 alterations to the laws of the game last season after 18 months of consultation, with many of those changes trialled at Euro 2016.

Gallagher, a former Premier League referee, has been clarifying some of the more important of those alterations by using examples from both last season and the past few days’ action to demonstrate what has changed…

Player behaviour

Referees have been urged to take a stronger stand on “intolerable behaviour” by players following a joint statement by the Premier League, English Football League and FA.

Running to contest decisions, arguing face-to-face with officials, and “visibly disrespectful” actions will result in yellow cards.

Red cards will be issued to players who confront officials and use insulting and/or offensive language or gestures towards them.

The aim is to “reduce disrespectful conduct such as aggressively challenging decisions or running from distance to confront an official”.

GALLAGHER SAYS: What has happened in the past is that referees have set the tolerance levels too high and it is not a good image for the sport that is going all around the world.

So we have asked people to tighten up on acts of visual dissent that everybody can see. When you see a player confront an assistant after he makes a decision, and they go head-to-head with him, it is intolerable and not a good image for the game.

So now they are saying it has got to stop and something has to be done, as it has become a step too far.

We saw one yesterday, the season has only just started, when a free kick was given and QPR defender Jake Bidwell has confronted the referee visibly. And in fairness to referees, the clubs have been told and the referee acted accordingly.

So hopefully, it might happen in the first few weeks of the season, but we will see it stop.

Last season, Jamie Vardy got a second yellow card for simulation [at home to West Ham United in the Premier League], he did not leave the field of play and it was quite blatant what he said to [referee] John Moss.

And I come back to what I said before, it is all about the image of the game. It is not just what we see in England, it is viewed in 178 countries around the world and people do not want to see it.

[Chelsea’s home game with Spurs last season] really highlighted it and if you were to pick any game from last season – and I do not want to pick on one club – but for Mark Clattenburg, that was one of the toughest games I’ve ever seen in the Premier League.

He had numerous challenges to his authority both within the game itself and players reacting to him too. And it was not just the players, we had cases where [Mauricio] Pochettino was on the pitch, so it is the bench too. And that really was the catalyst to say it has gone too far.

Triple punishment

The previous ‘triple-punishment’ law …

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