Biggest Change in Soccer History?

Soccer may seem like a relatively simple game to play. But in reality, it is a game that operates based on the 17 basic rules, which is in fact seriously complicated and separated into great detail. These rules are controlled, maintained and constantly changed by the IFAB, which stands for International Football Association Board, as an attempt to remove any inconsistency and make the rules more user-friendly.

On April 14, the IFAB made an announcement that included two main points: first, soccer will now start utilising video replays when making a decision. Secondly, the they will make great changes to the rules of the game to keep it up-to-date and avoid unnecessary repetition. Throughout history, there has been a number of cases the IFAB has made a change to the rules of soccer, and this change is the biggest change in the rule of soccer under the 135 years of soccer.

The change in rules will be implemented immediately starting from as early as June 1 and during the European Championship. The major change in the rules include: players can be ejected before the game starts, the ball can be kicked in any direction at kick-off, offence in the penalty box will not automatically result in a red card and the offside rule will be fixed for more consistency. There are still changes that have not been mentioned,

Although the changes does not involve a change in the way the sport of soccer will be played, it will be worth noticing in case certain situations where the change in the rule applies to the gameplay.