New football rules: Dutch second division to trial host of new laws

The Dutch second division is planning on tearing up the football hand-book as they look to trial a raft of dramatic new changes to some of the game’s rules.

The KNVB will be looking into five new changes with throw-ins, yellow cards, free kicks, substitutions and playing time all set for a significant shake-up.

There has been the odd murmur here and there with regards to some of the current rules of the game, with former referee Mark Clattenburg recently tabling the idea of 30-minute halves.

Speaking after Manchester City were bundled out of the Champions League by Real Madrid, Clattenburg said:

“I think there’s a solution to all of this and that’s 60-minute matches with a stop-clock – an idea which Pierluigi Collina, FIFA and IFAB are currently looking at. It works in basketball and it could work in football, too. 

“The clock is paused when the ball goes out of play, for example, or there’s an injury causing a delay, or a referee is issuing a yellow card and dishing out a talking-to.”

Now it seems this very idea, among others, is to go under trial in the Netherlands.

So how else to they plan to shake up the game we know and love? In his column on the official KNVB website, Jan Dirk van der Zee explained the changes.

Players would be allowed to pass with their feet or even shoot when the ball goes over the sideline.

In an effort to avoid inevitable time-wasting from fouls, players will be allowed to self-pass and dribble on their merry way from a free-kick situation.

This is expected to help keep up the speed of the game and eliminate a problem that sees 11% of game time go swirling down the drain.

The KNVB is looking to experiment with new rules during the 2023/24 Keuken Kampioen Divisie.– Kicking the ball in from a