Premier League rule changes for 2022/23 season: Top-flight introduces seven new regulations, including for substitutes, penalty kicks and offsides

The 2022/23 Premier League season will see a number of rule changes coming into effect, ranging from the important to the immaterial.

The new campaign will spark into life on Friday night as Crystal Palace take on Arsenal exclusively LIVE on talkSPORT.

It promises to be the first game of another enthralling campaign.

As ever, the powers that be have brought in a number of new rules and tweaks in regulations ahead of the first ball being kicked.

Here’s a full rundown of the new guidelines for the Premier League.

Substitutions

A throwback to football played during the pandemic, clubs will be able to make five substitutions this season.

The additional two changes were brought in to combat fatigue after the season was fast-tracked following the Covid lockdown.

This will return in the new campaign.

Managers will have to make their five changes in three separate instances to avoid further disruption to the game.

Coin toss

Slightly farcically, this law now begins with the words ‘the referee tosses a coin’ for the choice of kick-off and ends, where previously it just said a coin toss was required but did not identity the overseer.

Bookings

This law has seen the addition of the words ‘or team official’ to the participants who can be booked or dismissed during a penalty shoot-out.

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Fouls and misconduct relating to goalkeeper handling

This change has tidied up some dodgy wording to confirm a goalkeeper can handle the ball inside their own penalty area without being dismissed for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

The law is now completed by the phrase ‘except a goalkeeper within their penalty area’.

Fouls and misconduct relating to outside agents

This covers a scenario in which a player leaves the pitch to assault an ‘outside agent’ – such as a fan, pitch invader, opposition player or coaching team member in the dug-out.

The referee will now award an indirect free-kick at the point on the pitch where he left the field of play but only if the ball was ‘in play’ at the time. If the ball was out of play, the due restart (kick-off, throw-in, free-kick, corner or goal-kick) applies.

Goalkeeper’s positioning

Goalkeepers can now stand with one foot behind the line to face a penalty kick – allowing them to push off from deeper and have more forward momentum.

Offside offences

The International FA Board has ‘clarified’ the guidelines to referees over what constitutes ‘deliberate’ playing of the ball by defenders that resets play and puts the attacker in an onside position.

The rethink was a result of Kylian Mbappe’s winner for France in last season’s Nations League win against Spain.

Defender Eric Garcia stretched out to block a through ball, inadvertently setting up Mbappe to score despite him being in an offside position when the ball was initially played.

Under the revised guidelines, that would now be called offside in the Premier League as Garcia did not deliberately play the ball.

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