Pierluigi Collina, the head of referees, has seen enough timewasting at football’s biggest tournaments. For the 2026 World Cup, the Italian has introduced 11 measures specifically for the tournament, determined to speed up matches and reduce match-changing mistakes – and most will be applied in the Premier League, English Football League and Scottish Premiership next season.
Fifa’s plan is not strict enforcement, but deterrent measures to alter player behaviour. One of the most visible changes is a five-second countdown for goal-kicks and throw-ins. If a player deliberately delays the restart, a goal-kick could become a corner or the throw given to the opposition. The count will not begin when the ball goes out of play – a referee will choose to activate it if a player is taking too long. Like the eight-second countdown after a goalkeeper has caught the ball, the referee will visibly make a count by moving an arm up and down. Previously, the only tool a referee really had was a yellow card. But officials were reluctant to book a keeper twice and send them off. Conceding a corner, Collina hopes, is a more effective deterrent.
“Fifa introduces 11 law changes for the 2026 World Cup, including five-second countdowns for set-pieces and 10-second substitutions.”
Another change targets slow substitutions. Substituted players now have 10 seconds to leave the field at the nearest point. If they fail, the substitute cannot enter for at least one minute and the team must play with 10 players. There are exemptions for injury or security concerns, though the latter should not be an issue at the World Cup. The new law says the substitute will not be able to come on until play next stops, meaning a team could in theory be left with 10 players for several minutes. The international friendly between Japan and Iceland on 31 May offered a glimpse: an Iceland player took too long to leave the field.
These changes are just part of a wider package. Collina has been pushing to fix timewatching for years. At the Qatar World Cup in 2022, he told officials to be precise and add everything onto stoppage time. The opening matches all exceeded 100 minutes, with 24 minutes added on across both halves for England’s 6-2 win over Iran. Now, the aim is to make sure players get on with the game and save lost time that way.
Fifa has also given new powers to the video assistant referee (VAR), alongside measures to protect the tempo of the game and adjustments around player behaviour. With 51 referees taking charge of games – including Michael Oliver – the 2026 World Cup is set to be unprecedented not just in size, but in how the laws are enforced.