WASHINGTON, D.C. — This summer’s 2026 World Cup in the United States could feature a plethora of new rules, including time limits for goalkeepers holding onto the ball and how long potentially injured players must stay off the field.
FIFA refereeing committee chairman Pierluigi Collina, whose accolades included overseeing the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final and the 2002 World Cup Final, disclosed his organization’s hopes leading up to the 2026 World Cup Draw on Friday.
The rule would impose a strict eight-second time limit on goalkeepers holding onto the ball, superseding the previous six-second rule, which was never enforced. It allowed them to hold onto the ball for upward of 25 seconds, which would further waste time for teams looking to kill the clock.
“They knew that the referees never intervened in those circumstances,” Collina said on Thursday. “…There is nothing entertaining in having a goalkeeper in that position with the ball.”
Failure to rid the ball in eight seconds would prompt referee intervention, likely in the form of a yellow card.
Enforcing guidelines for team trainers is also rooted in Collina’s “main criteria,” which stipulate that there are “no delays” in FIFA-sanctioned matches.
It’s why the refereeing committee has also focused on players who call for team trainers to enter the pitch and then are allowed to work on that player for an unlimited amount of time.
More often than not, the player is magically ready to return to action in a few seconds after being escorted to the sidelines. Under this proposed new rule, players who request that the medical staff enter the field of play must remain off the field for at least two minutes.
“It’s not only a matter of time loss,” Collina began. “It’s also a matter of draining the tempo of the opponents… It’s good to have more time to be evaluated and treated off the field of play.”
While both rules have been introduced at the FIFA Arab Cup, which began on Monday in Qatar, the latter has already produced instant results. In the first eight matches, there have been zero instances in which a player has called for the team staff.
Returning technology
After debuting at the 2025 Club World Cup, which was also hosted on American soil, the referee cam, shown on scoreboards and television broadcasts worldwide, is expected to return for the 2026 World Cup.
Semi-automated offside, which sends an immediate audio alert to the linesman to blow their whistle, is also a likely returnee this summer.
All proposals will be presented at the next meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in early March.
