HOWARD WEBB has revealed that the Premier League is trialling a radical new corner rule.
The chief refereeing officer for PGMOL has insisted that the rule will help avoid “ridiculous situations”
Webb, 53, appeared on the latest episode of Stick To Football by Sky Bet, when he revealed the potential game-changing rule.
The trial is ongoing in Premier League 2 and will punish goalkeepers for holding onto the ball for too long.
Stoppers are only allowed to keep the ball in their hands for six seconds.
However, if they continue to keep the ball and delay the game, the opposing team will be awarded with a corner kick.
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He said: “In Premier League 2, they’re trialling something around the goalkeeper holding the ball for more than six seconds.
“If they hold it for eight, and don’t release it, it goes to a corner to the other team.
“After three seconds, the referee counts down, and if the goalkeeper is daft enough to hold onto it, it’ll be a corner.
“That avoids the ridiculous situation where you have an indirect free kick in the six-yard box, and players are chasing out.”
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Manchester United legend Gary Neville supported the idea behind the rule put forward by the former Premier League referee.
He said: “I like that. I think we all like that.”
Neville had argued that the delays caused by goalkeepers hogging the ball is something that makes him “crazy”.
He argued: “The biggest delay in the game is when goalkeepers take longer than the six seconds with the ball.
“We talk about delaying the game, a lad like Declan Rice kicked the ball away a touch and to be fair I get the rules, but that’s wasting a millisecond.
“Then you’ve got a situation where goalkeepers are holding the ball for nine, ten seconds, sometimes 13 or 14 seconds – they’re wasting six or seven seconds every time.
“That never gets pulled up and that rule is still in. It drives my crazy.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
