The International Football Association Board met this week to discuss possible changes to the rule of the game.
They want to speed it up, which is at odds with Stevenage (and us when we’re winning, to be fair) this season. Their Football and Technical Advisory Panels (FAP-TAP) met virtually, chaired by Noel Mooney of the Football Association of Wales, to explore new ways of improving match flow and reducing unnecessary stoppages (better referees, maybe?).
Following a review of the 2025 Law changes and clarification on accidental double touches at penalties, the group discussed extending the successful “goalkeeper eight-second rule”, which includes a visible countdown and a corner awarded for offences, to throw-ins and goal kicks. Members also examined how to reduce time lost to injuries and substitutions.
They’ll meet again in January and February 2026 to determine potential law changes for the 2026/27 season, and doubtless we’ll see them creep in the following August, only to be largely forgotten a month later, like the ten minutes added time (which cost us at least four points in 2023/24, points that could have seen us finish fifth).
Michael Skubala was asked about the suggested changes, given that we have seen both sides of the time-wasting coin at the Bank this season.
“I was at Loughborough and watched many other sports and grew through different sports,” he said. “Some of those sports, basketball, hockey, you have four seconds to get the ball back in play. It’s out there in other sports.”
However, he also admitted that Lincoln, as well as clubs such as Stevenage, do try to bend those rules as much as possible to get three points, and whatever IFAB decides, that will continue to happen.
“I think our job as coaches is to push and bend rules as much as possible to your advantage. I get a report back every game from the referees about how long the ball’s been in play. In our last home game, the ball was in play for 47 minutes. I don’t think that was down to us. I think that was down to the team coming to our place and trying to slow us down.
“There’s definitely a tactical advantage either way. Whilst it is what it is with IFAB, you’ll find ways to get on top of it and use it to your advantage. If you’re winning the game, of course, you’re going to try and slow it down. If you’re away from home, you might try and slow it down.
“I just think it’s part and parcel of coaching. It’s part and parcel of winning. It’s part and parcel of the game. It’s not for us to decide the rules and laws, but it is for us to try and get the best out of them.”
City have perhaps not been as savvy as others for a few years. Danny and Nicky were, with Farman time and the like, but under Michael Appleton and Mark Kennedy, we often lacked an understanding of the dark arts.
We came up against it enough, playing the likes of Wycombe and even Bolton under Ian Evatt, and I think now we’re grasping it. The same can be said for VAR in the Premier League – at all levels, there are rules you can leverage and bend.
“There are lots of advantages at different levels of football,” Michael concluded. “Our job is to survive in it and then thrive in it and find advantages with it.
“That’s the beauty of being a good team: working those ways out. Some people call it dark arts, some people call it game management, some people call it whatever you want to call it, but the reality is we’re all trying to win.”
The key for me is referees implementing these changes over the course of a season. Just as VAR for one game in the cup but another is unfair, having a rule in place that gets forgotten is the same.
I might sound bitter, but had we not had ten minutes at the end of Northampton and Bristol Rovers in 2023, we could have been in the play-offs in 2022/23. Consistency is all we ask for, from ‘dangerous play’ to bookings.
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