On Thursday August 8th CAST was invited to the first ever Supporters' Trust briefing by the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) - better known as the refs.
The purpose of the webinar was to let us know what changes there will be to the rules of the game for the 24/25 season and how refs will interpret and enforce them.
The details of the changes can be found in this EFL article
During the 23/24 season the number of cards shown for dissent increased considerably in both the men and women’s games. It is felt that overall that approach in support of the “participant behaviour charter" has been effective in reducing the incidents of disrespect of officials, opponents and the game itself.
It was interesting to hear that the refs' organisation is proud to report that England was ‘probably the most lenient country in the world when it comes to handball’. As part of this we were shown examples of justifiable handball for 24/25 e.g. jumping, deflecting onto arm (cf Luton v Wolves last season) arm supporting if, say, falling. However, the arm making the body outline bigger to prevent the progress of the ball is and will be handball.
Those who like catching the 17.05 out of Charlton Station on a Saturday will be interested to know that a goal celebration is no longer going to be a straight 30 seconds on the ref’s watch. They will now assume a celebration takes 30 seconds and only add time if the player is still back flipping thereafter.
Let’s hope the refs have cause to look at their watches plenty of times for that at The Valley and on our awaydays this season .