Laws of the Game

Preface

In the twelve years since its last major revision of the Laws of the Game, the International Football Association Board has made a signiﬁcant number of additions and amendments to the Laws themselves, and various accompanying publications and teaching materials have been produced and distributed by football‘s governing bodies in order to assist match ofﬁ cials in their duties and to clarify concepts for the football community as a whole.

While this year’s edition of the Laws of the Game features only one amendment to the 2007/2008 edition in terms of substance, the overall wording and structure has been reviewed and revised to consolidate and reorganise the content for the sake of consistency, simpliﬁ cation and clariﬁcation. Among the most notable changes in this respect, some of the Decisions of the International Football Association Board from last year’s edition of the Laws of the Game are now either incorporated in the Law to which they were previously appended or appear in the section now entitled “Interpretation of the Laws of the Game and Guidelines for Referees”. With this new title, the International Football Association Board wishes to underline that, while the content of this section is intended to complement the Laws of the Game themselves, its application is indeed a compulsory requirement.

In addition, certain principles that were previously implicitly understood throughout the game but did not explicitly feature in the Laws of the Game have been included in this new edition for completeness.

Finally, the International Football Association Board reminds the associations and confederations that it is their duty, under the FIFA Statutes, to ensure the Laws of the Game are implemented strictly and consistently at all levels of competition.

Modiﬁcations
Subject to the agreement of the member association concerned and provided the principles of these Laws are maintained, the Laws may be modiﬁ ed in their application for matches for players of under 16 years of age, for women footballers, for veteran footballers (over 35 years of age) and for players with disabilities.

Any or all of the following modiﬁ cations are permissible:
• size of the ﬁ eld of play
• size, weight and material of the ball
• width between the goalposts and height of the crossbar from the ground
• duration of the periods of play
• substitutions

Further modiﬁcations are only allowed with the consent of the International Football Association Board.

Male and Female
References to the male gender in the Laws of the Game in respect of referees, assistant referees, players and ofﬁ cials are for simpliﬁ cation and apply to both males and females.