Countdowns for throw-ins and goal-kicks, and timed substitutions; these are among the changes coming to a Premier League ground near you.
From an increase in permitted substitutes and the introduction of concussion subs, to the implementation of VAR and anti-time-wasting initiatives, numerous law changes have changed football considerably in the past few years, and the sport’s evolution shows no sign of stopping there.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) meets at least once a year to discuss and potentially alter the laws of the game, and their most recent get-together – their annual business meeting – took place in London on Tuesday.
While a host of potential alterations were on the agenda, including expanding the VAR remit and tweaking the offside rule, what’s of most interest to us are the “time-wasting” and substitution elements, because Opta data ties into these facets rather nicely.
So, first of all…
What Does IFAB Want to Change?
In October, it emerged that IFAB’s Football and Technical Advisory Panels had discussed proposals to tackle time-wasting around throw-ins and goal-kicks, with both set-pieces deemed to have been taking longer than necessary and therefore contributing more to delays.
IFAB’s stance relating to throw-ins seemed particularly newsworthy at the time because the Premier League had seen such an increase in the number of long throws, and therefore the number of throw-ins leading to goals.
The increase is tremendous. Last season, there were 20 goals scored following throw-ins; we’ve already seen 26 in 2025-26 and there’s still more than a third of the campaign left.
But there were also increasing complaints that teams were taking too long over them. For instance, Brentford – at the fore of the throw-in revolution – might have Michael Kayode come over to near the left corner flag from his right-back position on the other side of the pitch, then dry the ball with a towel (assuming the opposition have agreed towels are allowed to be used) before taking a long run up and eventually launching it into the box. The delay could be significant.
As for goal-kicks, it was perceived they were also taking too long but with a particular focus on intentionally wasting time, especially towards the end of games.
When IFAB decided last March that a goalkeeper should be penalised with an indirect free-kick if they held onto the ball for more than eight seconds, there was a sense that other areas of the game could be tweaked in a similar manner, and IFAB decided on Tuesday that countdowns would be extended to throw-ins and goal-kicks.
So, how bad are the delays and are they notably worse than prior seasons?
Well, let’s start with throw-ins. On average, Premier League matches this season have lost 10 minutes, 50 seconds to delays before throw-ins.
It should be noted that some of those throw-ins will be delayed due to substitutions, VAR checks and perhaps injuries, so we can’t just attribute it to waiting for the ball to be thrown.
But at the same time, most of that will be down to waiting for the player to take the throw-in.
Of course, throw-ins are the most common set-piece, so this isn’t necessarily a problem, rather a byproduct of the game.
IFAB seemingly thinks there are improvements to be made, and to be fair, 10:50 is a considerable increase from 8:49 in 2024-25 and 8:23 in 2023-24.
But those two campaigns aside, the seasonal average from 2016-17 to 2022-23 was 11:04, so 14 seconds longer per match than we are seeing in 2025-26.
Nevertheless, when we look at average stoppage length per throw-in, 2025-26 does stick out. On average, they’re taking 17.9 seconds this season, which is over a second longer than any other campaign since 2016-17. The prevalence of long throws seems a pretty likely cause, as teams are giving more thought to the danger these situations can create.
Now onto goal-kicks, which seem an easy target for those wanting to clamp down on time-wasting. But again, how bad is the situation?
Premier League games this season have lost 7:42 to goal-kicks on average. Much like the point with throw-ins, there will be other elements of the game impacting this, but we’re far enough into the season that we should be safe to take this at face value.
Goal-kick-related delays reaching 7:42 per match on average is the highest it’s been in the Premier League since 2018-19, when games would see 7:56 spent waiting for the goalkeeper to restart the play. It went even higher in 2016-17 (7:58).
But much like throw-ins, the average stoppage per goal-kick (30.1 secs) in 2025-26 is the highest it’s been over the last 10 seasons, up from 29.4s in 2024-25 and 28.3s in 2023-24, the lowest it’s gone over this 10-season period.
Goal-kicks did undergo a huge change not so long ago, when defenders were allowed to receive the ball inside their own box from the 2019-20 season onwards. It took a few years for short goal-kicks to reach the zenith of their popularity, accounting for 49.3% of all of them in 2024-25, but that’s down to 41.5% this season.
That could partly explain the greater time being used, as goalkeepers wait for their team to reset before kicking the ball longer than in either of the past two seasons. Similarly, the philosophical shift with respect to goalkeeper distribution – partially influenced by the introduction of playing goal-kicks within the area – has likely led to keepers thinking more deliberately about how to restart play.
This might be an explanation for goal-kicks taking longer on average than, say, 2022-23, despite them having roughly the same average distance (37.7 metres in 2022-23, 37.5m in 2025-26.
Yash Thakur / Yash Thakur /What if the Changes Had Been Made for 2025-26?
Firstly, a caveat we need to keep in mind here: IFAB hasn’t said what time limit it will introduce for throw-ins or goal-kicks. All that’s been officially confirmed is referees will indicate when they believe too much time is being taken and thus begin a countdown.
So, if we’re playing around with hypotheticals for this season, we don’t have an exact time limit to take into the equation. But we can still provide scenarios around potential limits.
One potentially obvious limit to use, given its application with goalkeepers having the ball in their hands, is eight seconds. IFAB hasn’t communicated that this is a limit they’re specifically planning to use, but it has – quite possibly purely as an assumption – been floated in media reports as an option.
We’re just going to say now that imposing an eight-second time limit on throw-ins or goal-kicks would be drastic, unfair even, because they are breaks in play. A goalkeeper having the ball in their hands is not.
The Impact of an Eight-Second Time Limit on Throw-Ins
To give you an idea of how drastic such measures would be, 5,713 of the 8,007 throw-ins taken this season have followed a stoppage of more than eight seconds – or 71.4%. Again, we must remember not all of these stoppages are solely down to throw-ins, so some that have gone over eight seconds may have only seen a player holding the ball for a fraction of that time.
But even if you add, say, five seconds to allow for a player to recover the ball in preparation for throwing it back into play, you’re still looking at 4,335 of 8,007 throw-ins (54.1%) taking at least 13 seconds.
The potential for other stoppages at the same time does muddy the water, of course. But if we remove the throw-ins that follow a stoppage of 55+ seconds – ones that are presumably impacted by other events – from our sample, that still leaves you with 7,743 throw-ins. Do that, and the proportion of throw-ins following 13-second delays increases to 55.9%.
It’s obviously very difficult to be truly forensic when looking at how long a throw-in takes, then, but if we ignore those taking 55+ seconds, we are left with an average of 15.4 seconds. If we round that down to 15, that does seem a bit more reasonable than eight – but it’s fair to say the impact could still be significant.
Of the 26 goals from throw-ins this season, all but three of them have come following a stoppage of 15+ seconds. Sunderland’s goal-ending throw-in against Chelsea followed a whopping 52.4-second stoppage, and that was all taken up by them simply being in no rush to get play restarted.
Ignoring the two goal-ending throw-ins with the longest delays (89 and 78.3 seconds), the average stoppage ahead of a throw that’s followed by a goal is 28.1 seconds – so not far off twice as long as the league average for all throw-ins (excluding those with delays of 55+ seconds).
Throw-in specialists Brentford have seen their three goals from such scenarios follow stoppages of 21.2s, 23.4s and 32.3s. All would fall foul of the laws of the game if – for argument’s sake – a 15-second limit was introduced for throw-ins, therefore seeing the set-piece gifted to their opponents.
Obviously, this is all slightly reductive. If there were strict time limits imposed, then player behaviour would change accordingly. Who knows, it might even help attacking teams as defenders have less time to set themselves and identify who they’re marking. But hopefully this all highlights how significant the changes would be.
What About Changes to Goal-Kicks?
Well again, to give you an idea of how difficult it’d be to impose that highly speculatory (unrealistic?) eight-second limit at goal-kicks, just 106 of a possible 3,373 goal-kicks have followed a stoppage of less than eight seconds in 2025-26 – that’s 3.1%. Again, the same caveats regarding other match events remain relevant here, but that should quantify how unusual it is for a fast restart from a goal-kick.
But given how closely the discussion around goal-kicks has been linked to time-wasting, it’s interesting to look at a split between those in the first half – when less time-wasting typically occurs and fewer substitutions are made – and those in the second half.
The average stoppage ahead of a first-half goal-kick is 27.5s. For second-half goal-kicks, the average goes up to 32.4s.
Perhaps one future scenario, then, would be for 28-second limit between the ball going out for a goal-kick and restarting (excluding instances when there’s a substitution or other delay).
When thinking about the impact that would’ve had this season, it’s potentially most pertinent to consider Arsenal’s opponents. If we assume goal-kicks following a delay of 60+ seconds have involved another cause for delay and therefore exclude them, the Gunners – kings of corners – would’ve been rewarded an additional 91 corners for opponents taking longer than 28 seconds to restart the game. They’ve already had 127 this term.
Again, it’s worth saying player behaviour would change accordingly with any alterations to the laws, so in reality they wouldn’t get anywhere near an extra 91 corners. The point is, introducing time limits to goal-kicks or throw-ins could pose problems if they are strictly upheld by referees, but if officials are given a loose remit on when to impose them, obvious complaints regarding inconsistency will arise.
And above all, there’s an argument strict alterations would be detrimental to player welfare. Goalkeepers taking their time over a goal-kick isn’t just about potential time-wasting, it can also allow players to recover for a few seconds.
Timed Substitutions
The other area we wanted to specifically look at was substitutions.
IFAB also confirmed its intention to adopt the ‘timed substitution rule’ as seen in Major League Soccer (MLS), whereby the player must leave the field within 10 seconds, otherwise the substitute must wait 60 seconds to enter the pitch.
Of course, making substitutions snappier is something authorities have already tried to tackle by insisting players leave the pitch at the nearest point rather than running over to shake hands with their replacement.
However, IFAB clearly feels even more can be done.
In MLS, the outcome of the timed substitution has broadly been considered positive. A report by The Athletic in December 2025 claimed there had only been eight violations from a possible 716 substitutions since the law was introduced, suggesting players are generally going along with it.
It’s not quite as black and white as it may seem, however.
Mark Geiger, a former FIFA referee and general manager of the organisation that governs officiating in US competitions, revealed to The Athletic that there wasn’t official guidance on how fourth officials count to 10 – meaning, they aren’t necessarily expected to use a stopwatch and penalise a team if a player takes 10.2s to leave the pitch.
“We’ve tried to take a common-sense approach to a lot of these things,” he said. “The officials are doing this count in their head as soon as the board goes up, so what they’re trying to see is the player giving an effort. If they’re giving an effort to get off the field, and they had no other options – they’re going off at the nearest point – and it took 11 seconds, I don’t think you’ll see officials hold [the substitute] at [the touchline].”
So, what does the average delay for a substitution look like in MLS compared to in the Premier League, then?
During the 2025 MLS season, the average stoppage time for a substitution was 65.2 seconds. Of course, that’s much, much longer than 10 seconds, but again we have to remember these stoppages can be impacted by other events. Similarly, the 10-second countdown for a substitution isn’t from the moment the ball goes out of play, it’s from when the fourth official puts up their board.
The Premier League, on the other hand, has seen substitutions take 73.6s on average this term, so more than eight seconds longer. Extend that over a full match for multiple substitution stoppages and the average is 5:56, as opposed to 5:33 in MLS.
That may not sound like a great deal, but if the Premier League’s seasonal average was 65.2s in 2025-26, then 19 hours, 17 minutes and 18 seconds would’ve been dedicated to stoppages containing substitutions as opposed to 21:46:49.
It all adds up.
But while IFAB’s changes do appear to be rooted in an honest quest to protect – or increase – playing time, and our data broadly supports the theory stoppages around throw-ins, goal-kicks and substitutions have gone up, there are other factors at play too.
These stoppages are difficult to separate from elements such as tactical evolution, game management – especially important to smaller clubs – and player recovery. Introducing strict limits and countdowns could quietly create as many problems as it solves, while officials and referees will be under even greater pressure to differentiate between unnecessary delays and pauses that do have a part in modern football.
Not every stoppage is “wasted” time, even if no one is kicking the ball. Common sense must be allowed to prevail.
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The Push to Speed Up Football: How Much Premier League Action Is Being Lost to Throw-Ins, Goal-Kicks and Substitutions? Opta Analyst.
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