Premier League referees have been told to clamp down on holding at corners, and it appears in the numbers as though there has been an immediate impact.
Corners had become a problem.
Over the last few years, events in the penalty area at the most common attacking set-piece in football had developed into the kind of a brawl you might be more likely to see in the stands than on the pitch.
And it reached a nadir last season when, at just about every corner, seemingly every player would have their hands all over an opponent. Plenty had no intention of bothering to consider or look at where the ball was.
It all got very ugly as set-pieces became a bigger part of Premier League football than they had arguably ever been before, despite the technical ability of the players reaching a new peak.
Goals flew in in record numbers; 188 were scored from corners in 2025-26, which is the most in any season since the Premier League’s inception.
More goals aren’t necessarily a sign of a problem, of course. It’s generally regarded as a good thing when more goals are scored because that tends to mean we are getting more entertainment.
But the grappling had got so out of control that corners became too difficult to defend. Blocking and holding became so commonplace, so embedded in the tactics of trying to score from a corner, and so natural for the attacking team, that they became too hard to stop.
There were teams that were picking players for their ability in the box. The increase in goals was actually a negative.
And crucially for those in charge of the game, the throng of bodies in the six-yard box and the fact that just about everyone was grappling somebody made it almost impossible to referee properly. Plenty of that undetected holding directly led to a fair few of those goals going in.
So, this summer, Pro Ref, the rebranded name for PGMOL, the body that oversees match officiating in English football, had a rethink. The decision was made that more focus was needed on penalising “holding actions that have clear material impact”. That is, players being prevented from potentially getting to the ball by an opponent who is holding them.
The emphasis was said to be on “non-footballing holding actions that have no place on the football pitch”. Pro Ref attempted to determine precisely what would be deemed a foul, but as with just about all rules in football, the changes were always going to be governed by some degree of subjectivity, meaning there was no chance of preventing the endless debates and scrutiny of every decision.
But the warnings were there from those in charge nonetheless. “We’re trying to get the officials to be as confident as they can be to penalise what they see,” said Howard Webb, the Premier League referees’ chief.
“[That means] fewer warnings, more actions penalised, and if there’s any reduction in offences being penalised, it should be a result of a modification of player behaviour rather than us no longer applying it.”
So, what have the first five rounds of Premier League matches in 2026-27 told us about corner-kicks? Have behaviours changed as Webb hoped, and have there been any changes in the output of corners?
The first thing to note is that it certainly appears as though there is less holding. Corners look less messy this season, and although we are only five games into the season, it’s noteworthy that there haven’t been many major flashpoints.
For example, there hasn’t been a single penalty awarded within 25 seconds of a corner this season – for any kind of misdemeanour – when there were 21 last season. That means we have gone from a penalty being awarded at a corner every 18 games last season to none in 50 games so far in 2026-27.
More corners, however, have led to a free-kick being awarded to the defending team. The proportion of corners that have seen a free-kick given within five seconds of the corner being taken this season (3.8%) is, in fact, the highest in any of the seven seasons for which this data is available (since 2020-21 inclusive).
Free-kick awarded to the defending team within five seconds of the corner; penalty awarded within 25 seconds.That would imply that the behaviour of defenders has changed for fear of conceding a penalty, while attackers are still trying to get away with it (though it’s not clear to what extent exactly), but are being penalised more for doing so.
The stakes are too high for defenders, but for attackers, potentially conceding a foul when there is a chance of a goal is worth the risk. It may also be the case that defenders are making the most of any contact, knowing that referees are specifically looking out for these fouls.
There has been a penalty awarded for grappling at another kind of set-piece this season. Sunderland were given one in their game against Arsenal following a throw-in, with
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