The Olympic Games is set to witness about seven new set of rules in football, Ex Super Eagles player and Coach Sunday Oliseh explained in his new blog post.
He created the post in a bid to help participants avoid shock when these laws come to play during the Rio 2016 games.
Oliseh who is one of the analyst in Rio and a FIFA technical committee member charged all team to take note of the new law which have been introduced in the game and may be sustained in world football depending on their success.
The new laws and their interpretations:
Denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (DOGSO) ”If a player commits a DOGSO offence inside the penalty area it will now be a yellow card (caution) if the foul was an attempt to play the ball or challenge an opponent for the ball.
However, the following offences will still cause players to be issued with a red card (send-off): Handball or holding, putting or pushing or not attempting to play the ball or not having the chance to play the ball or serious foul challenges, violent conduct.
Penalty kick if in their own penalty area
If something or someone (other than a player) touches a ball which is going into the goal and it still goes in the goal, the goal can be awarded if the defenders were not affected and the ball does not go into the opponents’ goal.
Kick-off
At the kick-off the ball can now be kicked in any direction, including backwards so no team-mates are allowed to stand in the opponents’ half
Offside
The halfway line is ‘neutral’ for offside – the player must be in the opponent’s’ half. Players’ arms and hands (including the goalkeepers) are not considered when judging offside
Penalties at the end of a match
The referee will toss a coin to decide which goal to use, unless there are ground, safety or other considerations. There is no need to tell the referee which players will take kicks or the order. A player temporarily off the field at the final whistle (e.g. injured, changing equipment) can take part. If one team loses a player during the kicks (injured, sent off) the other team removes one player (the same as at the end of the match).
If a player leaves the field of play during the kicks, the kicks are not delayed and if the player is not back in time to take a kick then their kick is forfeited/missed.
A kick is completed/over when the ball stops moving (including being held by the goalkeeper), goes out of play or there is an infringement; the kicker cannot play the ball a second time.
Send off offences before the match
A player may be sent off any time after the referee enters the field of play for the pre-match inspection. If this happens: before team lists have been submitted
the player can not appear on the list after the team lists have been submitted but before kick-off
a player can be replaced by a substitute who cannot be replaced. A substitute cannot be replaced
In both cases the team starts the match with 11 players and can still make the maximum number of substitutions permitted.
Sending-off offences
Attempted violence is a red card (send off) even if no contact is made. A player who deliberately strikes an opponent on the head or face will receive a red card (send off) unless the force used was minimal/negligible. If a player commits a red card (send off) or second yellow card (caution) offence and the referee plays advantage, that player cannot then be involved in play; the red card will be shown when play next stops.
If the player becomes involved the referee will stop play, show the red card (send off) and award an indirect free kick.
It could be recalled that the Golden Goal rule was tried in the 1996 Olympic Games which Nigeria largely benefited from when they beat Brazil in the semi final.
