Every year we get changes to the Laws of Football; some are more noticeable than others.
One change this year regarding goalkeepers, was very obvious to anyone who watched Euro 2000, although the change wasn't quite what the television commentators would have us believe. Many of them and in particular Ron Atkinson kept mentioning the 'new six second rule'. That part of it is not actually new, you may remember David James of Aston Villa being penalised last season for holding on to the ball too long. The real change is that goalkeepers are no longer restricted in how many steps they can take with the ball in their hands, but they must release it within six seconds.
This part of football law remained unchanged for the best part of a hundred years, but in the last thirty years it has changed a number of times. Prior to 1969, goalkeepers could take as many steps and take as long as they liked. All they had to do was bounce the ball every four paces. Then coaches came more into prominence. They started to devise tactics that did not improve players skills or
enhance the entertainment value of the game but which they felt would give an advantage to their team. They told goalkeepers to hold on to the ball as long as possible when they could gain a benefit from it. We had the sight of goalkeepers going from side to side across their penalty area bouncing the ball to waste time, particularly towards the end of a game when their team held a slender lead.
The law-makers decided that this must stop, so they changed the law to allow the goalkeeper four paces only, before he must release the ball. Many of us at the time felt that they were being a little heavy-handed because they also decreed that the goalkeeper must be penalised if 'he indulges in tactics which in the opinion of the re tree are designed to merely hold up the game and thus waste time and so give an unfair advantage to his own team. What a mouthful. And why did they need both clauses? we asked.
No amount of time was given as to what would constitute time-wasting. I personally elected to give goalkeepers ten seconds to release the ball but that was my own interpretation. In 1997 the long-winded clause
about 'indulges in tactics etc' was changed to the much simpler 'Wastes time'. The following year, a time limit was given as 'five or six seconds'. Why referees were given that one second discretion I will never know. Now this year the law no longer mentions how many steps a goalkeeper may take but simply says; 'An indirect free-kick will be awarded if a goalkeeper in his own penalty area, takes more than six seconds whilst controlling the ball with his hands, before releasing it from his possession'. Let's face it, they could have said that in 1969.
Incidentally several people have asked me recently how referees know when the six seconds are up. 'Surely they can't stand looking at their watches every time a goalkeeper picks up the ball'. They would be mugs if they did. The answer is that they count the six seconds to themselves. Not just 'one, two, three etc' Try doing that and you will find its much quicker than six seconds really takes. Some referees use the old schoolboy method 'one elephant, two elephant'. My own method is to start the count at 'a thousand and one, a thousand and two, up to a thousand and six'. If the goalkeeper hasn't released the ball from his hands before 'a thousand and seven' then he is in trouble. Surprisingly it has never happened. Yet.
Dick Sawdon Smith