Premier League set for more penalties in 2025-26 as referees promise to crack down on controversial issue

PREMIER LEAGUE refs will crack down on holding in the penalty box this season – with the expectation it will mean more penalties awarded.

PGMOL and League bosses consulted with “stakeholders” including clubs, managers, players and fans, before agreeing the new hardline approach.

RexThe new rule will give advantage to strikers and bring the best out of defenders reading the game[/caption]

EPAPlayers like Mo Salah will welcome the new rule set to kick off this weekend[/caption]

Players will now only get just one verbal warning and that is it

Refs will be “encouraged” to “identify and penalise” holding and not just when it impacts a player’s ability to play the ball.

It will see just one warning given on the pitch, with further holding being penalised.

The move is a bid to drive the examples of grappling that have become too common out of the game.

All dressing rooms and managers have been given notice of the new approach, which will come into effect from this weekend.

Refs will also enforce a new approach when players go down holding their heads, with medical staff automatically ordered on for treatment and the injured player having to leave the field for the first 30 seconds when play restarts, barring goalkeepers.

And officials have been urged to ensure they punish simulation more severely as well, with a “robust” stance being ordered by PGMOL boss Howard Webb.

The introduction of the “captain’s only” rule, aimed at preventing  officials being surrounded, will also see yellow cards brandished.

But refs have been asked to only hand out a second yellow card to a player if the foul or offence deserves it, rather than any foul after a caution leading to a dismissal.

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Prem chiefs will be using the new Semi-Automated Offside Technology, introduced towards the end of last season, throughout this campaign.

Fifa-style “Ref Cam” will also be introduced, although it is not expected to be in operation until the third week of the new season at the end of this month.

Prem bosses have been supported in their “high threshold” approach to decisions changed after VAR intervention after consulting with the  wider game.

A survey found 83 per cent of those questioned backed that approach by officials.

According to the Prem’s Key Match Incident panel of former players, managers and officials, errors after VAR have been cut by HALF over the past three seasons.

While there were 35 mistaken final decisions adjudged in the 2022-23 season, that fell to just 18 last term.

The panel ruled that five on-field decisions were wrongly changed, while a further 13 incidents where Stockley Park should have intervened were missed.

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