The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is set to change the law on coaches interfering with the ball in play after Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta wrongly escaped a red card in his side’s Champions League defeat at Inter Milan.
Inter defender Matteo Darmian moved to play a ball which was going out for a throw-in, and Arteta picked it up before it had crossed the line. Referee Istvan Kovacs showed Arteta a yellow card, but by the Laws of the Game it should have been a red card.
This year, West Bromwich Albion manager Carlos Corberán and Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes have both been sent off in similar circumstances, but after lengthy discussions at its Annual Business Meeting on Monday the IFAB recommended a change to the law.
While Kovacs’ decision at San Siro was incorrect, the IFAB believes that when the sole intention of the coach is helping the game restart quickly — as was the case with Arteta, Corberán and McInnes — then a caution is a more suitable disciplinary outcome.
The change to the law, which would come in next summer, must be approved at the IFAB’s AGM on March 1.
The only other law set to change covers the dropped ball. Currently, if a team has possession and a pass his the referee, they get the dropped ball regardless.
The proposal is that if the pass is wayward and obviously going to the other team, then the dropped ball should go to opposition.