What happened to the 6 second law

Jordan Pickford takes an age with the ball.

for goalkeepers?

For all their stamping down on time wasting in football and adding time on at the end, whatever happened to the law that the keeper can only keep hold of the ball for 6 seconds?

After Italia 90 those in charge binned the ability for keepers to pick up the ball from a back pass, to speed up the game. They then changed it so that keepers could wander around the area with the ball in hand, going from the old you could only take four steps with the ball in hand but if there was a break you got another four steps. Leading to keepers bouncing, or rolling the ball in the area before picking it back up, taking four steps and hoofing it up the pitch.

But with the new rule came 6 seconds. Keepers could roam their area with ball in hand but only for six seconds and weren’t allowed to touch the ball again with the hand/arm after releasing it from their hands until it has touched another player.

So I know the game was basically over, 85th minute on the clock and England 3-1 up against Italy but Jordan Pickford picks the ball up at 85:40, has a moan, has a wander, has a change of heart and then releases it at 86:02.

Bit longer than 6 seconds…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Required fields *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.