Kobel shares thoughts on football's latest rule change affecting goalkeepers | OneFootball

Borussia Dortmund’s Gregor Kobel voiced his opinion on football’s latest rule where a goalkeeper must release the ball within eight seconds from catching it.

The original rule deemed that if a goalkeeper held the ball in excess of six seconds an indirect free-kick would be awarded to the opposing team.

“That was one of those rules that was not really enforced for certain reasons. If you really count down six seconds consistently, that’s a very short time,” Kobel explained to Ruhr Nachrichten.

The new rule enables goalkeeper to hold the ball for eight seconds before releasing it, with the referee offering a visual countdown with their raised hand for the final five seconds.

“When you have the ball in your hand as a goalkeeper, you notice that things slow down a bit,” the Swiss shot-stopper pointed out.

“Everyone trots into position. You can’t pass to anyone because no one is ready.

“Now the whole team has to be more sensitive to the issue of getting into position more quickly. It will probably make the game a bit faster [and] that’s good,” said the 27-year-old.

Furthermore, the new rule which has already been successfully trialled by the International Football Association Board in England, Italy and Malta, will not impose bigger sanctions on the goalkeeper.

The original breach of the rule presented the opposition team with a direct free-kick, whereas now the updated ruling will instead result in a corner kick.

“It’s good there is no direct free-kick because that is an extremely big goal opportunity and this consequence would put a goalkeeper under extreme pressure to find a solution in a very short time,” a rather happy Kobel explained.

The new rule will be implemented at the Club World Cup in the USA this summer before the likes of the Bundesliga adopt it next July.