Ready yourselves for another season of… legal battles, endless debate about clubs’ finances, VAR outrage, nine-year player contracts and managerial sackings.
Yes, the Premier League is back!
After a summer of Spain winning the European Championship, Argentina lifting the Copa America, and Olympians playing football in Paris and other French cities, the real entertainment is returning to a screen near you. And it starts at Old Trafford this evening (Friday), where Manchester United host Fulham to kick-start another nine months of unscripted drama otherwise known as Pure Barclays.
There will still be 22 footballers on the pitch, a referee, a couple of nervous managers and thousands of fans in attendance, but there have been some tweaks to the format for 2024-25.
Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton are back in the top flight, new laws are being introduced, semi-automated offside rulings are on the way, a new ball will be kicked around, there are fresh faces in the dugouts and, for the first time since October 2015, no Jurgen Klopp.
So, without further ado, allow The Athletic to steer you through the need-to-knows ahead of the new season…
Changes to VAR
The Premier League and PGMOL, the match officials’ organisation, accepted they lost their way with VAR last season, so spent the summer reminding match officials, club managers and players of its importance, while also unveiling a six-point plan to improve it.
This focuses on reducing delays to the match involvement, in-stadium announcements on decisions, better communication, maintaining a high threshold for VAR intervention, more transparency and more stringent training.
Supporters inside stadiums will now be shown all ‘goals’ that get disallowed on the venue’s big screen(s), as well as a definitive clip if there has been a delay to the restart of the action because a goal has been checked for a potential offside or possible foul. There is also a new Premier League Match Centre social-media account that will communicate the facts regarding VAR decisions.
Welcome to the Premier League Match Centre X account. This page will provide live updates from Stockley Park including information directly from the VAR Hub. We will issue near-live updates on operational matters from all matches – including clarification on refereeing and VAR.
— Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) August 13, 2024
The PGMOL went on a VAR recruitment drive over the summer, receiving interest from around 60 officials, and 12 new specialist video assistant referees will be rolled out during the season.
Video assistant referees at PGMOL’s Stockley Park base have been told not to get involved in subjective calls, instead only intervening when there is a ‘clear and obvious error’. A new term will also be heard: “referee’s call”. It will be used to make it clear the on-pitch decision is critical in the process, and that this should stand unless there is, yes, a clear and obvious error.
If a referee gets sent to the pitch-side monitor, the replays they are shown on it will be played at normal speed. Only when a point of contact is being established will the frames be slowed down.
Semi-automated offsides introduced
Semi-automated offside technology (SOAT) is coming, although not for the start of the season as the technology is still being tested. The Premier League expects it “from after one of the autumn international breaks”, so it could be September, October or as far away as November.
SOAT — yes, another acronym — has proven effective and efficient, most recently at Euro 2024. Before that, it was used at the men’s World Cup in 2022. Genius Sports, already a data partner of the Premier League, will supply the technology. You can read a full breakdown of what to expect from it elsewhere on The Athletic.
Revised handball rule
After receiving feedback from the players that there were too many penalties given for handball last season, changes have been made to what constitutes that offence.
The rules on handball have been tweaked (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
The Premier League has advised players that not every touch of a hand or arm on the ball is an offence and that they are not expected to move with their arms into an unnatural position behind their backs to try to avoid such contact.
It will not be handball if the player concerned is deemed to be in a justifiable position or making a justifiable action; if there is a clear change of trajectory when the ball is touched by, or deflects off, the same player; or if the ball hits the supporting arm when a player falls to the ground.
PSR alternative being trialled
The current profit and sustainability rules (PSR) will remain in place for this season, but a shadow system of the new regulations will be trialled ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.
Clubs agreed to this non-binding shadowing at the league AGM in June and it will comprise squad cost rules (SCR) and top to bottom anchoring rules (TBA). The Premier League and its clubs want to evaluate the system alongside European football governing body UEFA’s financial regulations.
SCR regulates on-pitch spending to a proportion — 85 per cent — of a club’s football revenue and net profit/loss on player sales. TBA is a de facto hard salary cap that would limit the amount any club could spend on their first-team squad to five times the amount the bottom-placed team the previous season received from the Premier League in centralised media and sponsorship income.
A key difference with these new financial rules is that clubs will now be asked to provide accounts twice a year, in March and October, meaning the Premier League will be assessing them on more up-to-date information.
The league’s proposed anchoring rule faces stern opposition from the Professional Footballers’ Association, the players’ trade union in England and Wales, and was voted against by three of the 20 clubs — Aston Villa, Manchester City and Manchester United — in April.
The new Premier League ball (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
Changes to team news, the mid-season break, the ball and celebrations
There are a few other changes.
Team news will now be released 75 minutes before kick-off, rather than an hour, while players were informed last season that there would be no mid-season break in 2024-25 due to a congested calendar. To help with player welfare, the Premier League is starting a week later than usual this season, on the third weekend in August.
There is also going to be a new ball, the Nike Flight (pictured above), which marks the sportswear company’s 25th year as the league’s official ball supplier. It has been designed to generate more powerful strikes and has moulded grooves intended to reduce drag.
Another change that has been welcomed by the players is a new 30-second allowance for celebrations after a goal has been scored, which will not be included in the game’s added-on time.
Additional reporting: Caoimhe O’Neill.
GO DEEPER
How hopeful are the fans of all 20 Premier League clubs feeling about their 2024-25 chances?
(Top photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)