Mikel Arteta's Un Sportful Action Makes IFAB Change Football Law

JAKARTA - The International Football Association (IFAB) will change the law about coaches disturbing the ball during the game.

The plan comes after Arsenal's unsportsmanlike action, Mikel Arteta, who mistakenly escaped a red card while disturbing the ball before leaving the field.

This happened when the Gunners lost 0-1 to Inter Milan in the Champions League match at Giuseppe Meazza, November 7, 2024.

At that time, the Nerazzurri defender, Matteo Darmian, moved to pass the ball that would be thrown inside. Arteta picked it up before the ball crossed the line.

Referee Istvan Kovacs gave Arteta a yellow card. In fact, according to the Law of the Football Game (Law of the Game) designed by IFAB, it should have resulted in a red card.

This year, West Bromwich Albion Manager Carlos Corberan and head coach of Kilmarnock (S Scotland Premier League), Derek McInnes, were both removed from the field in a similar situation.

Not surprisingly, the incident sparked special attention from IFAB. After a long discussion at the Annual Business Meeting on Monday, December 2, 2024, IFAB recommended changes to the law.

Although Kovacs' decision at Giuseppe Meazza was not right, IFAB believes that when the coach's only goal is to help the game restart quickly -- as happened to Arteta, Corberan, and McInnes--then the warning is the result of more precise discipline.

The legal changes, which will occur next summer, must be approved at the IFAB Annual General Meeting on March 1, 2025.

The only other law that will be changed includes the ball dropped. Currently, if a team controls the ball and passes the ball to the referee, they still get the ball dropped.

The proposal is that if the pass deviates and clearly leads to the opposing team, then the ball dropped must be given to the opponent.