The 2023-2024 Premier League season gets underway on Friday with defending champions, Manchester City takes on newly promoted Burnley.

The match will be emotionally filled ad Burnley under former Manchester City captain, Vincent Kompany.

However, the most interesting aim of this article is to get the Premier League fans abreast of the news rules that has been put in place ahead of the new season.

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Just like every other previous seasons had witnessed, the 2023-2024 season will witness a tweak to what supporters of the Premier League were used to last season.

Ranging from new players who will be playing in the Premier League this season to the club kits, balls and teams to face, en.AfricaTopSport.com details the changes for the new season.

Mid-Season Player Break

Ten games will be spread out over two weeks in January for the first time since the 2019–20 season in an effort to ease the fixture calendar’s congestion and enhance player welfare.

This will have an impact on our home matchup with Crystal Palace, currently set for Saturday, January 13, but who knows if one of the five games will be shifted to January 20-21.

Fifth Champions League place

For the first time, five Premier League teams might make the UEFA Champions League through their league standings in 2023–24.

For 2024/25, Europe’s top club competition will have 36 teams thanks to a new format, adding a spot for the two nations whose clubs collectively fared the best in UEFA competitions the previous season.

The Premier League would have been entitled to this additional position in five of the previous six campaigns and seven of the previous eleven. However, we won’t know for sure until near the end of the season whether the team that finishes fifth in the Premier League will qualify for the Champions League.

Shirt Numbering

A new font will be used on the back of players’ shirts as part of the Premier League’s fourth revamp to help boost the number height and improve visibility.

The league’s sleeve badge has been changed to a stand-alone classic Premier League lion for the upcoming season in addition to the name and number changes.

More additional time

The length of stoppage time added on is the largest adjustment this season. In order to increase the amount of time the ball is in play, as we’ve seen in both the men’s and women’s World Cups, match officials are calculating additional time with greater accuracy.

Therefore, as opposed to the prior approach of adding 30 seconds for specific game incidences, the precise time lost when certain match events occur will now be included.

These include: 

• Goals and subsequent celebrations

• Substitutions

• Injuries and treatment time (if required)

• Penalties (from moment of offence to the whistle for the penalty kick)

• Red cards (from moment of offence to when the player leaves the field)

We saw this applied in the Community Shield, which allowed Leandro Trossard to score in the 101st minute of normal time to equalise against Manchester City.

To help supporters, stadium clocks no longer be stopped at the 90-minute mark and instead run until the completion of each half.

Reduction In Time Wasting

Referees will also be stricter with players who delay the game from restarting or waste time, such as by waiting too long to take a free kick, goal kick, or corner, in order to increase ball-in-play time.

Each of these will get a yellow card penalty.

Officials have been instructed to be harder when forcing players to leave the pitch for treatment, which will serve as a deterrent even if they are not actually hurt.

This is done to dissuade players from making up injuries.

Only players who have been hurt during a challenge that resulted in a yellow or red card, in a collision with a teammate, or as a custodian or penalty shooter will be permitted to receive treatment on the pitch.

Improving behaviour For Backroom Staff

Only the manager is allowed to patrol his technical area too, with other coaches not permitted to stand alongside their boss during the game.

Other rules

The denial of a goal-scoring opportunity that results in a penalty has undergone a modest adjustment, with defenders now only receiving a yellow card if they attempt to compete for the ball but nonetheless foul.

Due to this, there will be fewer red cards issued, however holding, tugging, shoving, and fouls where the ball could not be played will still result in a red card.

Another modification to the offside rule now considers it a “deliberate play” if a defender who is deemed to be in control of the ball attempts to gain possession or clears.

In this case, regardless of how inaccurate the defender’s action was, if the ball ends up in the hands of an attacker who is offside, they won’t be punished.

Offside should be declared if the ball simply deflects off a defender and goes to an attacker who is offside.

New Match officials

The Premier League will employ three new officials this year. Assistant referee Akil Howson has joined referees Tim Robinson and Darren Bond.

Andre Marriner, a veteran referee who presided over our match against Wolves back in May, has since announced his retirement.