PARIS: Referees at this year’s Club World Cup will be equipped with body cameras and instructed to implement new rules to cut down on time-wasting by goalkeepers, FIFA announced on Tuesday.

The use of the cameras will be on a trial basis after they were approved last month by IFAB, the sport’s lawmakers.

“We think that it is a good chance to offer the viewers a new experience, in terms of images taken from a perspective, from an angle of vision which was never offered before,” said Pierluigi Collina, chairman of the FIFA referees committee.

“It’s a combination of new experience for broadcasters and also for coaching purposes,” he added.

“Having the possibility to see what the referee sees is important in the debriefing, to evaluate how the call was made by the referee, which was his view, and so on.”

The 32-team competition in the United States will also attempt to crack down on time-wasting by goalkeepers, awarding a corner to the opposing team if they hold on to the ball beyond eight seconds.

The current rule states that ‘keepers are supposed to be sanctioned with an indirect free-kick if they hold on for more than six seconds.

However, the offence is rarely penalised.

The Club World Cup begins on June 14 and runs until July 13.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2025