For much of the 1990s, the energy of football’s law-makers was spent on
changing how and when goalkeepers were allowed to handle the ball.
In 1992, in response to a dull World Cup in Italy two years before,
‘keepers were prevented from picking up back-passes. And, five years later, those
restrictions were extended to include throw-ins, with ‘keepers banned from picking those up, too.
But a further bit of legislation, which arrived a year later,
would arrived dramatically and then apparently vanish just as quickly.
So, what did happen to the six-second rule?
First, what actually was the six-second rule? Well, back in 1998, IFAB introduced an amendment
to their laws which prohibited goalkeepers from holding on to the ball for longer than
six seconds. It meant, obviously, that ‘keepers would have to release it before the time elapsed,
or risk conceding an indirect free-kick from the spot of the foul.
The aim was to avoid time-wasting. While the backpass and throw-ins laws were
introduced to deter negative play, or make passing back to the goalkeeper more risky,
the 1998 amendment was another measure aimed specifically at ‘keepers.
As late as the 1960s, they had still been virtually unregulated. Once in possession,
they were allowed to keep the ball for almost as long as they liked,
provided they bounced or threw it as they moved around the penalty-box.
That practice – which could often look ridiculous – was brought to an end at the beginning of the
60s by what was known as the four-step rule. Exactly as it sounds, it allowed the goalkeeper
to take a maximum of four steps with the ball before punting or throwing it away.
It was a vague law and yet it remained in place for decades. It had loopholes, too, one of which
included keepers taking their four steps, dropping and dribbling the ball, and picking it up again.
That was restricted within the same amendment that outlawed the backpass. Once the ball has
been released, it couldn’t be picked up again until another player had had possession of it.
But putting an actual timelimit on possession was new and, at the time, seemed revolutionary.
“Has the International Football Association Board fired the definitive shot across the
bows of the goalkeepers in this intriguing battle against time-wasting?” pondered the FIFA website,
the year before the rule change became law.
Well, no, it hadn’t, but the rule still exists and it remains relatively misunderstood. There
have been a few notorious examples of goalkeepers being punished for abusing
the time limit – Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod, for instance, with disastrous consequences at the
2012 Olympic Games – but it happens so rarely that it can seem like the law no longer exists.
But the intention was never to create another stoppage in the game.
The law principally exists as a deterrent and referees only tend to apply it as a last resort
or when, despite repeated warnings, goalkeepers continually take advantage of that leniency.
One of the most famous recent instances of a foul being called occurred in 2015,
during a Europa League game between Liverpool and Bordeaux at Anfield. Home goalkeeper Simon
Mignolet conceded an indirect free-kick in his own box after holding the ball for nearly 20 seconds
and visiting forward Henri Saivet would score, hammering the ball into the top-corner.
But that captures the spirt of the six-second rule – or law 12.2 to give it its proper title. It’s
still there, ready to punish the most egregious time-wasters, but it was introduced and continues
to exist as a way of developing better habits, rather than to be applied with draconian rigidity.