Back in the summer of 2016, there were a number of footballing laws rewritten by the rule-makers in an attempt to remove inconsistencies from the game to make it more user-friendly.

Once the International Football Association Board had approved these amendments, they were trialled at the European Championships that took place in June and, following the successful trial, the rules were implemented in to the football league and have been in place throughout the current season.

There were a number of new laws and these included: the ball no longer having to go forward at kick-off, referees being able to give a player a red card before the match kicks off, an end to the ‘triple-punishment law’ and many more, as well as further amendments to the offside rule and treating injuries.

As the rewritten rules seem to have seamlessly transitioned into the footballing world this season, combined with the fact that goal-line technology has now been continually used since 2013-14 in the top-flight, there could be even more room for future improvement.

With this in mind, here are five further potential rule changes that could be implemented to the Premier League in the near future…

Removing the offside rule

Perhaps a rather unlikely change but also, when considered, a potentially viable one is the removal of the offside rule in football.

Fans are generally demanding more goals, more excitement and more entertainment and the abolishment of this law would certainly bring about just that.

This change would also make it easier for those who don’t follow football to get involved and watch the game, as well as bringing about a whole new outlook.

You only need to look as far as hockey to find a sport that works well after an offside rule has been removed and here, the balance of power now lies with the attacking team.

Of course, new tactics had to be developed by teams to exploit this new rule and, if applied to football, defenders would no longer be taught how to play offside and would have to defend strikers properly, strikers who would be at their leisure to hang around the penalty area.

Whilst this may be one step too far in terms of footballing changes, it certainly would cause one of the greatest shake-ups in football history.

Scrap yellow cards

Everton’s Tom Davies is shown a yellow card by referee Anthony Taylor.

Could a football match really take place without yellow cards? Yes is the answer from the Director of FIFA Marco Van Basten, who is exploring a number of ways to evolve the game.

The new system would see a similar sin-bin system put in place that they use in ice hockey and rugby, where instead of receiving a booking the player would be made to sit on the sidelines for a period of time.

This obviously would put the team in a complex situation as it becomes more and more difficult to play against 11 men with 10, 9 or even 8 players on the pitch.

The change is probably more plausible than removing the offside rule and it would definitely be effective, as it would deter a player deliberately pulling another player back to stop a counter attack or from giving away needless fouls.

However, there would need to be a great deal of consideration that went in to this development, especially as to how this would work for repeat offenders in the game and for how many players could be off the field at one time. 

Captain being the only player to speak with the referee

Players challenging the officials over every minor decision can be one of the most infuriating things in the game and whilst steps have been taken to reduce this in recent years – with players no longer being able to surround the referee or actively challenge the officials – this still appears to be fairly inconsistent where it becomes a yellow card offence on some occasions, a warning for others and occasionally goes completely unpunished.

This really is a rule that should have been introduced long ago and allowing only the captain to speak with the referee would certainly improve the relationship between the two.

In almost every other sport, this relationship is respected and if this is something that could address this issue it should be implemented sooner rather than later.

Whilst this would be a quick, easy and effective solution, it would – in no way at all – ensure that all decision-making was fair and consistent and actually, in a lot of cases, decisions can be given from the reaction of the crowd as much as it can be from that of the players. 

One club-developed player

Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford.

From the start of the 2018-19 English Football League campaign, all 72 clubs will need to name at least one ‘club-developed’ player in their match-day squads; with a ‘club-developed’ player defined as a player who has been with a club for at least a year before the end of his Under-19 campaign.

This is something that all current clubs agreed to in February and was formally approved at the latest general meeting. This will be in addition to current rules that state each match day squad must have at least seven homegrown players from the start of the 2018-19 season.

This is a great step forward for English football and has been designed to increase the number of players progressing into first-team football from their respective club’s youth set-up.

Should this be successful, the Premier League could definitely adopt it and ditch its own homegrown player rule and, if implemented in the Premier League, some teams may be affected and would be forced to rethinking their match day squads.

With all things considered, this would provide a further step forward in the thinking around nurturing young English talent. 

Video Technology

The experimentation with video technology and video referees in football has now been going on for a fair while and, after the successful introduction of goal-line technology, it could be the next major advancement in the beautiful game.

The technology is still in its trial stage and is currently part of a two-year experiment being run by the International Football Association Board.

The recent international friendly between France and Spain was the first time that the outcome of a high-profile match was changed by the technology and turned what would have been a 1-1 draw into a 2-0 win for Spain.

As part of the trial, the FA Cup next season will have video referees available from the third round as part but a final decision on the future of this will not be made until the IFAB Annual General Meeting in March 2018.

This means that the earliest we could see its introduction into the Premier League will be at the start of the 2018-19 season but, as things currently stand, there is certainly a strong possibility that everything will go according to plan.