1. West Ham United to open the Premier League’s newest venue!
Following their promotion from the Championship last season, Luton Town will become the 51st team to play in the Premier League.
Luton are the first new club since Brentford joined in 2021/22, having beaten Coventry City on penalties at Wembley in the Play-Off final in May to reach the top-flight.
Rob Edwards' Bedfordshire-based team will welcome the 19 other teams to their ground, Kenilworth Road, this season, with West Ham United becoming their first Premier League visitors for an 8pm kick-off on Friday 1 September.
The Hammers’ clash with the Hatters will be broadcast live in the UK by Sky Sports and across the world by the Premier League’s international broadcast partners. Kenilworth Road will be the 61st different stadium to host Premier League matches.
2. New names and numbers
Avery Dennison, the Premier League’s official name, number and sleeve badge supplier, have revealed designs of new font and embellishments which will feature on this season’s Premier League shirts.
A fourth redesign in Premier League history will see an increase in the number height and the integration of the Premier League's unique graphic pattern, ensures the new font has increased visibility and more impact both on and off the pitch.
In addition to the name and number change, the Premier League sleeve badge has been redesigned for the upcoming season to a standalone iconic Premier League lion.
3. Return of mid-season player break
While not strictly new, the mid-season player break is back for 2023/24.
It is the first time we will see it since it was introduced for the 2019/20 season.
This is due to the season schedule returning to normal following the COVID-19 pandemic and the FIFA World Cup 2022, which caused disruption to the football calendar across three consecutive seasons.
The mid-season player break was agreed in 2018 by the Premier League, The FA and EFL. It is a two-week break structured to ensure that Premier League matches would still be played every weekend over that period.
Ten Premier League fixtures currently scheduled for Saturday 13 January will be split across that weekend and that of 20-21 January – including West Ham United’s away fixture at Sheffield United.
To incorporate the break, The FA agreed to move the FA Cup fifth-round ties to midweek, while removing FA Cup fifth-round replays from the calendar, being replaced with extra-time and penalties. It was agreed to help combat the congested fixture calendar and to improve player welfare.
4. New match officials
Three new officials will operate in this season's Premier League after they were promoted by Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) – Tim Robinson, Darren Bond and Akil Howson.
Robinson took charge of his first Premier League match in December 2019, Burnley v Newcastle United. The Sussex FA-affiliated official had been an assistant referee in the EFL between 2009 and 2012 before becoming an EFL referee. He took charge of two Premier League matches last season.
Bond made his debut as a Premier League referee in January this year, for Leicester City v Fulham, the first of four matches in the competition he has taken charge of.
Howson is among 14 officials from PGMOL’s Development Group, which was formed last summer, who will begin the new campaign at least one level above where they started last season.
The Development Group of officials with high potential was formed as part of the implementation of the Elite Referee Development Plan (ERDP) last summer, with 30 per cent of the 28 referees and assistant referees in the group being Black, Asian or Mixed Heritage.
Andre Marriner will not be involved as a referee this season, after announcing his retirement at the end of 2022/23. The 52-year-old took charge of 391 Premier League matches, including 37 involving West Ham United, and refereed the Hammers 52 times in all competitions between Boxing Day 2004 and January this year.
5. Applications of the Laws of the Game
Timekeeping
Premier League matches will align this season with the latest IFAB guidance on timekeeping. This means timers in stadiums will now be left running until the completion of each half, including additional time in both the first and second half.
Match officials are committed to ensuring a more accurate calculation of additional time, as well as an improvement in the amount of time the ball is in play.
Therefore, the exact time lost when certain match events occur will now be added, as opposed to the previous policy of a nominal period of time being added for particular game incidents.
These match events 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)
This switch to the calculation of added time has already been introduced in the FIFA Men’s World Cup last year and FIFA Women’s World Cup this summer. It was also in use in the Community Shield and opening round of EFL fixtures last weekend.
Allowing stadium timers to keep running for the duration of each half will keep spectators and players informed, and is a key innovation in ensuring further transparency in regard to game management.
Denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity
There will be a slight change to the interpretation where a player commits a foul in their own penalty area which denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (DOGSO) and leads to a penalty.
The referee will now issue a yellow card not only for when the offence was an attempt to play the ball but also if it is ‘a challenge for the ball’.
This gives referees more scope to interpret such fouls as yellow-card offences, rather than red, as in the past.
A red card will be shown in all other circumstances, such as holding, pulling, pushing and where there was no possibility to play the ball.
Offside
The IFAB and FIFA have also clarified the guidelines for determining a ‘deliberate play' by a defender in regards to offsides.
A ‘deliberate play' is when a player has control of the ball and with the possibility of:
- passing the ball to a team-mate; or
- gaining possession of the ball; or
- clearing the ball (eg, by kicking or heading it)
If a player is considered to be in control of the pass, attempt to gain possession or clearance, this would be a ‘deliberate play’ and the attacker in an offside position should not be penalised for offside.
An inaccurate or unsuccessful action does not change that the defender ‘deliberately played’ the ball.
