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New Handball Laws Could Be Used When Football Resumes.

There is a new rule for handball to be put in place for season 20/21 but individual Leagues can opt to use the new law when the season resumes'

The International Football Association Board (Ifab) has confirmed the approved changes to the laws of the game for season 2020-21.

One of these laws includes using the "T-shirt line" to differentiate between the arm and the shoulder for handball decisions.

New laws usually become compulsory on 1 June for the start of the new season.

However, because of the unprecedented circumstances currently occurring because of the Corona Virus each individual competition will get the choice of whether to implement them for the rest of this season or defer the change to the start of the next.

In official communication seen by BBC Sport, Ifab said:

"Competitions which have been suspended because of Covid-19 have the option of completing the competition using the Laws of the Game 2019-20 or adopting the Laws of the Game 2020-21.

"Friendly/practice/warm-up matches in preparation for the restart of the competition are permitted to use the version of the Laws that will be used when the competition restarts."

So in the case of the Premier League, they will need to decide to complete this season under the existing rules or alter them, this is not as simple as it seems, although it makes sense to put the changes in place now, it could be seen as being unfair on clubs who have see penalties awarded against them under the old regime that have cost them points and then see a rival team get away with it under the new.

So from this perspective the Premier League might take the view that as this season has see the bulk of it played under one set of rules they should stick with them throughout the whole season.

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