The “anti Dibu Martínez” law has been made official: what it says and when it will come into force

This Friday, the International Board published some regulatory changes that will govern football starting July 1st this year and one of the changes is a clear backlash against Emiliano Martinez: refers to the behavior of the goalkeeper towards the executor of a penalty.

“The goalkeeper must remain on his goal line, between the posts but without touching them, the crossbar or the net, and in front of the kicker until the ball strikes. The goalkeeper must not behave in such a way as to unlawfully distract the player. For example, he will not delay taking a penalty or touch the posts, crossbar or goal.”

- Advertisement -

And he continues like this: “It is clear that, with his conduct, the goalkeeper will not disrespect the football or the opponent. For example, by distracting the player in an illegal way.”

How do you translate? A goalkeeper will now not be able to clear the ball from the player before taking the maximum penalty, nor speak to the referee or the player before kick-off.

Here it is worth mentioning that Dibu had some behaviors that tried to distract the executors of the sanctions. For example: in the 2021 Copa América semi-final against Colombia, he said “Look How I Eat You, Brother” to Jerry Mina.

Already at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar he used distraction strategies against the Netherlands, in the quarter-finals, and in the aforementioned definition against France who finished with the third star for the national team.

more changes

The International Board also ruled that “at penalties, warnings and reprimands imposed on players and coaching staff during the match will not be taken into account”.

This means that If a player carried a yellow card and commits a yellow offense in the penalty shootout, he will not be sent offbut he will receive another yellow.

In addition, the IB has announced that if there has been an invasion of a person onto the field of play during a goal, that objective will only be invalidated if that individual interfered in the game. In this it is worth mentioning that in Dibu’s save on Kolo Muani in the World Cup final there was an image showing that some French substitutes entered the field before the shot. This is why the controversy arose that, if it had been a goal, the referee could have canceled it. With this new regulation, it is already known that the goal should not be invalidated.

And the IB also explained in which situations an infringing defender inside his own area should be penalized after the penalty kick if it is a clear objective situation. It will be yellow if the foul is in the dispute for the ball. Otherwise, “grabbing, pulling, pushing, inability to play the ball, etc.), the offender will be sent off.”