A controversial new walking football rule looks like it could be introduced for the 2025/26 season. The new directive from UEFA is being passed down to The FA and could be adopted by all walking football leagues in the country.
The new rule will restrict players to just five touches when in possession. Presumably this is to reduce contact and “running”. It’s a change which is likely to cause differences of opinion.
We learnt of the new rule, slated to come into force in the 2025/26 season, through a recent WFA newsletter. After looking through the UEFA and FA websites we were unable to find specific reference to the new rule, but the WFA March newsletter states “…the FA has to implement the recent UEFA directive, which will ban dribbling and impose a 5-touch restriction.”
…the FA has to implement the recent UEFA directive, which will ban dribbling and impose a 5-touch restriction.”
The Walking Football Association, March Newsletter
The FA and the WFA have different laws of the game. The WFA maintain a desire to have a unified set of laws, but feel there’s still some work to do on that front. It should be noted that the Dorset Walking Football League (in which Dexter Sports compete) play to The FAs Laws of the Game (LOTG).
Some leagues and competitions have ‘local’ rules which they feel benefit their competition, and that’s fair enough. Of course the issue with local rules is when teams from different places compete, maybe in a regional cup or charity event, these things need to be thrashed out early doors, otherwise they often need to be ironed out during the course of the early matches!
So almost certainly the game would benefit from some unified laws, but we may need to wait a while longer before we see that happen.
What are your thoughts on the possible introduction of a five touch rule in walking football? Leave your comments below…
Disclaimer
This article has been created and published in good faith. Any expressed opinions are those of the author and not necessarily those of Dexter Sports Walking Football Club.
Reasonable effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information at the time of publication. You should expect the information to become outdated the older the article becomes.
