The 2025/26 Premier League hasn’t even kicked off yet, and it’s already causing a stir. Come Friday, when the season officially starts, referees across England will be working under new marching orders — ones that could change what happens in the box in a big way. The shoving, the jostling, the little shirt tugs during corners or free kicks… those days might be over. Horward Webb, the league’s head of refereeing, put it out there plainly, and he’s not sugarcoating it — we might see more penalties than we’ve been used to lately.
This shift didn’t just appear out of thin air. Webb says it followed sit-downs with club officials and some of the league’s most recognizable players. They’ve been fed up with defenders holding and pulling like it’s part of the job description. In his view, it ruins fair challenges for the ball and chips away at the spectacle. “The feedback we’ve had is that there are too many examples of players clearly pulling other players back, which affects their ability to move toward the ball, or some clear extreme actions not being penalized,” he said.
And he’s not mincing words about what’s next. “These are the situations we want to catch. So I’d expect that, at this same time next year, there’ll be a few more penalties given for holding offenses than we’ve seen this year,” Webb explained.
So what actually changes?
On paper, it’s a straightforward tweak, but it still leaves room for judgment calls. Referees will have to look at the whole picture before pointing to the spot: how long a player was held, how much it disrupted movement, the nature of the effort to stop the play, and whether both arms came into play. Not every bit of contact will be a foul. But if it’s obvious and stops the action dead, they’re blowing the whistle.
For Webb, it’s also about the game’s credibility. “We have to take the game with us and be trusted. We have to identify the situations that match the feedback we’ve received,” he said.
Opening night could get interesting
Liverpool hosts Bournemouth at Anfield to get things going. Sure, the focus will be on the soccer, but plenty of eyes will be on the refs. This will be the first real test of the new policy, and a single borderline call could set off a storm among fans, pundits, and players.
If Webb’s right, expect more spot kicks and maybe a cleaner fight inside the box. Or maybe we’ll be talking about overzealous refereeing instead. Either way, this Premier League season isn’t just serving up top-tier soccer, it’s rolling out changes that could shape the whole year.