Korea Football Association (KFA) has decided to apply the latest edition of the Laws of the Game 2020/21 from the opening match of the K League between Jeonbuk Hyundai and Suwon Samsung on 8 May. The recently revised rules will be applied to the K League this season, as well as the FA Cup and all the domestic competitions at amateur level.

The Laws of the Game 2020/21, announced by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) on 7 April, will come into effect on and after 1 June this year. However, with IFAB and FIFA allowing the the new rules to be applied in advance to the competitions commencing in April and May, the K League is set to become the first competition in the world to apply the Laws of the Game 2020/21.

Since the domestic seasons were already under way when the Laws of the Game were announced in April, the new rules had to be applied the following year until last season. In fact, the Laws of the Game 2019/20 announced in April last year were to be in effect in January. But with all the competitions postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak this year, the Laws of the Game 2019/20 and 2020/21 will be applied from the beginning of this season. Therefore, the K League will be the first competition in the world kicking off with the new rules in 2020.

Won Chang-ho, the Chairman of KFA’s Refereeing Committee, said: “I don’t think there will be any difficulties in applying the new Laws of the Game, because there have been only a few changes to  supplement the existing rules or to clarify some concepts. Although we don’t have much time left until the kick-off of the K League, we’ll make sure the new rules will be properly applied with thorough briefings for the referees and the participating clubs as well.”