{"id":1003788,"date":"2026-06-04T01:14:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1003788\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T01:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:14:19","slug":"steve-clarke-holds-emergency-scotland-meeting-as-world-cup-rule-changes-force-boss-to-abort-haiti-spying-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1003788\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Clarke holds emergency Scotland meeting as World Cup rule changes force boss to abort Haiti spying mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clarke had to ditch watching Group C opponents against New Zealand to get up to speed with a raft of IFAB rule changes<\/p>\n

22:30, 03 Jun 2026Updated 22:45, 03 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Steve Clarke, manager of Scotland during a training session<\/p>\n

Steve Clarke has had to hold an urgent team meeting with his Scotland<\/a> stars after a raft of bizarre rule changes were rushed through at the 11th hour ahead of the World Cup kick off, writes Keith Jackson in Miami.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clarke<\/a> was forced to pull out of a planned spying mission to watch opening day opponents Haiti take on New Zealand here in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday night in order to attend an online tutorial with FIFA officials over the new crack down on time wasting.<\/p>\n

The hard line edict means players will be placed on the stop watch at throw-ins, goal kicks and during substitutions and Clarke has had to alter his training schedule to familiarise his players with the protocol.<\/p>\n

Scotland will take on Bolivia in New Jersey on Saturday in the final warm up match ahead of the Group C opener against Haiti in Boston on June 14.<\/p>\n

And Clarke said: \u201cThe biggest thing about the Bolivia game at the weekend will be getting used to the conditions, getting used to the 22 minute periods and getting used to the three minute water breaks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then there\u2019s all the little rules that IFAB have suddenly said<\/a>, \u2018We\u2019re going to try this!\u2019. What a time to experiment!<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got them on my phone somewhere but I can\u2019t remember everything. There\u2019s a five second rule to take a throw-in. So when does the throw-in start?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s five seconds to take a goal kick. When does that start? When the goalkeeper puts the ball down or when he moves backwards to take it? Because sometimes that can take five seconds. So how are they going to bring that in?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll need to introduce the lads to the fact that, when we\u2019re making substitutions you\u2019ve got ten seconds to get off the pitch.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Koki Ogawa of Japan celebrates<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if you saw the Iceland versus Japan game but in injury time Iceland were putting on two boys to see out the game and get a 0-0 draw.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second substitution coming off takes longer than 10 seconds to get off the pitch so the referee tells the fourth official, \u2018Don\u2019t allow that sub,\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sub doesn\u2019t go on, they play with ten men for a minute and they concede a goal. Japan scored in that minute and won it 1-0.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo our boys need to know about that and lots of little things that they are trying to bring in.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday in training was a 20 minute block of possession, a three minute water break, a 20 minute block of small sided games and a three minute water break.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was just to get them used to that change, that different feel of four periods instead of two halves. And also to give them the feeling, when they are coming off blowing, sweating, gasping and saying they need a drink, \u2018Guys, it\u2019s half time, so you need to be ready to go through that again!\u2019.<\/p>\n

Clarke had planned to run the rule over Haiti<\/a> here on Tuesday night, as the minnows romped to a 4-0 win over New Zealand.<\/p>\n

But he had to stay put at the team hotel instead to attend an online tutorial on the rule changes – and send his coaching staff to the game instead.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe have an online meeting with a referee who will come on and explain all the different changes. Hopefully it\u2019s pretty clear.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clarke had to ditch watching Group C opponents against New Zealand to get up to speed with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1003789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[1512,236173,13315,79,70571,16,15,16263,93214],"class_list":["post-1003788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-fifa","tag-haiti-football-team","tag-scotland-football-team","tag-sports","tag-steve-clarke","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-var","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116689194064844731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}