The 122nd Annual General Meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) took place in Scotland an 8 March 2008. The amendments to the Laws of the Game approved at this meeting and the various instructions and directives issued are listed below.

 Amendments to the Laws of the Game and Decisions of the Board General revision

While the modification of Law 2 indicated below is the only amendment in the substance of the Laws of the Game this year, the overall wording and structure has been reviewed and revised in order to consolidate and reorganise the content for the sake of consistency, simplification and clarification . As part of this process, some of the Decisions of the International Football Association Board from the 2007/2008 edition of the Laws of the Game have now been either incorporated in the Law to which they were previously appended or otherwise added to the section previously known as Additional Instructions and Guidelines for Referees. For the 2008/2009 edition of the Laws of the Game, this section has been renamed "Interpretation of the Laws of the Game and Guidelines for Referees" The reason for this change is to underline that, while the content of thls section Is intended to complement the Laws of the Game themselves, its application Is Indeed a compulsory requlrement . In addition, certain principles that were implicitly understood throughout the game but did notexplicitly feature in the Laws of the Game have been added to the new edition for completeness, for example, Law 4 now expressly states that "The two teams must wear colours that distinguish them from each other and also the referee and the assistant referees" 

Law 1 - The Field of Play

At a special meeting of the IFAB an 8 May 2008, it was ruled that the decision passed at the Annual General Meeting an 8 March to standardise the dimensions of the field of play for "A" international matches would not be implemented until the IFAB had reviewed the matter at next year,S 123^rd Annual General Meeting in Northern Ireland . 

Law 2 - The Ball

Decisions of the International F.A. Board 

1 Current Text   In competition matches, only footbalis which meet the minimum technical requirements stipulated in Law 2 are permitted for use.In FIFA competition matches, and in competition matches organised under theauspices of the confederations, acceptance of a football for use is conditional upon the football bearing one of the following three designations : 

the official "FIFA APPROVED" logo, or the official "FIFA INSPECTED" logo, or the reference "International Matchball Standard" 

Such a designation an a football indicates that it has been tested officially and found to be in compliance with specific technical requirements, different for each category and additional to the minimum specifications stipulated in Law 2 . The list of the additional requirements specific to each of the respective categories must be approved by the International F.A. Board. The institutes conducting the tests are subject to the approval of FIFA.Member association competitions may also require the use of balls bearing any one of these three designations.In all other matches, the ball used must satisfy the requirements of Law

2 .  New Text

In addition to the requirements of Law 2, acceptance of a ball for use in matches played in an official competition organised under the auspices of FIFA or the confederations is conditional upon the ball bearing one of the following : 

the official "FIFA APPROVED" logo the official "FIFA INSPECTED" logo the "International Matchball Standard" logo  

Such a logo an a ball indicates that it has been tested officially and found to be in compliance with specific technical requirements, different for each logo and additional to the minimum specifications stipulated in Law 2 . The list of the additional requirements specific to each of the respective logos must be approved by theInternational F.A. Board . The institutes conducting the tests are subject to theapproval of FIFA.Member association competitions may also require the use of balls bearing any one of these three logos. 

Directives and instructions issued by the IFAB 

Dealing with injured players

In view of the differing practices applied in various competitions around the world by the team in possession when the ball remains in play after a player has been injured and the confusion that this can cause, the IFAB wishes to reiterate that Law 5 states that the referee has the power to stop the match if, in his opinion, a player is seriously injured, but he may allow play to continue if the player is, in his opinion, only slightly injured .Furthermore, the IFAB also calls for the football family to unite in denouncing simulation and working to eradicate this scourge from the game in order to assist the referee's identification of serious injuries and, more generally, to uphold the fundamental principles of fair play and preserve the integrity of the game. 

Pitchside monitors

As a result of the increasing presence of monitors around the boundaries of the field of play for broadcasting purposes, the IFAB underlines that it is forbidden for occupants of the technical area to have access to or be in a position to view pitchside monitors. Goal line technologyThe IFAB has decided that all experiments involving goal line technology are to be put an ice until further notice . 

Additional assistant referees

The IFAB has granted FIFA permission to conduct an experiment with two additional assistant referees in a forthcoming tournament. 

Implementation

The decisions of this year's Annual General Meeting of the Board regarding changes to the Laws of the Game are binding for confederations and member associations as from 1 July 2008 but confederations or member associations whose current season has not ended by 1 July may delay the introduction of the adopted alterations to the Laws of the Game in their competitions until the beginning of their next season .