Premier League referees will take a more nuanced approach to hair pulling next season, moving away from automatic red cards to judging force and intention. The change follows three dismissals for the offence in 2025-26, including Michael Keane, Lisandro Martinez and Dan Ballard, all issued via VAR review.

Managers fiercely criticized the decisions, with Manchester United boss Michael Carrick calling Keane's red card 'one of worst decisions I've seen' before losing his appeal. The new guidance targets 'clear and deliberate action' with 'excessive force and/or brutality', meaning accidental contact won't necessarily incur the same punishment.

A separate crackdown on goalkeeper 'tactical timeout' tactics will also debut. The practice, where keepers feign injury to halt play and allow team talks, drew criticism from 85% of survey respondents. A new rule now permits five-second countdowns on goal-kicks to combat this.

The annual football survey also revealed 96% support for high threshold challenging decisions and 65% backing VAR thresholds. However, the Premier League will not adopt World Cup-style VAR reviews for corners despite the technology being available.