Advantage Rule

• ✓The referee lets play continue where the team offended against will benefit from it^{1, 7}
• ✓It now also covers a restart that is incorrectly taken while the ball is in play, which is the 2026/27 widening^{1, 7}
• ✓If the anticipated advantage does not ensue at that time or within a few seconds, the referee penalises the offence or orders the retake¹
• ✓Four things weigh on whether to play it: the severity of the offence, where it happened, the chance of an immediate promising attack, and the atmosphere of the match^{8, 9, 10, 11, 12}
• ✓Where the offence warrants a sending-off, the referee must stop play and send the player off unless there is a clear opportunity to score^{3, 4, 8, 9}
• ✓A card for the original offence is normally issued when the ball is next out of play²
• ✓No sanction at all for a DOGSO offence where advantage is played and the non-offending team scores as a result, and no caution where the offence stopped a promising attack²
• ✓Handling in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent a goal is no longer among the listed cautions for unsporting behaviour, which now names only handling in an attempt to score^{5, 6}
• ✓The referee signals advantage by extending both arms forward. The Laws print the signal as a diagram rather than in words, so this is a description of the diagram and not a quotation

Advantage is one of the referee's powers under Law 5: allow play to continue when an offence occurs, or when a restart is incorrectly taken and the ball is in play, where the opposing team will benefit, and penalise the offence or order the retake if the anticipated advantage does not ensue at that time or within a few seconds. The incorrectly taken restart is the part that widened for 2026/27, so a team that takes a free kick or a throw-in wrongly can now be played on from rather than automatically called back, if their opponents gain from it. In deciding whether to play advantage at all, the practical guidelines ask the referee to weigh the severity of the offence, the position where it was committed, the chances of an immediate promising attack, and the atmosphere of the match, and they state the severity limb in strong terms: where the offence warrants a sending-off the referee must stop play and send the player off unless there is a clear opportunity to score. Law 12 says the same thing about serious foul play, violent conduct and a second cautionable offence. What happens to a card afterwards is dealt with on its own page, because it is not a single rule: the general position is that the caution or sending-off is issued when the ball is next out of play, and Law 12 then removes or reduces it in three named cases.^{1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12}