I Broke every STRANGE Football Rule

Modern day football has a long list of rules. Some of them make sense, for example, not being able to score a goal with your hands, but others definitely don't and can be pretty weird, pointless, or sometimes even controversial. And those are the ones that I wanna put to the test today. There's also a few rules and certain football products that have the potential to be exploited and give you an unfair advantage on the pitch. And finally, I'll be breaking one potential new rule that could change the game of football forever. Right, so the first rule on the list I'm already breaking right now. I'm gonna go and kick the ball around for a bit and see if you can guess what it is. So this is by far the least controversial rule of the video. I'm wearing the wrong color undershirt. The rules state that the undershirt must match the same color as the sleeves, which in all fairness does make sense to avoid any confusion on the pitch. But there are a few more controversial rules about football kits that I'll take a look at later on in the video. Now, the next rule is a very recent addition to the rule book. Clubs in the English Football League have recently voted to amend the rules when it comes to throw-ins. No longer will players be allowed to towel-dry a ball before a throw-in, as it was thought that it gave players too much of an advantage. And in some cases, throw-ins became even more effective than corners. But how much more distance can you really get by drying the ball with a towel? Let's find out. So first up, I took three throw-ins with a wet ball. And I marked out where they landed with a blue cone. And then I dried the ball and took three more throw-ins. Right, that feels a lot grippier already. So as you can see, the blue cones are where the wet balls landed, and the orange balls are where the dry balls landed. And to be fair, the dry throw-ins were about one to two meters longer. And for certain players who can really launch a throw-in, this gap could be as much as five meters. So I think the ban is fair, as drying the ball meticulously with a towel can give you a massive advantage. At the end of this video, I'll be breaking a rule that could literally change the game of football as we know it. But first, let's take a look and test out some of the strange rules when it comes to goalkeepers. First up, there's a new rule when it comes to penalty taking. When facing a penalty, the goalie is no longer allowed to shake or move the post or crossbar. It's thought to be a distraction to the penalty taker, and it'll have to be taken again. This also means they can't delay, distract, or intimidate the taker, as if saving a penalty wasn't hard enough already. The rules also state that a goalkeeper isn't allowed to hang off the crossbar to save a shot. So I wanted to see if that was even helpful in any way. Yeah, I definitely wouldn't recommend this as a way to save shots. Yeah, I've got no idea why anyone would even do this. So there's no hanging off the crossbar allowed. But what are the rules when it comes to the gloves themselves? Well, there actually isn't any. From what I've read, you can literally wear any gloves you want, or no gloves at all. It's completely up to you. So I wondered, what if I wore ridiculously oversized gloves? Would that help me? So from what I'm seeing, these gloves are completely legal to wear in game. Now, those are the rules when it comes to the gloves themselves. In other words, there aren't really any. But there is a trick that some goalkeepers use that sits in the gray area of what's legal on the pitch, and it involves a tub of Vaseline. Right, so this next rule is a bit of a sticky one, to be honest, no pun intended, because it involves Vaseline. Now, some pro keepers will put Vaseline on their gloves to make them grippier. But is this actually within the rules? Well, I've got my laptop, and I'm gonna try and clear this up a little bit. And to be honest, I've not really got a conclusive answer. In the US, I think it's banned. This is what they say. This is from the United States Soccer Federation. There is no provision for the goalkeeper or any other player to wear artificial aids to enhance their ability to play. Therefore, tacky substances like this on the hands or gloves are illegal equipment for which a caution should be given. So that basically says that in the United States, Vaseline on gloves is not legal. But whether this is legal or not, I linked up with a pro goalkeeper to test it out and get his thoughts on it and see if he can shed any more light. Now, do you know about this? I've heard of it. You're a keeper, you know the goalie gloves. Have you ever done it? I've never done it. You've never done it? Never done it. Okay, do you wanna do it? Yeah, let's give it a go. Bit weird. Oh my days. Wow. Is that enough? Yeah, that should be enough. I've spoken to goalies about it. I spoke to Joe Hart about it. He's tried it. He vouched for it. He says it works. I can't understand how this makes it stickier. Like that, to me, just, I'm sure it's gonna be slippy. It does stick on contact. I get what I mean. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah. Man, this is looking good. I'm not enjoying it. When it hits, it like goes boof, but if there's any movement, it's not great. I can see it, but not for me. When it hits the glove, it makes like, you can almost hear it. You hear that like, squidge as it comes off. And like, it makes that compact. But if there's dirt on the ball, or if there's wet on the ball, then it's not quite skippy. Yeah, look at that. Oh man. So question, will you be putting Vaseline on your gloves in your next game? Nope. Right, now before we look at the rules around football boots, I'm gonna quick fire five football rules you probably didn't know exist. Number one, you can actually refuse to be subbed off. Number two, if you score an own goal from a free kick, it doesn't count. I honestly have no idea how this would even happen, but it's interesting to know. Number three, if the ball is flat or breaks on the way to the goal, the referee will disallow it. Rule number four, you can actually get a yellow card for doing too many skills and showboating. And finally. So if you're the sort of person that likes to use sock tape to hold their shin pads up, you wanna make sure it's the same colour as the socks. Otherwise, the ref will have you removing that before you even make it out the tunnel. Now, when it comes to football boots, there's actually no rules about what you can and can't wear as long as you've got something on your feet. So instead, I'm gonna take a look and test out some football boots that broke the rules in a different way. So the first rule-breaking boot is the Adidas Predator. In 2023, this boot doesn't seem too controversial, but 30 years ago, it ripped up the rule book. The rubber elements were thought by some to give you an unfair advantage on the pitch. Right, so I've come down to the pitch and I wanna see how much difference these rubber elements actually make when it comes to curve, and see if they really are unfair. How can that not give you more curves? Just look at that. That's insane. So first up, I took some curve shots with the Predators. On my normal boots. And I definitely think the shots were curving more with the Preds on. So I think it's true. The Predators offer you an unfair advantage. But this next football boot broke the rules in a different way. Now, in this box, I have a pair of football boots that broke the rules when it comes to entering the football market. They were a brand that had never made football boots before, and then came in with a bang by signing one of the biggest stars in the game on a lifetime contract. You can probably guess what's in this box. Wow. These actually look really, really nice. It's the Skechers boots. And honestly, these look sick. Yeah, they don't feel the most comfortable boots in the world. These actually look so sick. So normal boot brands have a gradual entry to the football market, but not Skechers. Straight away signing one of the biggest names in football on a lifetime contract. But what are Skechers boots like to play with seeing as they've never made a pair before? Well, they're actually quite nice. And I think they look really cool too. But this next pair breaks all the rules in what you can expect a football boot to look like and also what it should feel like on your feet. But it didn't come without any controversy. Nah, I don't like these at all, man. The Nike Magista Obra, the first time we ever saw a sock-like football boot. Most boots these days have a collar on, but back in 2014, this broke every unwritten rule of football boots. But it actually worked. And while some people hated it, most people loved it. And it went on to change the game when it comes to football boots. Personally, I'm not a massive fan of how they feel, but you can't deny they were groundbreaking. But with this final pair of boots, footballers thought Puma had gone mad. Puma made the left foot bright blue and the right foot bright pink. When Mario Balotelli first saw these boots, he thought the guys at Puma had gone mad. But are they legal to wear in game? Now, when it comes to football boots, I thought there'd be a lot of rules telling you what you can and can't wear. And I thought different color football boots might sit on the edge of what was legal in a game. But it turns out that's not the case. Now, when it comes to football kits, there aren't really many rules, apart from that it must have sleeves. And when Cameroon tried their luck by wearing a vest to the World Cup in 2002, this put the rules to the test and they were made to add sleeves to the kit. Now, when it comes to the rules around the ball itself, there are a few. Number one, it must be spherical. That's pretty obvious. Number two, it must weigh between 410 and 450 grams. And the pressure must be between 0.6 and 1.1 atmospheres. So nothing too crazy there. But now this final rule I'm gonna break could change the game of football forever. So this final rule revolves around heading of football. Heading the ball has already been banned for under 12s. Professional footballers in Scotland have been limited to one heading session per week. And the FA has said that professional players in England should limit themselves to 10 high force headers per week. So I did a little heading session to see if I could figure out why all these rules have changed. Right, so there's a lot of people and clubs and places thinking about banning heading. So let's have a little heading session and I can see what it's all about. It's said that former footballers And some scientists believe this could be down to repetitive heading of a football. Now the footballs of today are far less heavy and a lot better made, but they could still cause long lasting damage according to some. Right, so I've just finished a little heading session there. And I'm not gonna lie, I've only had a few headers and my head actually hurts quite a bit and I wasn't even heading it that hard. So I can imagine over a long period of time, this could be pretty damaging. And to be fair, it might not be too long before headings removed from the game completely. It's actually really hard to imagine a game of football with no heading involved, but health has got to come first. Let me know in the comments what your thoughts are on the heading ban. I'm really interested to know what you think.