FIFA: As of Thursday, 1 July 2004, matches may be played on natural or artificial surfaces if permitted by the applicable competition regulations. This amendment to the Laws of the Game was approved by the International F.A. Board (IFAB), the custodians of football’s laws, at its 118th Annual General Meeting, held in London on 28 February 2004.

The IFAB also decided that the artificial surface must meet the requisite quality standards (i.e. the FIFA Quality Concept for Artificial Turf or the International Artificial Turf Standard).

Meeting under the chairmanship of FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, the IFAB also decided that teams should not be permitted to make more than six substitutions during friendly matches (Law 3). With regard to the method for determining the winner of a match, the IFAB also decided to revert to playing the full period of extra time, consisting of two periods of no more than 15 minutes, with kicks from the penalty mark deciding a match that is still level after extra time. As a result, matches played in accordance with the knockout system will no longer be decided by “golden goal” or “silver goal”.

With regard to Law 12 and its interpretation, the IFAB ruled that any player who removes his jersey after scoring a goal would be cautioned for unsporting behaviour. FIFA has already sent a circular to the member associations to give further explanations of this matter. These guidelines may be downloaded from CLICKING here.

Welcoming the amendment, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter said, “Integrating the artificial turf surface into the Laws of the Game is the most important amendment this year and is a milestone in the history of football. Millions of players around the world will benefit from this decision, as it will allow them to play their favourite sport on a more regular basis, irrespective of the weather.”

The new Laws of the Game come into force worldwide on 1 July 2004. However, these amendments will not apply to competitions that are already underway. Consequently, EURO 2004 in Portugal will still use the previous version of the Laws of the Game, including the provision for a “silver goal” to decide the winner of the semi-finals as well as the final in Lisbon on 4 July.