Internacional will face a new challenge in the 2026 World Cup, with stricter rules against anti-football. The club needs to adapt to the new rules to be successful. The FIFA and the International Board have outlined the instructions for the 2026/27 season and the start of major competitions will be precisely in this World Cup. The most relevant, perhaps because it is the most common, will be to punish teams whose players take too long to execute restarts of play – such as lateral passes or goal kicks. When the referee considers that the delay is excessive, he must start a five-second count. If the game has not restarted by the end of that count, the goal kick will be converted into a corner kick for the opposing team and the lateral pass will be awarded to the opposing team. There will still be some tolerance when the referee considers that a long pass will be made to the area – moments that generally require greater balance, greater preparation and waiting for the central defenders. Pedro Henriques, a referee analyst from PÚBLICO, praises the measures. "The objective is not to penalize, but to accelerate the game. Recovering minutes of useful game time, creating deterrent measures for time losses, with faster ball recoveries, controlled with visible second counts", he explained to Lusa. And he detailed: "In a football game there are 40 to 50 ball recoveries, between lateral passes and goal kicks. These measures mean a potential gain of five to seven minutes, with a direct impact on the flow and intensity of the game". In the fight against anti-football, players will now have ten seconds to leave the field – counted from the moment the plate with the respective number is displayed. If that time is not met, the substitute player cannot enter immediately – the team will have ten players for a minute and the substitute can only enter the field at the first stop of the game after those 60 seconds. There will also be a relevant change in medical assistance. A player who receives medical assistance must stay out of the field for a minute. The exceptions are goalkeepers, collisions between a field player and a goalkeeper, collisions between two teammates (it would be very penalizing for the team to play with nine), a player who is about to take a penalty or injuries resulting from disciplinary offenses – in this case, it would be beneficial for an offender who injures an opponent. Outside the fight against anti-football, there is a new rule with potential decisive impact on the games. From the World Cup, the VAR will be able to intervene to help the referee in cases of second yellow cards. Until now, the VAR intervention was limited to direct red cards, but it will now be extended to yellow cards that result in a red card.