Scotland players have been briefed by a top referee on the last-minute rule changes drafted in ahead of the World Cup finals.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) confirmed expanded powers for VAR, 10-second substitutions and clamping down on tactical timeouts earlier this week.
The changes will see five-second countdowns for throw-ins and goal kicks, red cards for players covering their mouths during confrontations, punishments for teams walking off the pitch in protest, mandatory one-minute off-field treatment periods and VAR interventions if a foul is committed before the ball enters the field of play at a set-piece.
Video assistants will also have the power to overturn wrongly awarded second yellow cards and corner kicks.
Bemused by the last-ditch, confusing nature of the new rules, Steve Clarke arranged for a referee to brief his players on the changes during a video call at Scotland’s Florida hotel on Tuesday night.
Unclear on how they will work in practice, Clarke said: “What a time to experiment. We have an online meeting with a referee who will come on and explain all the different changes. Hopefully it’s pretty clear.
“There’s a five-second rule to take a throw-in. So when does the throw-in start? There’s five seconds to take a goal kick. When does that start? When the goalkeeper puts the ball down or when he moves backwards to take it? Because sometimes that can take five seconds. So how are they going to bring that in?
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“We’ll need to introduce the lads to the fact that, when we’re making substitutions, you’ve got ten seconds to get off the pitch. I don’t know if you saw the Iceland versus Japan game, but in injury time Iceland were putting on two boys to see out the game and get a 0-0 draw.
“The second substitution coming off takes longer than 10 seconds to get off the pitch, so the referee tells the fourth official, ‘Don’t allow that sub’. That sub doesn’t go on, they play with ten men for a minute, and they concede a goal. Japan scored in that minute and won it 1-0.
“So our boys need to know about that and lots of little things that they are trying to bring in.”
Scotland have spent this week training at Inter Miami's state-of-the-art training centre before flying to New Jersey to play Bolivia in their final pre-tournament warm-up at the Sports Illustrated Stadium at 9pm UK time on Saturday night.
Temperatures in Florida have been in the 30s and the Scots will use the game to acclimatise to the new mandatory three-minute hydration breaks introduced in each half by FIFA.
“The biggest thing about the Bolivia game will be getting used to the conditions, getting used to the 22-minute periods and getting used to the three-minute water breaks.
"Today in training was a 20-minute block of possession, a three-minute water break, a 20-minute block of small-sided games and a three-minute water break.
“That was just to get them used to that change, that different feel of four periods instead of two halves. And also to give them the feeling, when they are coming off blowing, sweating, gasping and saying they need a drink, ‘Guys, it’s half time, so you need to be ready to go through that again.”
