Premier League and EFL officials will add World Cup-style amounts of injury-time to matches as part of directives for new season; 15 mins additional time in Southamptons win at Sheffield Wed; Leeds & Leicester in action as part of Championship triple-header on Sunday, live on Sky Sports
www.skysports.com
Quick Overview:
- Referees now obliged to specifically track the time ball is not in play.
- ‘World Cup Style’ added time to account for all stoppages, including goal celebrations
- Broader definition of “clear and impactful actions” to waste time beyond merely kicking the ball away.
- More leniency shown to regular “contact” between players, supposedly leading to fewer fouls being called for non-careless or reckless play.
- Crowding a referee will now result in immediate yellow cards for one or more of the players doing so — only one player (likely the captain) is allowed to approach the referee to discuss incidents.
- Only one coach will be allowed to be in the technical area at any given time, any violation of this restriction will lead to an immediate yellow card.
- The threshold for policing manager and bench behaviour has been raised, meaning more strict enforcement and likely more red cards for aggressive behaviour.
- Staff members receiving a red will no longer be allowed to watch the match from the stands; they now must be “out of sight” of the pitch.
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As far as the impact of these rules on City, I reckon they can be categorised thus (if they are actually properly and fairly enforced, of course):
Potentially Helps City
1, 2, 3
Potentially Hurts City
4, 6
Neutral
5, 7, 8
I think the biggest change that could cause us problems is #4, as it will likely lead to more niggly challenges on our players (especially Kev, Jack, Phil, Mateo, and Bernie).
It will be quite interesting to see if the increased added time actually lasts. I may be misremembering, but I could have sworn the first PL match round after the World Cup saw similarly larger amounts of first and second half stoppage time being added, but that almost immediately stopped with the next match round.
But, as we have all said ad nauseam, time wasting has become egregious, especially in our matches—often starting in the first 15 minutes of our games if the opposition haven’t yet conceded—and fans are being shafted by it, only getting to see less than 55 minutes of actual football per match (that term itself being used loosely for the likes of Everton, Forest, or United).
How do you think these changes will play out over the season?
Bets for which match round the additional added time change is abandoned?
My bet is the round immediately following the first time Klopp or Ten Hag complain about it (after their team drops points due to a last minute goal).
