The Prem hasn’t even kicked off and already the FA are being bullied by one of their managers.
One of the rule changes this season will be the English game following on from what FIFA introduced at the World Cup, adding on every second where the ball is out of play.
That’s after studies showed that on average a game only actually gets just over an hour of actual play. Which if nothing else means the customer are not getting value for money.
Another aspect officials have been ordered to crack down on is dissent from coaches on the sidelines.
Arteta is not innocent when it comes to verbal abuse from the dugout.
Part of why that is being identified is the rise in abuse (some physical, some online) that referees are now subjected to even at grass roots level.
Football is the national sport in the UK, right or wrong, the likes of Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp are role models.
I’m a fan of both and spent last season preaching to many Gooners how they were not giving Man City enough respect for the work ethic it takes to set the standards they have.
Yet I get tired of them being passive aggressive when they don’t get things their own way.
The law makers have no doubt decided to have zero tolerance towards officials being sworn at to clean up the image of the game.
So, it sets a bad president that Pep was already complaining through sarcasm based on how he lost what essentially is a friendly.
The irony being that Sunday was built as a curtain raiser for the new campaign. I hope not because we can’t have added time being an issue every week.
The Spaniard is a smart man, every word is said for a meaning. ‘It’s a question for big brain guys who decide these things,” said Guardiola.
The Spaniard added: “It’s a lot of games and every time you add eight or 10 minutes it’s a… but listen, they never consult our opinions, the people in world football, managers or players.
“Now, every game we’re going to play for 100 minutes. Wasting time, from my point of view, it is not going to be solved by extending 10 more minutes,” he said.
“It’s more tiring for the players. It’s too much.”
He won’t care too much about missing out on the Community Shield, he lost the other two and it didn’t exactly stop him winning everything else.
This was the 52-year-old putting pressure on for those who take charge of future fixtures and him letting the governing bodies know he has every intention of making a noise.
For all his many qualities, that’s a dark side of his personality.
Because the original 8 minutes of added time at Wembley had been warned beforehand and was evident would happen based on the amount of time being added to games in the Football League the day before.
Every summer, senior figures from each club are sat down and explained any rule changes.
So why Pep sat in his press conference acting dumbfounded that he wasn’t part of the conversation simply isn’t true.
He doesn’t agree with the change in policy, but that’s different to a lack of communication.
As much as he has helped change how Football is played in England, he’s not the king. He’s no different to his peers in that he must follow the criteria set out by those who make the rules.
The irony being that he has been one of the most vocal protestors towards opponents who time waste – and has been right to do so.
We have had this with VAR. For years, managers wanted to find a way for the sport to be devoid of human error, yet now complain when technology dissects every last detail in a goal.
You can’t have it both ways.
The same applies to time wasting.
You either want teams encouraged to play or you are happy with the way things were.
In our 1-1 draw, 8 mins were put on the board which was warned would now be standard. The majority of that time was taken up by Kyle Walker and Partey being treated for head injuries. The Gunners equalised not due to a favour from the officials, but City’s inability to convert chances to kill off the match and their defending.
Pep’s argument is that this means that players will now be playing even more football in what is already a hectic schedule, sarcastically pointing to a week where he plays on Friday night, then flies to Greece for the Super Cup, arrives back early on the Friday morning to then be asked to play on the Saturday.
Pep and Klopp are often doing this when it suits their own agenda, flying the flag for player welfare. That’s why they preach for more rest at Christmas and changes to the domestic cups.
In reality, if rest was crucial to Pep, the Champions wouldn’t have just had a tour of the Far East.
Pep’s got enough clout at the Etihad to insist that his squad had stayed in Manchester this summer if he truly was worried about physical and mental fatigue.
He didn’t because of the revenue clubs make from playing prestige friendlies abroad.
As for his complaints of days and the times City are ordered to play?
Man, City are one of 20 teams to share a contract from overseas broadcasters worth billions. It’s an income that helps make him rich.
If you’re a company paying that much to televise a product, I think you then have the right to pick when you want to maximise your viewership?
Again, why doesn’t Pep walk into his employers office and ask them to turn down this deal out of fear of his players burning out?
Don’t get me wrong, Pep being a bad loser makes him the winner he is.
Yet this weekend he was wrong on so many levels.
Dan
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The new rule is good because it makes time-wasting tactic obsolete. It won’t be tiring if the managers use their substitutions wisely, since they have five chances to replace their starters
It’s only going to favour teams like city – they often win games easily, to the point the extra time doesn’t matter, but it will make it more difficult for teams to cling onto a draw or sneak a narrow win against them.
“For all his many qualities, that’s a dark side of his personality.” What, really, talking about the FA and officials, that’s a dark side? Surely it’s part of the job and all managers do it, sounds a bit straw clutching by you if you ask me.
As for thinking it’s fine they play at 10pm on a Wed into Thurs, then fly home Fri and play again Sat, show me any manager that would agree that’s a good idea?
Then dont take the money ?
It’s simple
Don’t take the money for the Super Cup, a now traditional game between UEFA CL and EL winning teams. Yeah I’m sure UEFA would take really kindly to that.
What a massively naïve thing to say.
It would be naive if that’s what I said lol
His grievance is he has to play Saturday night ?
In reality the reason times / dates are dictated too is because of the amount of money overseas broadcasters pay
So if hes that unhappy about the schedule ask your owners not to be part of the TV contract
If your happy to take the money then it’s natural that TV companies will pick times that suit them
That got more naïve when you explained it, sorry.
So play anyway, but don’t take the revenue, good grief…
No it’s called a contract
If you sign an agreement with a TV company and part of those terms is they can pick and choose what time you play you cant complain
Blame them who signed the contact ….your employers
You can’t complain, that’s in the contract?
Not my employers either, that was weird…
Yeah
If Man City sign a contract which states TV companies can pick kick off times they can’t then complain as it was their choice to sign that contract
Which bit are you struggling with ?
The fact that the TV companies don’t schedule the games, the FA do. They might make suggestions/requests, but ultimately the FA decide fixture timings.
Sorry you can’t grasp that.
Mate not getting why your being so aggressive about this
Either your deliberately choosing to pretend you don’t understand or you simply don’t
They dont by the way
Sky will tell the FA what fixtures they want at a certain time , same with those companies abroad
Go from 3 min 40
https://youtu.be/PnYeGrJhHX4
Can’t help you more then this
Sky and BT set times for televised games. The FA set the days they are played and the tmes when they play, unless they are televised games. Sky and BT also choose which games are televised, not the FA. They do talk about it though before decisions are made. Just saying.
You appear to be seeing aggression where there is none, I have no control over that.
So surely we’re agreeing that the TV companies hold too much sway then surely? That the FA rather than pouncing on the money should safeguard players and be more concerned with fans?
Or shall we do the usual partisan nonsense of this team, that team, this manager, that manager?
But that’s agreed by the owners and CEOS
If players welfare was priority like pep is trying to claim you don’t take the deal
He wants his cake and he wants to eat it
He wants the money but doesn’t want the TV companies then to have the right to choose
It would be helpful if it was indicated (perhaps on one or more of the ground’s screens) how much time was lost at each stoppage so that there would be no disputes, and a complete record of who, what & when was the cause of added time, and hopefully, no reason why Premier League and Championship stadia could not be equipped, and eventually all league grounds.
38 x 10= 380/90 = equivalent of 4 games a season. That’s why it is wrong. Give more bookings for time wasting , throw ins free kicks, keeper clearances, hounding refs, not retreating, that’s the way to eliminate it. Getting yellows reds and suspensions
If they’re adding time for the ball being dead, that’s four games worth of time the players aren’t playing, and the time wasters are getting away with playing the least amount of football.
To me, this is just enforcing one of the most basic rules: the game lasts for 90 minutes.
100% agree with you.
It’s a shame for people with carefully planned travel arrangements, but if refs are unable to control play and give the public what they pay for, I don’t really see another solution, and Pep can moan all he wants, his team’s still going to win anyway.
So continue to implement rules and changes for managers and players for behavior and accountability.
I’m still waiting for changes regarding accountability for VAR and refs on the pitch. I would suggest relegation for the worst VAR officials and refs and resulting drop in wages.
Promote the best relegate the worst, happens to clubs and players why not officials and refs?
That already happens. Refs regularly get games in lower divisions (following a poor PL display) and as we know John Moss was “persuaded” to retire following his disaster against us in the Brentford game.
It’s only few minutes which if no time is wasted unnecessarily won’t be added anyway.
Why was the regular 3-5 minutes okay but 8 wrong? What is with the 3 more minutes?
Exactly my question…
We have had upto 5 mins regularly in the past ,an extra 3 mins shouldn’t be a problem. ..
If you don’t want much time added ,then don’t waste time simple.
For me ,I don’t see anything wrong in the rule . The outcomes of games will not necessarily change because a few more minutes are added. We only only have a few odd games here and there we can say the extra minutes 3 or 5 mins is what affected the result.
It would appear that now they are going to add everything single thing that causes time loss, and not just injuries, plus some of the more obvious time-wasting. All for the better IMO.
Point of correction, the game went into penalties bcos Arsenal didn’t take their chances
Agree with the author. Guardiola is not really being candid.
It will be interesting to see whether time-wasting will reduce. One suspects that it will to some extent but not completely.
Don’t agree with the author, in that just because the managers and p[layers are being told about the new rules, doesn’t mean they have been asked for their opinion.
I also don’t want to watch 100 minute football matches. Why not just come down much harder on time-wasting but keep the added time the same as in the past?
Kick a ball away in the final 30 minutes of the game automatic red card.
Take more than 15 seconds for a throw in – yellow card
Take more than 30 seconds for a corner – yellow for the corner taker and forfeit the corner kick.
Need treatment on the field in the final 30 minutes? You stay out as long as the treatment took (or a fixed 3 minutes or something like that)
Find ways to punish time-wasting, but don’t add ridiculous amounts of time without cracking down on all the things players do to waste time.
All your suggestions for further punishments will also create their own problems, and criticism that the game is becoming farcical.
I’m sure that the anti added time comments are from people who don’t actually spend a fortune and travel to watch a Premier League match. If I were still attending live games I would want every single lost minute for whatever reason added, however long the game lasted for. The teams & coaches will soon get the message, and hopefully, we’ll get true value for the often long journeys home & away.
And perhaps it will stop the fans from leaving with 5 minutes to play!
While the players may well be on the pitch for 100 plus minutes, they will only be playing for 90 minutes.
As for Pep moaning about the Super Cup game, at least it’s only one game. It used to be a 2 leg game years ago.