The Premier League have introduced a raft of new rules to clamp down on timewasting during matches which Howard Webb claims are all because of the players’ actions
Referees’ tsar Howard Webb has told players they brought football’s timewasting crackdown on themselves with their dark arts and “nefarious” tactics.
âAnd he warned cheats who try to run down the clock by manufacturing stoppages that monster segments of added time are here to stay. Manchester City messiah Pep Guardiola complained last weekend that managers had not been consulted by the “big brains” over new injury time rules.
âAnd Premier League big guns including City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne and Manchester United defender Raphael Varane claimed players’ opinions are being ignored over the prospect of clock-watchers routinely adding 15 or 20 minutes to games. But Webb, the new chief at referees’ trade union PGMOL, warned the purge will not be a passing fad – and officials are on a crusade to “expose” players who resort to blatant timewasting.
In pre-season conferences with match officials, Webb called up four out-of-work managers to help refs identify the tricks which reduced actual playing time, with the ball in play, to just 54 minutes on average in the Premier League and only 48 minutes in League Two last season.