Pep Guardiola lambasts Premier League rule changes

Pep Guardiola has lamented “annoying” new refereeing directives designed to combat time wasting during games.

Manchester City and Arsenal’s Community Shield clash on Sunday saw the introduction of a number of new refereeing directives, including extending additional time and not allowing a player who received treatment on the pitch again for 30 seconds.

The former led to over 12 minutes of additional time being added on to the end of the game at Wembley Stadium, with the originally slated eight minuted being extended after Thomas Partey and Kyle Walker suffered head injuries late on.

Along with the Community Shield lasting over 100 minutes, all but two this weekend’s EFL Championship games went over the 100 minute barrier and the FIFA Women’s World Cup has also seen games regularly have 10+ minutes added on.

Speaking about the rule changes, Guardiola expressed his annoying at the length of games, saying: “It was annoying but we have to get used to it. I had the feeling, not because we were winning 1-0, but that not much happened to extend it for eight minutes.

“It’s a good question for the international board and people because they don’t consult with managers and players and we have to accept it with this amount of games. Now the games will be 100 minutes. Nothing happened today and there was eight minutes.

“They extend for goals. If you score 4-3 you put 45 seconds for seven goals, tomorrow morning at 9am I am [still] here playing.”

Man City kick off their Premier League campaign on Friday evening against recently promoted Burnley at Turf Moor.

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