Football rule makers recently agreed on change that would have helped Newcastle United lats night
Newcastle United saw Jacob Ramsey sent off in the game against Manchester United last night after the midfielder was shown a second yellow card very late in the first half.
We have no issues with Ramsey's first booking for a blatant shirt pull, but Peter Bankes brandished a second yellow on 45 minutes when he adjudged Ramsey to have dived when Senne Lammens came off his line to make a challenge.
There was no contact, or if there was, it was extremely minimal, but Ramsey had anticipated there would be and when he jumped over the challenge, he didn't stick the landing and went to ground.
Ramsey didn't try to appeal for a penalty, but that didn't seem to matter to Bankes, who pulled the yellow card out of his pocket, followed by the red.
VAR is going to be given even more power
Over the weekend, the football lawmakers agreed on a few upcoming changes to how the game will be refereed, and one change would likely have helped Newcastle last night.
Currently, VAR has no jurisdiction over second yellow card offences, but from the World Cup onwards, that will change, which means that last night's incident would have been reviewed by VAR, and there's a strong likelihood that the second yellow would have been rescinded.
VAR will also be given the power to rule on corners, so if there's a question over which player got the last touch before the ball went out of play, they will be able to intervene. Hopefully, they use that one sparingly otherwise, we'll never see a ball in play, given how long it takes them to look at penalties and offsides.
Sometimes, we wonder if the people who write the laws actually watch the game
It seems that the big goal has been to cut down on time-wasting with goalkeepers being given just 5 seconds to get rid of the ball, they're looking into ways to stop the tactical goalkeeper injuries which allow managers a moment to give a brief team talk, and they are moving to speed up the time it takes to take a throw in by awarding it to the other team if they take too long.
Arsene Wenger's daylight offsides will be trialled in the Caribbean Premier League - way to get maximum exposure on that one. So we don't expect to see that one coming to the EPL any time soon.
But the most baffling decision is doubling the time a player must stand on the sidelines after receiving treatment. Currently, players have to stay off the field for 30 seconds if they've been injured and a physio has come on; from next season, they will have to stay off the field for a minute.
Does anyone actually think that the 30-second rule made sense? So many times players get a kick to the head and then they get punished by having to stay off the field, and now they're doubling that time. It's outrageous.
