Man City 3 Leeds United 2: Lee Sobot's Video Verdict
Leeds United manager Daniel Farke was far from happy with the incident during Saturday's Premier League fixture.
A major rule change is reportedly being considered by football’s lawmakers to combat an issue that angered Daniel Farke during Leeds United’s weekend defeat at Manchester City.
Farke accused City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma of going down with a ‘fake injury’ during the second-half of Saturday’s meeting to buy time for manager Pep Guardiola to hold a mid-game team talk. Leeds changed formation at half-time and had just halved their hosts’ 2-0 lead through Dominic Calvert-Lewin when the Italian went down.
Most players who receive on-pitch treatment have to leave the pitch for 30 seconds but as goalkeeper, Donnarumma is exempt from that rule. Leeds drew level at 2-2 shortly after, with Lukas Nmecha scoring a rebound from his own missed penalty, but City eventually adapted to the formation change to get a foothold in the game and win.
BBC Sport now reports that a meeting between the International Football Association Board's Football and Technical Advisory Panels in October saw the issue ‘talked about at length’. And while there was an acceptance that genuine goalkeepers injuries occur, there was believed to be support for a rule change.
The report suggests one possible change could see a nominated outfield player forced to leave the pitch for 30 seconds if a goalkeeper receives on-pitch treatment for an injury. BBC Sport added another suggestion was to ban players from heading towards the touchline during such a stoppage.
The nomination of an outfield player is said to be winning ‘increased support’ ahead of IFAB’s annual business meeting on January 20. It remains to be seen when such a rule change might be implemented if it is passed through.
What did Daniel Farke say about the incident?
"Yes. Everyone knows why he went down, right?" Farke said in the aftermath of Saturday’s defeat. "The elephant in the room. You can speak about it. Why he went down, I think it was obvious. It's within the rules, it's smart. If I like it, if it's in the sense of fair play, if it should be like this, I keep it to myself. I leave it with the authorities. It's within the rules.
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“I asked the fourth official at this point, do you want to do something, 'no our hands are tied, we can't do anything.' But if we don't educate our players in football what to do in terms of fair play, sportsmanship and you just try to bend the rules to your advantage, and you can do a fake injury in order to do additional team talks, it's nothing I personally like. But if it's within the rules I can't complain.
"We should think about how we deal with it. My recommendation was okay do me a favour, give every 50:50 in favour of the away team. Probably after 90 minutes at 2-2 I would have blown for full-time. I think there are tools you can use to make sure this won't happen but if not then we have to change the rules.
“There's a reason the goalkeeper goes down. It's not a question for myself, who am I, I'm a Premier League manager, it's not a topic for me. I think it's for the authorities to find a solution. Is it in the sense of fair play I would have my doubts."
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