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Do rule changes really favour Manchester City?

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We still have more than a week before the Premier League season continues under the EPL’s “Project Restart” but we already have the first scandal at hand. The cause: the new, temporary rules concerning substitutes.

According to the new rules, clubs will be allowed to name nine substitutes and use five of them in a single match, although they will still have only three opportunities to stop the game and make the substitutions. As you might expect, though, fans have immediately pointed out that the real beneficiaries of this change will be the bigger clubs, especially Manchester City. And smaller clubs, with budgets barely bigger than the jackpots at the 7Sultans Casino, will only see a limited benefit.

The new rules

“Premier League Shareholders today agreed on temporary changes to the rules relating to substitute players,” an EPL spokesperson told the press. “For the remainder of the 2019/20 season, the number of substitutes that can be used during a match will increase from three to five players. This is in line with the temporary law amendment made by the International Football Association Board last month. Shareholders also approved for clubs to increase the maximum number of substitute players on the bench from seven to nine for the rest of the 2019/20 season.”

Not-too-favourable reactions

The new rules are not considered fair by the fans who pointed out that bigger clubs with deeper squads will reap all the benefits. “I would hate to play Man City or Liverpool at the best of times. Could really damage chances of opposing teams,” @MickMaldini wrote on Twitter in response to the Premier League’s announcement.

Others have expressed similar concerns, pointing at Man City, Liverpool, and Manchester United as the real beneficiaries of this change. Some even consider that the change will offer Man City an edge over Liverpool, even though the Reds have a 25-point advantage in the standings.

The big day is coming

In the meantime, football fans around the world are preparing for the Premier League to return to the screens. Only the screens, as fans won’t be allowed to attend the matches in person – at least for now. There is no way to tell how the changed circumstances will affect the players.

Bayern Munich star Thomas Mueller, part of the starting 11 at the team’s first post-lockdown match against Union at the empty Alten Foersterei stadium, told the press that it felt a bit like “old man’s football” at first, at “7 pm, under floodlights”… but as the ball started rolling, the eerie feeling disappeared and was replaced by a razor-sharp focus on the ball.

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