Gary Neville hails FIFA for ‘unbelievable’ rule change for World Cup – ‘It’s so annoying’

Gary Neville has hailed FIFA for an “unbelievable” rule change that’s been introduced for the World Cup, while Ian Wright is fully in favour of another.

The governing body have brought in eight changes for the World Cup, including hydration breaks and VAR alterations, but Neville picked out the 10-second substitution rule for particular praise.

FIFA announced that subbed players ‘must leave the pitch at the nearest point of exit, and within 10 seconds’, and failure to comply will mean the player coming on will have to wait a full minute before they can enter the field of play.

Japan benefited from the new rule in a World Cup warm-up on Sunday, scoring a winner in the second half when Iceland were down to ten men while one of their subs was forced to wait to come on.

“I think this is an unbelievable introduction – time-limited substitutions,” Neville said on The Overlap. “I love that.

“It’s so annoying watching players walk off slowly. The players and teams are gaming the system.

“You can criticise FIFA for many things but I do think they get their referee stuff right. I think those are pretty good introductions and will make the game better for the fans.”

Another rule will see possession reversed if a player takes more than five seconds to restart the game from a throw-in or goal-kick.

“We’ve got some rule changes coming in for the World Cup,” Neville added. “I’m massively up for the throw-in counter.

“The amount of time that is taken in the Premier League… I’ve lost count of how many times we mentioned that last season. So I like that one.

“What we’ve witnessed over the past 12 months is teams stopping the game for a minute to prepare for set-pieces.

“I’m talking about League Two games as well as the Premier League, the ball is out of play for so long. I think it’s a good introduction.”

READ MORE: More VAR, fewer tactical timeouts and advert breaks among law changes for the World Cup

No mouth covering but what about the heat?

After Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni was accused of racially abusing Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior in a Champions League game earlier this season, another rule has been introduced banning players from covering their mouths in ‘confrontational situations’ with opponents or officials.

“That’s a good rule,” Ian Wright said. “You can’t prove things if players are covering their mouths, I think that’s a good one. I quite like that, that’s good for me.”

Roy Keane did question how rules designed to speed the game up would play out during a tournament in which the heat is expected to be an issue for players.

“Some of the rules are about the speed of play but it’s strange they’ve brought them in now when we’re talking about the conditions being so tough for the players,” Keane said.

“If ever players will want to slow the game down it will be now given the heat in some of these venues.”