Referee breaks Premier League rule during Newcastle vs Liverpool, and fans notice the moment
A new Premier League rule seemed to be ignored by the referee during the opening weekend game between Newcastle and Liverpool.
Even though Newcastle lost some key players and their manager over the summer, they looked strong and were close to winning at St James’ Park on Sunday. Anthony Elanga scored early, and Cody Gakpo equalized for Liverpool in the second half. Joe Willock gave Newcastle the lead again with a fantastic goal, but Liverpool managed to grab a late draw thanks to a penalty by Dominik Szoboszlai in stoppage time.
Fans noticed that a new Premier League substitution rule wasn’t followed. Liverpool’s 17-year-old winger Rio Ngumoha was taken off in the 63rd minute for new signing Victor Munoz, while Florian Wirtz was replaced by Alexis Mac Allister. But Ngumoha took his time leaving the field, even though Liverpool was behind.
The new rule says players must leave the pitch within 10 seconds when substituted. If they don’t, the player coming onto the field has to wait a full minute, meaning the team plays with one less player during that time.
Gary Neville, commentating for Sky Sports, spotted that Ngumoha took too long, and was surprised referee Stuart Attwell didn’t do anything about it. Instead, Ngumoha left slowly and Munoz came on without a pause.
On social media, fans were quick to react. One wrote, “No surprise—Rio took longer than 10 seconds to leave the field. Can’t wait for this to be called against us soon.” Another said, “Attwell just let Liverpool break the new substitution rule. This is just the beginning.” A third added, “So the 10-second rule doesn’t apply to Liverpool? Figures!”