Premier League boss demands rule change after fuming over controversial goal

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Fulham boss Marco Silva wants to see changes to the rules around players needing treatment for head injuries after his side conceded when they were down a man against Crystal Palace on New Year's Day.

The Cottagers had to settle for a share of the spoils at Crystal Palace, recovering after going a goal down when they only had ten men on the pitch. Jorge Cuenca was asked to leave the field for treatment by the referee after the Fulham defender appeared to put his hands to his face after being caught by Palace's Justin Devenny.

Cuenca was visibly frustrated with the referee's request, but walked off the pitch before play restarted. Seconds later, with the Fulham man waiting on the touchline to return, Jean-Philippe Mateta put the Eagles ahead.

Silva claimed that these situations are becoming all too regular, lamenting the fact his team had to defend with a player less, as he called on the leading officials to take a look at the rule.

He said: "We conceded a goal when the game was completely under control, and I really believe that at that moment we should not have been playing with 10 men. Football is to be played 11 against 11. We cannot be always calling the medical stuff when it's not necessary to do it. I told the official because it's happening too often. I think they should review that they should analyse that."

Premier League rules were changed before the 2024/25 season and state that any player who needs to leave the field for treatment regarding a suspected head injury must then remain off for a minimum of 30 seconds after play has restarted.

Gary Neville has been a vocal critic of the change, claiming that teams should not be effectively punished when their player needs medical assistance. But at a pre-season briefing, Howard Webb, Chief Refereeing Officer for Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), stated that the rules were aimed both at improving player welfare but also preventing gamesmanship having cited too many questionable scenarios where players went down.

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"What we've said this year is that if a player presents the signs to the referee of having a potential head injury, usually that will be because the player goes down holding their head," he said.

"We want to make sure the player gets assistance if they've got a genuine head injury, but also there was some feeling as well that too many times, players were going down holding their heads. The game was then being interrupted as a result of that and the player was absolutely fine."

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