'Absolutely absurd' - UEFA chief blasts Premier League's new stoppage-time rules and confirms European competitions will not adopt same approach

• Boban slammed PL's stoppage time rules
• Will not be used in UEFA competitions
• Insists on improving player welfare

WHAT HAPPENED? Taking a cue from the 2022 FIFA World Cup, England's refereeing body the PGMOL has decided to implement longer stoppage times in matches to increase actual playing time and reduce time-wasting. Hence effective playing time has increased from 54mins 57secs to 58mins 50secs while many matches have crossed the 100-minute threshold.

However, UEFA remain firm that they will not follow the same path as they have a "different" guideline and called the phenomena a "big tragedy".

WHAT THEY SAID: "It's absolutely absurd," said Boban, skipper of Croatia's famous bronze-winning 1998 World Cup team.

"Regarding player welfare, it's some kind of big tragedy because [they] are adding almost 12, 13, 14 minutes. When you play 60, 65 minutes - I can speak from my experience, especially as a midfielder - when you get tired, it's the last 30 minutes of the game. And then somebody comes and adds another 15 minutes.

"How often we have spoken critically about the calendar and too many games. We are not listening to players and coaches [about welfare]. It's crazy! It's too much, so we will not do this. Our guidelines are different," he added.

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Uefa's chief refereeing officer Roberto Rosetti echoed Boban's thoughts and revealed that UEFA is working on other solutions to increase the effective playing time.

"There is something more important than the accuracy of additional time," Rosetti said.

"Why do people like the Champions League so much? Because it's intensive, it's fantastic, the players never stop. We tell our referees to speed up the restart of play instead of focusing on stoppage time," he added.

IN TWO PHOTOS:

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WHAT NEXT? Several players like Raphael Varane and Kevin de Bruyne have hit out at the Premier League for tweaking their stoppage time rules. However, no changes can be made in the current 2023-24 season and it remains to be seen if PGMOL amends the rules before the next campaign.