Farke accuses Man City of FAKING injuries and urges to make rule change

Leeds United manager Daniel Farke wants laws changing to stop tactical timeouts and avoid ‘fake’ injuries to goalkeepers after their last-gasp defeat at Manchester City.

City’s Gianluigi Donnarumma was under instruction from Ruben Dias to fall down just before the hour mark as Leeds pressed for an equaliser.

Pep Guardiola then gathered his players together for a team talk pitchside in scenes that have become more prevalent across the Premier League.

Farke accused Donnarumma of gamesmanship and said: ‘Everyone knows why he went down. I asked the fourth official at this point if you want to do something and he said “No, our hands are tied, we can’t do anything”.

‘If we don’t educate our players in football, what to do in terms of fair play, sportsmanship, if you just try to bend the rules to your advantage and you can do a fake injury in order to do an additional team talk, personally it’s not what I like.

‘But if it is within the rules - I can’t complain about it. There are tools that you can use to make sure that this won’t happen but if we don’t use it then probably we have to change the rules.’

Farke insisted that Donnarumma went down rather than an outfield player because the referee Peter Bankes than had to halt proceedings.

The Leeds boss suggested that lawmakers could give the ball back to the opposing team or shorten additional time if they suspect gamesmanship.

‘There are tools that you can use to make sure that this won’t happen but if we don’t use it then probably we have to change the rules,’ Farke added.

Pep Guardiola said: ‘I didn’t speak with Gigio. When it happened I looked back to the dugout and said “James (Trafford), warm up”. I don’t know. In the next press conference you can ask me and I will ask Gigio.’