City’s ‘bad tackles’ meeting with Riley

CITY will meet with refs’ chief Mike Riley today as they seek backing for their bid to get the rules on bad tackles changed.

The Blues decided to lobby for change after a series of dangerous fouls on their players went unpunished – and the offending players escaped retrospective red cards as they were booked at the time.

Pep Guardiola sparked a campaign to stop yellow cards being a protection when video reviews show that a challenge was far worse than it seemed at the time.

Cardiff’s Joe Bennett escaped a ban for a high challenge which damaged Leroy Sane’s ankle ligament, while Kevin de Bruyne was lucky to escape serious injury in a series of tackles – by Jason Puncheon, Delle Alli and James McClean – which were “protected” by yellow cards.

Guardiola made it plain that he wanted to see ALL bad challenges properly punished, including those by his own players.

City approached the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) as a first port of call and football director Txiki Begiristain and chief operating office Omar Berrada will meet with their general manager Riley.

Guardiola had hoped to join the meeting but his training and media commitments ahead of the Basel game have made that unworkable.

PGMOL have previously been resistant to changing the rule on yellow cards, but City hope to eventually get the backing of other clubs.