West Brom striker Charlie Austin mocks Gordon Taylor plan for Project Restart
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor has attracted criticism from West Brom striker Charlie Austin after it was proposed that matches could be shorter than 90 minutes as part of Project Restart.
Speaking to the BBC, Taylor discussed ways to combat player fatigue as when football gets back underway, players could be forced into playing more matches over a shorter period of time than usual in a bid to get the season finished as soon as possible.
He suggested the use of more substitutes and neutral venues but he has been widely mocked for his claim that halves could be made shorter than 45 minutes.
West Brom’s Austin has responded to Taylor’s idea, taking to his personal Twitter account to say: “Let’s not be so silly. Soon you’ll be saying ‘let’s play six-a-side’.”
We have to agree with Austin here.
While we can see the benefit of having more substitutes and neutral venues being used to cut down on travel and have less of a burden on the NHS, we can’t see what cutting down the length of matches would do.
How much shorter can they be made to lessen the impact of fatigue on players? Five minutes probably wouldn’t make a difference, 10 minutes would turn it into something we really aren’t accustomed to.
It seems that ideas are being thought up to force through the completion of the season as soon as possible and while we understand the reasoning behind that, it shouldn’t happen if it is going to give us a completely new sport to watch for the remaining fixtures.
In other West Brom news, Kevin Phillips admits Albion could release this senior defender when his contract expires.
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