Robert Sanchez sat down on the Wembley turf, waved for the medics, and handed Chelsea a few minutes of breathing room they had no business earning. Leeds fans knew exactly what they were watching. So did Pat Nevin — and he played for Chelsea.
"It's pure gamesmanship," Nevin said bluntly. "He's not injured." When a club legend is calling you out for cynicism, you've crossed a line that's hard to argue your way back from.
The ploy — pausing play with a goalkeeper 'injury' so players can huddle with the coaching staff — is hardly new. But the brazenness of it at an FA Cup semi-final, with Leeds pressing for an equaliser, brought the debate to a boil. Leeds captain Ethan Ampadu was so incensed he physically walked into Chelsea's team huddle to disrupt it. That's how ugly it got.
Four trials, one problem
Now IFAB is moving. Four rule changes are being trialled across the 2026/27 season, and the Women's Super League has already volunteered to participate. The Premier League has been approached too, with findings going back to IFAB in March next year.
The options on the table:
- Trial 1: Any player receiving treatment must leave the pitch for one full minute. If it's the goalkeeper, an outfield player exits instead — keeping the side temporarily a man short.
- Trial 2: Same principle, but the outfield player is off for two minutes. A harder deterrent, though critics worry it discourages genuinely injured players from seeking help.
- Trial 3: Already running in the NWSL. Players cannot move toward the technical area when play stops for injury — they stay where they are or retreat to their own half. Coaches face sanctions if their players ignore it.
- Trial 4: A hybrid. If the goalkeeper goes down, players can't approach the touchline AND an outfield player must leave the field for a minute on restart.
Which trial actually works?
Trials one and two attack the problem directly — make the timeout cost something. Right now, a goalkeeper 'injury' is essentially a free timeout. Add a numerical penalty and suddenly the calculus changes. But the two-minute version carries a real risk: a player with a genuine knock hesitates, plays on, and makes it worse. Football has enough of that already.
Trial three is the cleanest in theory but the weakest in practice. Stopping players from walking to the touchline doesn't stop the goalkeeper from staying down for two minutes while the referee waits. It limits the team talk but doesn't shorten the delay.
Trial four is the most comprehensive, stacking restrictions together — but also the most complicated to referee in real time, which is its own problem.
For now, Chelsea's league odds and cup ambitions roll on unaffected. But if the Premier League signs up for these trials, managers who've treated injury timeouts as a tactical asset will need to recalibrate. Sanchez's sit-down may have been one of the last of its kind to go unpunished.
