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Football manager Ian Holloway has claimed that the European Union is to blame for the Premier League ’s divisive new handball law.
The rule has attracted plenty of criticism in the first two weeks of the season, particularly after Gabriel Jesus saw an injury time goal disallowed by the Video Assistant Referee because team-mate Aymeric Laporte was adjudged to have handled the ball.
However, until now nobody had singled out the EU to blame.
Appearing on The Debate show on Sky Sports alongside Geoff Shreeves and Kevin Phillips, Holloway said that he wants Great Britain to leave the EU as soon as possible because of his dislike for “people telling us how to do our own game”.
He said: “For me it doesn't make sense, the handball rule.
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Premier League power rankings 1. Brighton Graham Potter made the dream start in his first game in charge, convincingly beating Watford 3-0 to bring Brighton a rare win on the road for a historically woeful away side. It is early days, but the signs suggest Brighton's bold decision to replace Chris Hughton could pay dividends.
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Premier League power rankings 3. Manchester City Even for City's high standards this was impressive, crushing West Ham – a side tipped to impress this season – away from home as Raheem Sterling racked up a hat-trick. They're going to be quite good again, we think.
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Premier League power rankings 4. Manchester United United's new signings bedded in well as they swatted aside Chelsea with impressive defensive displays from Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka and a debut goal for Daniel James. Added points for beating a top-six rival.
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Premier League power rankings 5. Sheffield United The Blades came up from the Championship with low expectations but put on a good showing at an established top-flight club in Bournemouth, and took away a precious point for their efforts.
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Premier League power rankings 6. Liverpool Liverpool looked typically impressive going forwards and scored four times, although there were some alarming moments for last season's best defence and other clubs will take encouragement from the chances Norwich created.
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Premier League power rankings 7. Arsenal This was far from a vintage display by Arsenal as they edged out Newcastle 1-0, but earning three points away from home was important and their new signings like Nicolas Pepe showed promising signs.
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Premier League power rankings 8. Crystal Palace After such a fraught summer transfer window, Roy Hodgson would have been pleased to get back to football, and a point against a strong Everton side was a reasonable start.
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Premier League power rankings 10. Wolves A goalless draw at Leicester, who many have tipped to be the best of the rest this season, was a solid start for Nuno Espirito Santo's men.
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Premier League power rankings 11. Aston Villa For 60 minutes or so it was looking like the perfect day for Villa until they eventually tired and Spurs' strengths told. Even so, this was a good display by the newly promoted side.
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Premier League power rankings 12. Norwich Strangely for a side hammered by Liverpool, there were plenty of positives to take from a much-improved second half, and Norwich showed enough to suggest they will not go down without a fight this season.
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Premier League power rankings 13. Bournemouth The Cherries would have targetted a win at home to Sheffield United to kickstart their campaign and the manner of the draw - conceding a late equaliser - would have left a bitter taste.
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Premier League power rankings 14. Leicester City The Foxes dominated the ball but struggled to create many clear-cut chances as they drew with Wolves at the King Power.
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Premier League power rankings 15. Everton There is pressure on Marco Silva to deliver this season after investment in the squad over the summer and a goalless draw with Crystal Palace was a disappointing start.
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Premier League power rankings 16. Newcastle Steve Bruce's side competed admirably with Arsenal for much of the game and new signing Joelinton looked busy, but a row with his substitutes over tactical instructions took away from the performance on the pitch and suggests problems ahead.
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Premier League power rankings 18. West Ham It doesn't get much more difficult than facing Manchester City on the opening day, but even so, it is hard to take any positives from such a thrashing.
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Premier League power rankings 19. Southampton Ralph Hasenhuttl had an instant impact last season but tailed off towards the end of the campaign, and the started this term with a beating by Burnley.
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Premier League power rankings 20. Watford Javi Gracia was gracious in defeat but at a loss to explain how his side were so well beaten by Brighton. Time will tell whether it was down to the brilliance of the visitors, the flimsiness of Watford or a bit of both.
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“If it's not handball for both, how can you assess that? And to be fair, is that clear and obvious? They forgot the most important thing of all. Their job is to not re-referee the game but to be clear and obvious, so I don't think that's our boys making up that new change of law.
“I think that's people telling us what we need to do with our game. Now, they should stop doing that.
“I hope we get out. Brexit . Because that's what people are voting for and [we need to] sort it out because you cannot have someone telling us how to do our own game.”
Holloway’s outburst was all the more bizarre considering that, not only is the EU not responsible for implementing domestic football laws, but the technical director of the board responsible is an English former referee.
The International Football Association Board presided over the new law and consists of eight members – four of whom are from the United Kingdom.
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