Premier League ball boys and girls will no longer be able to hand the match ball directly back to players following a change to the multi-ball protocol guidelines.
From this weekend's matches, members of the ball crews will be under instruction to place match balls on cones surrounding the pitch instead of handing them to players, who will then have to retrieve the ball for themselves. The move has been made to remove the potential for home teams gaining any competitive advantage with their instructions to the ball boys and girls, as well as any possibility of flashpoints connected to the returning of the ball.
'Ball assistants are not permitted to return a ball to a player. Ball assistants are required to return a ball to a vacant cone each time a replacement ball is used. 'Ball assistants should not be positioned next to cones so that it is clear they will not return balls to players .' That is where ball assistants were moved after a clash between Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno and a ball boy in the Cottagers' 3-0 defeat at the Vitality Stadium on Boxing Day.
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