“The rules are in favor of defenders" - Jamie Redknapp calls for Premier League rule change after Nicolas Jackson incident

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp was not impressed with the penalty incident surrounding Chelsea forward Nicolas Jackson and Nottingham Forest defender Ola Aina in their Premier League encounter on Saturday, May 11. The incident occured during a tussle between the two players from a corner in the first half.

Jackson could be seen grappling with Aina, with the latter trying to stop the Chelsea forward from making a run towards the goalkeeper. It ended with Jackson hitting the floor but Chelsea were not awarded a penalty by match referee Tony Harringtonand and then VAR official Michael Salisbury.

Redknapp criticized the current rules in place regarding defending from corners. Speaking about Aina's actions, he said (via Express):

“I don’t know why he (Aina) is getting involved with pushing and pulling him (Jackson). Just leave him alone and try and defend. As soon as you grab and pull him to the floor like that, you are risking of giving away a penalty."

Arsenal defender Ben White has been in the papers in recent weeks for creating chaos in the box for opposition players and goalkeepers. Opining that the refereeing rules need an upgrade, Redknapp continued:

“The rules at the moment are almost in the favor of the defenders. I think something has to change about that next year. We see it too often with players pulling people and blocking people. I am not a massive fan of it.”

Ola Aina's grappling with Nicolas Jackson was not given as a penalty - A possible reason explained

The FA's rules on impeding players (attackers) in the penalty box are clear. Rule 12 of the FA’s laws states:

“Impeding the progress of an opponent means moving into the opponent’s path to obstruct, block, slow down or force a change of direction when the ball is not within playing distance of either player.”

Hence, given that Aina did grapple with Jackson but a penalty was not given, one explanation could be that the match officials did not consider Aina to be impeding Jackson but instead just involved in accepted levels of pushing.

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp agreed that the incident did not warrant a penalty despite claiming that the rules need to be changed to give a better chance to the attacking team. Chelsea won the game 3-2 in the end.