Guardiola’s Bashing Of The Carabao Ball Has Brought A Response From EFL: Here’s What They Have To Say

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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was particularly unhappy with the Mitre match ball with which the Carabao Cup matches are being played.

Manchester City defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers in the round of 16 and it was mainly due to the penalty shootout heroics of Claudio Bravo. Brave saved from Alfred N’Diaye and Conor Coady in the shoot-out, in order to seal a 4-1 win on penalties for City. But after the match, Guardiola lashed out at the EFL for providing balls which were too light and deemed them unacceptable.

Guardiola said,”It is not acceptable. The ball was unacceptable for a high-level competition,

“It is too light, it moves all over the place, it is not a good ball. It is impossible to score with a ball like that and I can say that because we won, I’m not making excuses.

“All of my players said, ‘What is that?’ I’m sorry [but the] Carabao Cup is not a serious ball for a serious competition.

“It’s [for] marketing, money, OK but it’s not acceptable – [it has] no weight, nothing.”

After this statement, the EFL were swift to come up with a statement of their own where they said that each ball used in the Carabao Cup has been tested in accordance with the ‘Fifa Quality Programme for Footballs’ and also meets the ‘Fifa Quality Pro’ standards.

The EFL also added that they would love to have a conversation with the City manager before the next round of matches so that if there are any real issues then such can be resolved quickly.

Mitre, the makers of the EFL official match ball also released a statement where they clearly mentioned that each ball is made after consulting a lot of professional players as well as clubs. They also added that each set of balls are sent to the concerned teams well in advance so that they can practice with it.

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