How significant EFL changes will stop repeat of Portsmouth’s ‘towelgate’ incident with Sheffield Wednesday and time-wasting

But incidents like that will now be a thing of the past amid EFL regulation changes for the 2023-24 campaign.

Following a vote by the league’s 72 clubs, it has been agreed that towels will no longer be permitted around pitches from next season.

This will stop players gaining any advantage from drying the ball from throw-ins – although the Blues benefitted when a young Pompey supporter handed Marlon Pack a towel to dry the ball at Burton back in September, which led to the visitors scoring their first goal of the game.

Last term saw Sheffield Wednesday strategically place towels around the pitch at Fratton Park, before Owls staff members were stopped by their eagle-eyed hosts.

That infuriated head coach John Mousinho before his side would go on to lose 1-0 to Darren Moore’s now-promoted side.

Speaking in March, the 37-year-old told The News: ‘It’s Fratton Park and other teams can’t come and put what they want around the touchline. You just can’t, I don’t think, and the towels clearly didn’t go back out.

‘I think the rule is if the home side puts the towels out they have to be accessible to both sides. I don’t think it’s up to away sides to come and do whatever they want here.

‘I know it seems a petty one, I get that but I don’t think we should accept other sides doing that, thankfully we didn’t.

‘I know there was a bit of amusement among the crowd, but sometimes those tiny things make a difference. If they’d scored off a long throw I would have been kicking myself.

‘It does seem a bit trivial and we don’t want to get carried away with it. I guess looking back it’s a bit of amusement early in the game.’

Along with the ban on towels, the EFL have agreed to use a multi-ball system, which will see balls placed at various points around the pitch to cut down time-wasting.

And during the same contest earlier in the season, Mousinho wasn’t shy to hide his thoughts over Sheffield Wednesday’s dark arts.

He said: ‘They were time-wasting from very early on and it was something the referee had to get a grip on.

‘I asked him early on if he could speed things up because whenever we won a free-kick, Sheffield Wednesday players would kick the ball away.

‘It was completely obvious to me and the fourth official was acknowledging it, but we didn’t see any improvement and that was frustrating for the fans.

‘I thought the refereeing unit could have done more about it early on because otherwise it just ruins the game.’