A strange incident that captured the football world on Sunday involved a Premier League player being banned from using a specific “towel” to wipe the ball before taking a throw-in.

The ban on Arsenal player Ricardo Klavieiri from using a towel before a throw-in during his team’s 2-1 victory over Newcastle on Sunday raised widespread questions about Premier League rules.

It later emerged that the reason was due to English Football League rules that prohibit the use of any external equipment as part of measures to reduce time-wasting.

Although Arsenal were allowed to dry the ball before set pieces in their recent match against Manchester City, and Jefferson Lerma dried the ball for up to 15 seconds before sending it into the penalty area for Crystal Palace against Liverpool on Saturday, referee Jared Gillett stopped Klavieiri from doing so.

A source from The Athletic familiar with the rules revealed that what the cameras did not catch was that Klavieiri ran behind the goal of Newcastle’s goalkeeper Nick Pope to borrow his towel before using it to dry the ball for better control.

The source said: “Both teams must agree in advance on the distribution of towels around the pitch before the match, and they must be evenly distributed along the touchline. Therefore, moving one from one area to another for use is not allowed.”

The incident became a hot topic on social media, as no referee had previously stopped a player from using the opponent’s towel before this event.