His rule - which we’ve dubbed “Johnson’s Law” - is that he has instructed his players to NOT kick the ball out of play when a player goes down injured. 

It means that whenever a player goes down in a Bristol City game this season, Johnson’s players will continue to play on unless the referee himself decides that play should be stopped.

The rule flies in the face of the accepted footballing custom of kicking the ball out of play to allow injured players to get treatment.

But over the years the sporting gentlemen’s agreement between teams has been repeatedly taken advantage of by teams and players who often use the custom as a way of cynically disrupting momentum, halting play and wasting time during matches.

Johnson’s City players can still kick the ball out of play when they see a player sustain a legitimate, serious head injury. But they have otherwise been told to just play to the whistle and let the referee be the sole arbiter of whether a game should be stopped due to an injury.

The City boss has made it official, too, by writing to every team in the Championship to clarify his position so there can be no confusion over why his players are refusing to stop play during matches.

“Johnson’s Law” did cause some touchline consternation during City’s season opener against Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United side on Sunday. But the City boss said he managed to explain himself to Bielsa during the half-time break. It also gave him the opportunity to make his decision much more public, as he explained his decision to the media.

“We sent an email out to the clubs because this happens often,” he told the local press in Bristol.

“Somebody goes down and sometimes it’s tactical because people try to gain an advantage, and sometimes it’s genuine.

“So we just decided as a club that we’re going to make a rule for the 46 games that we’re going to let the referee manage the game.

“So therefore if that’s our player injured or the opposition player injured, there’s a consistency there.

“If the referee sees a head injury he will stop the game but if it’s not a head injury he will play on.

“And our players are coached to play with 10 men in certain environments. That’s what I was trying to explain (to Bielsa). Obviously, that’s not easy with the language barrier, but in the cold light of day we were able to sit and talk it through.”

In the heat of the battle during games, Johnson’s City players may appear to be exhibiting a lack of sportsmanship.

But players feigning injuries has become not just a common occurrence in English football, it’s turned into an accepted tactic to take the steam of games, with players from teams under pressure suddenly developing “injuries” to force the opposition to halt their momentum and kick the ball out.

But with the introduction of “Johnson’s Law,” City are drawing a line in the sand and making clear they won’t let the cynical feigning of injuries of their opponents stop them from playing on this season. And the hope is that if those opposition teams know that feigning injury is less likely to work, they’ll be less likely to drop to the turf so readily.

That can only be a good thing, and things would only get better if other teams agreed to adopt “Johnson’s Law” this season.

By Simon Head