Football And Time Wasting

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Being considered by the English FA currently as the game is in trouble due to lack of playing time. Problem each match has a two hour window including 15 mites for half time. The only way this would work is to fine clubs who cannot compete a game with full playing time or a respectable time period. Surely 75 minutes should be the bare minimum and anything less should see the docking of players salaries.

Time wasting has become a weapon by weaker teams to run down the clock in order to over achieve on their results. We see this often in football where a team that is outclassed will try and do anything within the law to steal the points and even a draw would be seen as a win in most cases.

I have to admit whilst doing my Smart Rugby ball post I was blown away by the statistics of how little game time is played in many sports. Rugby I can understand as the set pieces like the line out and scrum take time to organise and complete.

In rugby the clock is stopped when there is an injury or substitution whereas in football this time should be added on at the end of each half. I would personally like to see the clock stopped so when 90 minutes is reached the game is over and there is no extra magical injury time that can be manipulated.

According to Opta, the average time the ball has been in play for all Premier League games this season is 55 minutes and 45 seconds. Last season it was 55 minutes and seven seconds.22 Oct 2022

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That in all honesty is a scary stat and one that is very worrying as the paying public and television viewers are being robbed of 40% of game play. That is nearly an entire half of football and it is being allowed to happen. Where will this end up as the 2013/14 season averaged 2 minutes more per game than last season.

Back in 2017/18 a survey was carried out and what was revealing was the power classed teams were the biggest time wasters. This makes sense as the less game time that is played the better chance they have of stealing a point or even nicking a win.

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Stats from the 2019/20 season shows time wasting actually gets worse from the Premiership down.

Sportsmen are paid big money as they are entertainers yet they are only providing half a performance each week. Just think some are on hundreds of thousands of Pounds per week and they are playing for less than an hour for that salary. Yes there is training involved but the salary counts on your performance on the pitch.

Another ploy which is time wasting is to try and break up the flow of the game by going down with fake injuries. We see this mainly in the European competitions by the generally weaker sides who use it as a tactic to frustrate their opponents.

The FA has looked at using a stop clock with FIFA not dead against it, but a match has to be completed within a 2 hour window due to television schedules. Surely this should be doable as there are no excuses and would only require a firmer hand by the referees. The stopping every two minutes has got to end and players who are acting should receive red cards.

Football definitely has a serious problem and they need to clean up the game before we head under 50 minutes per match as this will happen if it is not addressed. How can the sport justify the price of the match tickets if they are not supplying the full entertainment. Would you go to watch a film and walk out half way so why are the fans allowing this to be acceptable behavior. Fans are being overcharged for what they are receiving currently.