Association Football - Rules of the game

[Philby]

I don't think he misses the point at all.

If top players (often the ones who'd be "victims" of time-wasting) are not advocating for time being added then that's telling.

He's one guy. With an increasing inability to stay fit across a season. I can see why he'd be against this on a personal level. I wouldn't assume that the majority of top players are against it.

Not sure it helps for him to conflate this issue with the congestion in the fixture calendar...which is probably most players' biggest gripe.

Both are issues and both need solutions.

I think there'll be a sizable opposition to games going on too long, myself included (as if I matter, but we're all entitled to an opinion).

Edit: I know the desired effect of the adding on time thing would be that players will stop going down easily and the games will come back to being closer to 90 minutes with the ball in play much more, and we all live happily ever after. I don't think that's an achievable reality. If anything, I think there's a danger it could get worse. It's just more micro-management of the game really when it should be left ad-hoc for the refs to decide in-game if one team is annoying him with their behaviour.

On average the ball was in play for less than 55mins per game last season, which from a spectacle perspective is pretty poor. There seemed to be an uptick in teams (often decent teams like Newcastle & Villa) being incredibly cynical on the time-wasting front and IMHO it's worth of action being taken.

Whether this solves or improves it remains to be seen, but I'd favour it over doing nothing. The current ad-hoc approach doesn't come close to compensating the players (or fans) for the wasted playing time.

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

We all have homes to go to, people to do, things to see!

Just like a lot of the VAR issues, I feel like games going well over 100 minutes is total overkill on the micro-management of alleged "problems" with the game. Maybe some of us (a lot of us, I would say) think that gamesmanship is a part of the game and it's not that bad.

I think attitude towards refs is a far more pressing issue and might actually be an existential threat to the sport at certain levels if numbers of applicants to reffing courses are noticeably down.

 

[Philby]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Guardiola and Arteta had different reflections on the new rules after the match. The Manchester City boss warned of the dangers of adding on increased amounts of time (via MEN):

"It's a good question for the international board and people because they don't consult with managers and players and we have to accept it with this amount of games. Now the games will be 100 minutes. Nothing happened today and there was eight minutes.

"They extend for goals. If you score 4-3 you put 45 seconds for seven goals, tomorrow morning at 9am I am [still] here playing."
For Arteta, on the other hand, the new rules represent a welcome clampdown on delaying tactics:

"It is about effective time and it is really good to do that because it was going too far. Now teams will think twice."

 

[Hank Scorpio]

They should just stop the clock for subs and injuries, time wasting gone.

Newcastle were a pity last season. Cheating cnuts.

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

Stop the clock

An analysis of ball-in-play time using StatsBomb open data and a discussion on why added time directives are silly and probably misguided.

www.getgoalsideanalytics.com

Exactly what he said. Stop trying to fix the things that aren't even broken, ffs.

 

[mr.selfDestruct]

I also think stopping the clock for prolonged stoppages is the best option. That way, there can be no arguments. A match should be as close to 90 minutes as possible. It will also stop inconsistencies between different official's.

Time wasting is a big problem, it's getting worse and is really frustrating to watch. But since VAR has come in, matches are noticeably shorter. Most of the time, official's are not adding on the stupid amount of time it's taking incidents to be checked.

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

Time wasting is a big problem, it's getting worse and is really frustrating to watch. But since VAR has come in, matches are noticeably shorter. Most of the time, official's are not adding on the stupid amount of time it's taking incidents to be checked.

Link?

 

[mr.selfDestruct]

Link?

The stats for this particular observation don't seem to be out there. But I've seen it many times that even after VAR checks, it's still just the 4 or 5 minutes time added on for injuries and subs.
You can see how much longer games are when all the time for var, plus other stoppages are properly totted up.

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

The stats for this particular observation don't seem to be out there. But I've seen it many times that even after VAR checks, it's still just the 4 or 5 minutes time added on for injuries and subs.
You can see how much longer games are when all the time for var, plus other stoppages are properly totted up.

Yeah, so I'd suspect injury time in general has been on the rise lately. But this nuclear stuff that we saw at the World Cup seems way over the top.

The sport is in fairly good nick. As I said, the attitude towards refs is an actual threat, easily the biggest one, and should definitely be dealt with as a priority.

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

The other thing about "time wasting" is that it's not just about eliminating the clock, it's also, and arguably moreso, about breaking the opponent's flow and trying to frustrate them.

I'd suspect we're just going to see more of that now. It's just the nature of things for teams to try to hang on, and I really don't see fellas saying: "oh noes, the game's going to be on for 100+ minutes if we don't play ball, so we better cop on". Really? It won't happen.