The state of football

[Ronners]

If you want to reduce time wasting then reduce the match length to something like 70 minutes and pause the clock when the ball is dead. I know I often reference basketball but I'm sure there are other sports that do it. When the ball is out of bounds the clock stops, when someone is taking free throws the clock stops, when someone is fouled the clock stops until it is inbounded again.

Positives:

A game lasting 48 minutes actually gives you a full 48 minutes of game time due to the clock stopping for the aforementioned (and other reasons to stop the clock).

Negatives:

A 48 minute game in real time takes between 2 1/2 and 3 hours practically every game. If you did this method you would get true game time but it would take forever. Granted you wouldn't have timeouts eating into the gametime but it would still be significant.


I don't think there is an easy answer. If a guy goes down with a couple of minutes to go holding his head then the ref has to stop the play. Imagine if he didn't and the guy was concussed or worse. The ref would probably lose his job. Players need to take more responsibility in not play acting but they won't because they get away with it. The problem football has is that everyone thinks 'everyone else does it so why shouldn't we?' all the time.Take a goalkeeper wasting a minute on a goal kick. Infuriating when it is against you but you would go nuts if it was your own keeper and he did anything but take forever. Just the way it is.

Simple reality is those tactics are the worst thing ever when others do it but smart when our own team does. Same for everyone.

That is fair comment, especially regarding how much longer it would take to finish the match, but I do think that if the clock was stopped from when the ball goes out of play/ injury to player, and doesnt start until it's back in play then players would be less inclined to feign injury, and the ref I think would be more vigilant regarding restarting play. UTM

[MillersTime]

That is fair comment, especially regarding how much longer it would take to finish the match, but I do think that if the clock was stopped from when the ball goes out of play/ injury to player, and doesnt start until it's back in play then players would be less inclined to feign injury, and the ref I think would be more vigilant regarding restarting play. UTM

Oh I'm absolutely with you. I like the concept because I see how it works in giving true game time but I'm not sure it transfers into a sport where the game lasts 90 minutes. If you went down that route you would probably have to cut the game to 60-70 minutes, as that is probably roughly the area of true in game time you get now. Then we wouldn't end up having games going on for however long. Especially for TV, they wouldn't like the uncertainty with how long the game will last for. We all know money talks. I would still fear that players would feign injury in order to kill momentum etc but it would help stopping the clock.

[CAMiller]

Oh I'm absolutely with you. I like the concept because I see how it works in giving true game time but I'm not sure it transfers into a sport where the game lasts 90 minutes. If you went down that route you would probably have to cut the game to 60-70 minutes, as that is probably roughly the area of true in game time you get now. Then we wouldn't end up having games going on for however long. Especially for TV, they wouldn't like the uncertainty with how long the game will last for. We all know money talks. I would still fear that players would feign injury in order to kill momentum etc but it would help stopping the clock.

I've been advocating true timekeeping for years to stamp out the time wasting as it drives me mad. I think I saw statistics the 'ball in play' time hovers around 68-70 minutes on average with some games dipping below 50 minutes. Timekeeping wouldn't stop the 'taking the ball to the corner' method of time wasting but my other rule change would. If a player is in the corner, the opposition get to kick them as much as they like without a foul being awarded

As for TV, they'd cope as they do with all other sports where game time in non-deterministic. Over time they would get to know that e.g. a 90 minute game would take 2.5 hours to complete. No different to today really where we often see 45+5 and 90+10 games.

[Ronners]

I've been advocating true timekeeping for years to stamp out the time wasting as it drives me mad. I think I saw statistics the 'ball in play' time hovers around 68-70 minutes on average with some games dipping below 50 minutes. Timekeeping wouldn't stop the 'taking the ball to the corner' method of time wasting but my other rule change would. If a player is in the corner, the opposition get to kick them as much as they like without a foul being awarded

As for TV, they'd cope as they do with all other sports where game time in non-deterministic. Over time they would get to know that e.g. a 90 minute game would take 2.5 hours to complete. No different to today really where we often see 45+5 and 90+10 games.

F**k me CAM in my playing days at local level, the opposition taking the ball into the corner when my team needed a goal really got to me😡, so I'm all for the 'kicking the s**t out of em allowed' rule change when they take the ball into the corner 😂

[MillersTime]

I've been advocating true timekeeping for years to stamp out the time wasting as it drives me mad. I think I saw statistics the 'ball in play' time hovers around 68-70 minutes on average with some games dipping below 50 minutes. Timekeeping wouldn't stop the 'taking the ball to the corner' method of time wasting but my other rule change would. If a player is in the corner, the opposition get to kick them as much as they like without a foul being awarded

As for TV, they'd cope as they do with all other sports where game time in non-deterministic. Over time they would get to know that e.g. a 90 minute game would take 2.5 hours to complete. No different to today really where we often see 45+5 and 90+10 games.

Yeah you're right with the TV side of things. Then again us playing would take longer than say Brentford. How many times we hoof the damn thing into every corner of the ground 😂

I also like the 'kick zone' approach to taking it to the corner. Problem is imagine if we are winning 1-0 in the last minute of a cup game away at Man Utd. We would go to the corner and everyone lay on top of the ball, not just go to the corner 😂