How To Stop Time Wasting

[Lanterne Rouge]

3 minutes ago, handsofclay said:

But then the ref would need one less stopwatch and I would have been wasting time writing my suggestion.

Actually, your idea is a very good one except I fear the player to be subbed will make sure he gets the news while standing on the centre spot and will then make out he is indecisive by nature and keep changing his mind about which touchline he will be heading for.

The buggers are always one step ahead aren`t they?

[Portland Bill]

35 minutes ago, handsofclay said:

Although some radical ideas are being suggested here, once an idea works it soon becomes absorbed by the game and supporters and players alike accept it as the norm so much so that when confronted by the pre change aspect of the game it can seem almost shocking that such an anomaly was allowed to go unchecked for so long.

To illustrate my point, I was watching the Brian Clough documentary on BT Sport recently and in the European tie between Liverpool and Forest, Forest were awarded a penalty when Phil Thompson brought John O Hare down just outside the penalty area. O Hare would have been through on goal otherwise. After the match Liverpool complained vociferously about how hard done by they were because it was clearly outside the box. Thompson even said that he is a pro and he deliberately brought O Hare down outside the area to prevent him having a free pop at goal and deliberately did so outside the area so as not to give away a pen. Hearing it now, with decades behind us of red cards for professional fouls etc it sounded shocking that a player was actually condoning the professional foul and feeling that his team had been hard done by! Now we are used to this form of cheating being adequately punished and it goes on a lot less to the benefit of the game.

There is far far more cheating in the game nowadays than there was then though!

[handsofclay]

18 minutes ago, Portland Bill said:

There is far far more cheating in the game nowadays than there was then though!

I cannot disagree with you unfortunately. Indeed, to turn my argument on its head I dare say if a football fan from 1979 was to watch a game from 2016 they would be far more shocked by what they would see than I was with Phil Thompson's actions and comments.

[Sleepy1968]

26 minutes ago, handsofclay said:

I cannot disagree with you unfortunately. Indeed, to turn my argument on its head I dare say if a football fan from 1979 was to watch a game from 2016 they would be far more shocked by what they would see than I was with Phil Thompson's actions and comments.

Well, there are quite a few of us football fans from 1979 still going: I think I'm more embarrassed rather than shocked. All this play-acting from modern day gobshite prima donnas grinds my gears.

[gl1]

2 hours ago, LondonBristolian said:

Maybe there's an argument for the timekeepers to literally time the game - the clock stops when the ball goes out of play or there is a dead ball and restarts when the set piece is taken.  Then the whistle goes on 45 minutes of open play.  Wouldn't that be fairer and make it harder to dispute?

Game start time 3pm

leave ground 7.45pm

[PolskRed]

I have never understood why it takes so long for referees to take action against this.  We regularly see players (mainly goalkeepers) wasting time as early as the start of the second half.  I am pretty sure if referees to action when it starts and gave a yellow card players would be less likely to waste time toward the end of the game and a goalkeeper would definitely not risk a second yellow, where as they happily take a yellow card on 90 minutes if it helps get a result etc...

[handsofclay]

14 minutes ago, Sleepy1968 said:

Well, there are quite a few of us football fans from 1979 still going: I think I'm more embarrassed rather than shocked. All this play-acting from modern day gobshite prima donnas grinds my gears.

Yes, I recall seeing the odd clip of play acting from foreign leagues at the time and it would be used to provide light relief, something to laugh at. Now it is commonplace in our domestic football and sometimes players are even criticised by radio and tv pundits for not going down when being slightly clipped in the penalty area!

[ExiledAjax]

2 hours ago, Welcome To The Jungle said:

The problem with that is the ball spends about 20 mins at least 'dead' every game be it corners, throws, free kicks etc. It would mean way too much added time every game.

Then don't you just cut a match from 90 to 60 minutes?

[Xiled]

The problem is that time-wasting is subjective. When the game was 0-0, there were a couple of times when I felt we were playing out for a draw. Korey (who made an excellent return) was like a rabbit in the headlights for two throwins. My point being that a referee cannot accurately judge when a player is actually playing the clock down. Sometimes it can be indecision.

That said, the Cardiff player who used a towel for 75% of his throw-ins should not have been allowed to keep drying the ball. A player without the same drying tactic would have been called up for taking so much time.

[Pezo]

Not sure if this has been highlighted already but the amount of times we have come from behind this season has highlighted one of the biggest problems for me.

Opposition get 0-1 up they waist time to the best of there ability, we then get it to 2-1 with 2 mins left then the 4th official holds up the extra time of 5 mins giving the opposition 5 mins to get back into the game - 5 mins that they have created by waisting so much time earlier in the game, certainly doesn't seem fair.

[Davefevs]

4 hours ago, Libertine1 said:

I like to think that 4 mins yesterday was a punishment for Blackburn.  It should've been more than that definitely.

Of which he only played 3:13 of, according my the guy next to me with his stopwatch app.

[Tom Fleuriot]

I'd like to see a rule that when a team is penalised for time wasting, the opposition selects who receives the yellow card. 

[Up The City!]

As I said on another thread it's been pretty much every home game this season and it's becoming boring now. But I do see it as a compliment towards us that teams have to deploy these tactics.

[JasonM88]

8 hours ago, Portland Bill said:

In rugby matches its common for there to be only about 35 minutes of actual play during the 80 minutes the game lasts. 

Scrums are the worst, from the time a scrum is called and set 2-3 times it can waste up to 6-7 minutes when absolutely nothing is happening, line outs the same.

The only time the clock gets stoped is for serious injuries.

No it's not, it's stopped when there is any recognisable breaks in play, TMO, Scrum Prep, Lineout Prep, conversations with captains from the refs, etc

[Sydneybcfc]

Maybe time for the sin bin, although thats an argument that goes both ways if players then actively try and get the opposition sin binned by diving or antagonising them it could actually increase cheating.

[Red Skin]

Agree with other poster.  Stop the clock on all stoppages.  Will need to shorten the game time from 90 though.  Not sure what to as I don't know average time in play.  May even be as little as 60 mins?

Play havoc with TV schedules (not than I personally am bothered).  They manage is the US for American football.

[CiderCraig]

The one that gets my goat (it's a euphemism, I don't have a goat) is when 'keepers catch the ball and then fall on the ground holding the ball below their chest/chin... Oh so blatant but never gets picked up.

*please note, no goats were harmed in the posting of this comment.

[handsofclay]

1 hour ago, CiderCraig said:

The one that gets my goat (it's a euphemism, I don't have a goat) is when 'keepers catch the ball and then fall on the ground holding the ball below their chest/chin... Oh so blatant but never gets picked up.

*please note, no goats were harmed in the posting of this comment.

Well done CiderCraig. I only wish others were as considerate towards goats. FC Cologne have a goat prominently displayed on their badge yet on some of their kits have a puma emblem, the kit manufacturer, further across the chest. No wonder the goat is hiding behind a turret type thing. This sort of thing can only produce bad karma.

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

2 hours ago, CiderCraig said:

The one that gets my goat (it's a euphemism, I don't have a goat) is when 'keepers catch the ball and then fall on the ground holding the ball below their chest/chin... Oh so blatant but never gets picked up.

*please note, no goats were harmed in the posting of this comment.

Yeah, but I bet you'd love it if we're winning 1-0 in the 92nd minute against Hull and Frankie does it...

That's the great thing about time-wasting - people only decry it when it's the opposition who are doing it.  Rather like spying if you ask me: a serious criminal offence if done against you, but heroic if done by you...

[dunsteral]

All the above posts are based on our opposition being the timewasters,

Are wenever guilty of doing it when we are winning.

[Rudolf Hucker]

Time wasting will never be eradicated but some minor changes to the laws could I believe, bring about some improvement.

First I would make it a bookable offence for any player from a team which has either put the ball out of play or conceded a free kick (for foul play or offside), to intentionally  or knowingly touch the match ball until it comes back into play. This would prevent defenders from running away with the ball from the "scene of a crime" or from deliberately deflecting the ball as its being returned to the free kick taker.

Second, a player who has gone down injured, requiring a trainer to come onto the field for treatment and as a consequence having to leave to the touchline, cannot return to the field of play until an equal period of play has elapsed from the trainer entering the pitch to the player (and trainer) leaving it. This would prevent the situation we saw on Saturday whereby the Blackburn player crumples in a heap, the trainer comes on, a miracle is performed before our eyes and Lazarus is raised from the grave only to be immediately waved onto the field as soon as the game restarts. He'd have had to wait a minute or so after the restart until he could return. The timings and the players return to play would be administered entirely by the fourth official. Of course both genuinely injured players and time-wasters would be subject to this.

[Murraysrightplum]

17 hours ago, Welcome To The Jungle said:

I was thinking last Friday as Cardiff were taking half an hour to take their latest throw in just what could be done to stop this. Of course the referee adding on all the added time and dishing out yellows for prolonged goal kicks is fine but it does not eradicate the fact that it sucks all the momentum and life out of a game. After all we've all seen Keepers time wasting by literally waiting for the referee to book them as they don't care.

What would work however would be if the referee had the power to reverse the possession, as well as dish out cards and add up all the wasted time. For example, if a keeper takes too long to take his goal kick, not only is he booked, but he also concedes a corner. If a throw in is taking too long, the other team gets the throw. The only condition I'd have is that the referee cannot award a penalty kick for a reversed free kick. But instead have a free kick in line, out side the box. Teams would hurry up if the threat of a corner loomed over them when they have the opportunity to lump it. 

Agree with this. Should be easy to implement as well. Maybe if it's a goal kick and they are wasting time the play restarts with an opposing goal kick not a corner. ie just change of possession rather that a goal scoring opportunity. Slightly less controversial 

[Unan]

Or just let it happen as we're the late goal kings at the moment.

[EASTEND WURZEL]

an idea for time wasting involving an opposition player that goes down (like he's been shot) but obviously has no head injury i.e. Mr Warnock's players. The ref cant stop the game as its not a head injury so the onus is on the non injured team to stop play and kick the ball out. A better system would be play on so the effected team would press down to win the ball back its then up to them to either play on or kick the ball out. if they kick out for the injured player to receive treatment the other team automatically has possession of the ball with the thrown in for the re start. none of this throwing the ball back rubbish which basically gives full advantage to the injured side in break up of play, lifted pressure, a rest for players while treatment is given and ultimately the bloody ball given back to them. seems straight forward to me .

[Steve Watts]

13 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Of which he only played 3:13 of, according my the guy next to me with his stopwatch app.

He actually played about 4:30 (ish) - it just took an age after 90 (and 30 seconds after 45, actually as well) for the AOT to be announced.  Gotta be honest I don't even recall the board being shown in the second half, just the announcement.  All seemed rather odd.

[Turbored]

8 minutes ago, EASTEND WURZEL said:

an idea for time wasting involving an opposition player that goes down (like he's been shot) but obviously has no head injury i.e. Mr Warnock's players. The ref cant stop the game as its not a head injury so the onus is on the non injured team to stop play and kick the ball out. A better system would be play on so the effected team would press down to win the ball back its then up to them to either play on or kick the ball out. if they kick out for the injured player to receive treatment the other team automatically has possession of the ball with the thrown in for the re start. none of this throwing the ball back rubbish which basically gives full advantage to the injured side in break up of play, lifted pressure, a rest for players while treatment is given and ultimately the bloody ball given back to them. seems straight forward to me .

Why not just let the physio/trainer on and let the game carry on like rugby, soon stop half these fake injurys.

[Steve Watts]

24 minutes ago, Rudolf Hucker said:

Time wasting will never be eradicated but some minor changes to the laws could I believe, bring about some improvement.

First I would make it a bookable offence for any player from a team which has either put the ball out of play or conceded a free kick (for foul play or offside), to intentionally  or knowingly touch the match ball until it comes back into play. This would prevent defenders from running away with the ball from the "scene of a crime" or from deliberately deflecting the ball as its being returned to the free kick taker.

Second, a player who has gone down injured, requiring a trainer to come onto the field for treatment and as a consequence having to leave to the touchline, cannot return to the field of play until an equal period of play has elapsed from the trainer entering the pitch to the player (and trainer) leaving it. This would prevent the situation we saw on Saturday whereby the Blackburn player crumples in a heap, the trainer comes on, a miracle is performed before our eyes and Lazarus is raised from the grave only to be immediately waved onto the field as soon as the game restarts. He'd have had to wait a minute or so after the restart until he could return. The timings and the players return to play would be administered entirely by the fourth official. Of course both genuinely injured players and time-wasters would be subject to this.

With the example you mentioned, though, the player shouldn't even have come off as there was a booking for the foul on him....but that would require the referee to have an understanding of the rules he is implementing....

[View from the Dolman]

5 minutes ago, Steve Watts said:

He actually played about 4:30 (ish) - it just took an age after 90 (and 30 seconds after 45, actually as well) for the AOT to be announced.  Gotta be honest I don't even recall the board being shown in the second half, just the announcement.  All seemed rather odd.

The board was shown and the announcement was a while later.

[Steve Watts]

12 minutes ago, View from the Dolman said:

The board was shown and the announcement was a while later.

Completely missed that right in front of me then....!

Just highlights again how bad a job Ian Downs does if it takes him almost a minute to announce it!

First half the board definitely went up late though.

[Snufflelufagus]

One I've noticed creeping in is the 'non head injury' time waste. As the ref has to stop the play for a head injury only Ive noticed players pretending there injury is actually a head one.