One of the hot topics at March meeting of The International F.A. Board (IFAB) in Switzerland suggested that FIFA should consider stricter action against time wasting in football. The proposed amendments were that a player would receive a yellow card for even the slightest interference with the ball after a free kick was given, or after a goal was scored. It seems that, for once, FIFA is the right track: one of our main priorities should be addressing this issue, along with the problems of diving and the harassment of referees. However, making such small, detailed modifications to their holy book ‘The Laws of the Game’ to me doesn’t fully deal with the problem. I think I have a better idea.
Players have been time wasting for years, and consistently get away with it, despite the rules continuously changing to try and stop them. On numerous occasions I’ve felt like killing some Spaniards, Italians and Argentineans as they lie on the floor for 15 minutes with a stubbed toe (when they are winning, of course). But in spite of this, the amount of stoppage time added at the end of games hardly ever rises higher than 4 minutes, no matter how long the grass has been caressed by a Spanish rear end. Add to this the fact that in an average 45-minute period the ball is only ever in play for around 20-25 minutes, and you barely have a game of football at all.
What I propose is that the watch is stopped every time the ball goes out of play. The length of the game would be reduced to one hour, thirty minutes each way; the game in reality of course lasting about the same amount of time. This would surely discourage diving and staying down, even if the player in question’s team is winning, because he will definitely still have the same amount of time remaining to defend his lead.
I acknowledge that this method could potentially cause a much slower game, like American football, but that’s where referees would come in. They would impose the same sanctions for time wasting that we ‘enjoy’ in the current system, to make sure that players get on with the game and keep it flowing. Kicking the ball away, for instance, would still be deemed as a yellow card offence, whilst being ‘injured’ would have to be tolerated (it is so difficult to determine if players are faking it or not, but in this system no time would be wasted, because the clock would be stopped).
I concede that an idea like this would be radical. I am not in favour of new rules that would change our game totally; for example the director of this newspaper believes that throw ins should be replaced by kick-ins “to make the increasingly boring game of today more exciting”. A change like this, in my opinion, whilst it might encourage the players to keep the ball in play, would cause the game to be a direct, long-ball sport instead of a skilful short-passing one. However, I feel that a suggestion to combat a real problem (such as time wasting) would genuinely be “for the good of the game”, and don’t see why it shouldn’t be tested for a few matches to see if it would be able to work or not. For example, it could be trialled in the European Champion’s League (regrettably, where the most cheating takes place) to test its feasibility, and, if successful, if it could be integrated into our sport on a larger scale.
Having said all of this, the big banquets rooms of FIFA have never allowed entrance to the common fan who actually pays money to watch football. So with the ‘Fat Cats’ in charge, it might just be me who is wasting his time.
Nicky Bremner
