sunshine1875
26-09-2009, 08:07 AM
Well said, Bill Leckie (from today's Sun). Something has to be done about it. You rarely see a team behind trying to waste time, yet those holding out for a draw/win always do - refer to the Saints players twice falling over on Tuesday with cramp and up twenty secs later.
All they do is:
Stop the clock every time the ref blows for a free-kick;
Stop the clock for every offside;
Stop the clock from when the ball goes in the net;
Stop the clock if the ball goes into the crowd;
And stop the clock at every substitution.
On top of that, there should be a time limit on taking throws, bye kicks, corners and free kicks - because right now, each of these basic functions is taking anything up to a MINUTE.
That's down purely to laziness and cheating on the part of the players and sloppiness on the part of refs and it must change.
Back in March, I put the stopwatch on a Hibs-Hearts derby where, through 90 minutes of normal time, the ball was only actually in play for 43 minutes and 38 seconds.
Referee Charlie Richmond let the game run for an extra seven minutes and 17 seconds at the end of the first half, unusually-generous by normal standards.
Yet once you factored in the hold-ups for Jambos keeper Janos Balogh and Hibs stopper Sol Bamba being sent off, the ensuing injuries and a substitution, in real terms Richmond called a halt six seconds BEFORE the end of the 45.
And the thing is, that wasn't an extreme example.
Week after week, supporters are robbed of almost half the football they have paid over the odds to watch - and absolutely nothing is done about it.
We get some half-arsed rule of thumb where, at the end of 45 minutes, Mr Whistler flips the two-bob bit and either bungs on one minute or two, then does it again at the end of 90 to decide if it's two or three.
If there's a half-decent injury in that second half it might go to four, and if it's all got a bit handbags, he'll pull himself up to his full height and make it five.
Of course, they cover themselves with this get-out clause of it being "a minimum" of whatever number they plump for.
But the fact is every single game should have at least TEN minutes added on. In each half.
That's without stretcher cases, pitch invasions or goalscorers leading their mates in a full West End dance routine.
We're only talking here about the daft, ho-hum hold-ups that everyone takes for granted - the faffing around at fouls, the waiting for some terracing tube to throw the ball back, the physio coming on with nail varnish to repair a striker's laddered tights.
It's all nonsense, and just as refs have a responsibility to keep a proper tab on lost time and give us it back, clubs should be telling players to get on with the game for the sake of entertainment.
But most of all, authorities from the SFL and the SFA right up to FIFA have a glaring responsibility to take the matter into their own hands. Whether we invest a few hundred quid in stadium countdown clocks or simply trust the man in the middle to hit the stop button on his wrist, we need to make sure football GENUINELY lasts 90 minutes.
Because trust me, Mr Blazer, this diminishment of value for money is one of the reasons why fewer and fewer are willing to part with their hard-earned.
It costs me £56 to take my two kids to see St Mirren. Yet if all we get is 45 per cent of actual game time, shouldn't we be entitled to ask for 55 per cent of that outlay back?
We should. But sadly, what's more likely to happen is that people will eventually just shrug and give up.
If the top brass can't see that, they're the ones living on borrowed time.
All they do is:
Stop the clock every time the ref blows for a free-kick;
Stop the clock for every offside;
Stop the clock from when the ball goes in the net;
Stop the clock if the ball goes into the crowd;
And stop the clock at every substitution.
On top of that, there should be a time limit on taking throws, bye kicks, corners and free kicks - because right now, each of these basic functions is taking anything up to a MINUTE.
That's down purely to laziness and cheating on the part of the players and sloppiness on the part of refs and it must change.
Back in March, I put the stopwatch on a Hibs-Hearts derby where, through 90 minutes of normal time, the ball was only actually in play for 43 minutes and 38 seconds.
Referee Charlie Richmond let the game run for an extra seven minutes and 17 seconds at the end of the first half, unusually-generous by normal standards.
Yet once you factored in the hold-ups for Jambos keeper Janos Balogh and Hibs stopper Sol Bamba being sent off, the ensuing injuries and a substitution, in real terms Richmond called a halt six seconds BEFORE the end of the 45.
And the thing is, that wasn't an extreme example.
Week after week, supporters are robbed of almost half the football they have paid over the odds to watch - and absolutely nothing is done about it.
We get some half-arsed rule of thumb where, at the end of 45 minutes, Mr Whistler flips the two-bob bit and either bungs on one minute or two, then does it again at the end of 90 to decide if it's two or three.
If there's a half-decent injury in that second half it might go to four, and if it's all got a bit handbags, he'll pull himself up to his full height and make it five.
Of course, they cover themselves with this get-out clause of it being "a minimum" of whatever number they plump for.
But the fact is every single game should have at least TEN minutes added on. In each half.
That's without stretcher cases, pitch invasions or goalscorers leading their mates in a full West End dance routine.
We're only talking here about the daft, ho-hum hold-ups that everyone takes for granted - the faffing around at fouls, the waiting for some terracing tube to throw the ball back, the physio coming on with nail varnish to repair a striker's laddered tights.
It's all nonsense, and just as refs have a responsibility to keep a proper tab on lost time and give us it back, clubs should be telling players to get on with the game for the sake of entertainment.
But most of all, authorities from the SFL and the SFA right up to FIFA have a glaring responsibility to take the matter into their own hands. Whether we invest a few hundred quid in stadium countdown clocks or simply trust the man in the middle to hit the stop button on his wrist, we need to make sure football GENUINELY lasts 90 minutes.
Because trust me, Mr Blazer, this diminishment of value for money is one of the reasons why fewer and fewer are willing to part with their hard-earned.
It costs me £56 to take my two kids to see St Mirren. Yet if all we get is 45 per cent of actual game time, shouldn't we be entitled to ask for 55 per cent of that outlay back?
We should. But sadly, what's more likely to happen is that people will eventually just shrug and give up.
If the top brass can't see that, they're the ones living on borrowed time.