Stop the clock | OneFootball

Football Authorities’ Christmas List: One Clock

Christmas has just passed, or is it several months away?

Whichever it is, let’s just say I first had the idea for writing this piece over the Christmas. My mind was finally set after the Southampton game.

So, here goes…

It has always amazed me how football looks to complicated and expensive technological solutions to solve seemingly simple problems.

Let’s take VAR as our first example

Each ground is covered by a dozen (or possibly dozens of) cameras. The pictures are beamed via satellite to a remote central location to be viewed by a team of VAR officials.

In turn, they flag potential issues to the referee on the field via his radio-headset. As required, the footage is then beamed back through the satellite network to the ground for the referee to review on a pitch-side monitor. It’s almost too simple for words.

Example two

For possible offside incidents, the officials can fall back on sophisticated video technology to create a real-time 3D computer image of the players and how their bodies are positioned at the exact instant the attacking team kicks the ball.

They can then run a computer-generated line. If the moving line hits the attacking player before the defending player, the referee is told to call offside via that radio-controlled headset. Again, this is a devastatingly simple system to call upon and operate… Not!

How much did these toys cost the football authorities? I bet it was a damn sight more than the cost of a stopwatch.

This brings us nicely to the thrust of this article

In the recent away match against the Saints, we saw Isak bundled over and several minutes tick away on the game clock whilst the VAR officials did their funky stuff.

Come the second half, we see Southampton bring the score back to 3-2. This time there’s a sniff of offside and another who-knows-how-long ticks away whilst the 3D modelling program runs. By the end of the match, almost 10 minutes of additional time is added across the two halves. One minute lost for each nine minutes of play? Really?

For both of these incidents, I am left open-mouthed that no one thought to stop the clock. Even Wednesday’s game against Arsenal saw nine minutes added across the 90. One minute lost for every 10 minutes that passed on the game clock? Again, REALLY? Why nine minutes? Why not only two minutes? Or perhaps it should have been 20? Who knows? I bet the guy that held up the boards didn’t have the first clue where the number came from.

As Newcastle United fans, how many times have we seen our team apparently swindled out of a great result due to ridiculously long periods of “Additional Minutes”?

Look no further than PSG in the Champions League; a VERY dodgy penalty awarded in the 90+9th minute. Similarly, there was the infamous 2-1 defeat at Anfield in 2022; a winner for the scousers coming in the 90+7th minute. To add insult to injury, I think we all understand the unwritten rule that states “additional time will be played until Manchester United have snatched that all-important deciding goal.”

The footballing authorities would have us believe that VAR and the offside technologies were introduced to provide transparency to the decisions on the pitch. If transparency mattered, why are we continually left bemused and frustrated by these long periods of time-added-on?

Here’s a radical idea: Stop The Clock!

The laws of the game are pretty clear as to what incidents the referee should add time on for.

So, it’s not as if the clock will stop ad nauseum every time a player sneezes. Stoppages for treatment to injured players, VAR and offside reviews are clear-cut candidates for “stop the clock”. With a T-sign to the timekeeper, the referee could easily signal when the clock should be stopped. If the ball is technically still in play, he can use his discretion and signal the clock to stop to deal with timewasting, etc. The match clock starts again when play resumes or the referee signals. Now that really is simple!

In the past, I have heard the argument that stopping the clock for every ball out-of-play could seriously over-extend the game. My response… so what?

There is precedent in other sports

Many years ago, I was a regular at Whitley Bay and Durham ice rinks to watch the Warriors and the Wasps respectively. I regularly saw one hour games last over three hours; but stopping the clock guaranteed the full 60 minutes of game-time for the paying spectators. In the dim and distant past, my father was an accredited basketball referee. His arm raised instantly stopped the clock and no game time was lost. On Sunday, the Super Bowl stopped their clock every time play stopped. The list of sports that keep proper time is almost endless. In each case, the duration of the match is transparent; teams and spectators all fully aware of time played and time remaining.

We may be in the 21st century, but football is still in the dark ages of “stick finger in air, scratch chin, take away the number you first thought of” when it comes to deciding how much time to add on at the end of each half. Too often fans are left mystified as to where that 10 minutes of additional time came from.

So why wouldn’t the footballing authorities introduce such a simple, effective and transparent measure?

Stop the clock as appropriate and end play when the game clock hits 45 and 90 minutes.

If the authorities truly want to provide transparency for the fans, (you know, us poor mugs that actually pay their wages at the gate or via television subscriptions) then they will start to show us where the “additional minutes” come from.

Again, best done by just stopping the game clock and restarting it when play resumes; that way we can all see how long has been played and how long is remaining. Given the technology already available, it would be very simple to take timekeeping out of the ref’s hands completely and have an automatic whistle go off to end each half. No arguments, no complaints, just a full 90 minutes of football.

So, what about those instances when that tricky winger rifles one into the top corner just as the whistle goes? Suffice it to say that those occasions would be astonishingly rare. But, if that eventuality actually did occur, we still have goal-line technology and a synchronised clock in the top left-hand corner of the screen to help make the decision. Simples.

So, always thinking ahead, I am now formally starting a Christmas List on behalf of the footballing authorities:

Item 1) A Clock – which can be started and stopped as necessary.

Unfortunately, Christmas is still some way off; so perhaps they should fire this request off to the Easter Bunny instead? If they did that, it could be in place for the start of next season. Maybe even, fingers crossed, for our appearance at the Wembley Final. It would certainly stop Liverpool getting an additional 15 minutes if we’re one up in the 89th minute. I commend the idea to Santa, the Easter Bunny and the footballing overlords!