Time to take action on players who

MUCH has been made recently of the amount of football we are getting during a 90-minute game, the ball actually not in play by as much as twenty minutes during some games. Questions have been asked about timewasting and one particular aspect is the amount of time taken for substitutions to be completed - especially those which are made late on in games and are designed purely to waste time and more importantly disrupt the flow of the game, making gaining momentum for a team to try and get back into a game What is the answer?

Firstly, as I have often said in the past, surely we should have independent time-keeping linked to a stadium clock.

That would end the arguments about just how long is left in games.

While this would make the topic of time left transparent to players, fans and managers in itself it would create another problem with game possibly lasting 55 minutes or more a half.

It would not, though, do anything to stop timewasting and gamesmanship.

Referees have it in their power to caution players who delay restarts but quite often the yellow card seems to be the final course of action - usually after many warnings which have frustrated both players and most definitely supporters.

It seems match officials don’t want to potentially spoil games with too many “cheap” cautions for technical offences which could inevitably lead to second yellows and subsequent reds.

Perhaps it is a management tool the clubs are prepared to accept rather than see a flurry of cards.

That, though, runs against match officials actually applying the laws.