The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
How to rid football of the terrible anti-football time-wasting tactics
I’m usually seething during football matches and not just because Posh appear to have forgotten how to score a goal at home. Time-wasting seems to have become as acceptable a tactic as inverted full-backs and false number nines.
I blame Wycombe and their horribly over-rated former boss Gareth Ainsworth for introducing the cynical sit down players appear to have been instructed to use whenever their team comes under pressure.
It’s an effective way of killing momentum and creating great frustration among opponents.
It’s been turned into an art form at the highest level of our game by Newcastle United.
But everyone does it. In the last two games at London Road I’ve seen Ipswich Town employ it, even though they were playing on a different level to Posh, and Bristol Rovers adopt it even though they had nothing to play for last weekend.
It works because our referees are weak and our authorities are feeble. The amount of added time at the Qatar World Cup was a breath of fresh air, but led to pathetic, and quite laughable, concerns about fatigue and an increased risk of injuries.
Football folk will seek to exploit any law however well intentioned. Players will clutch heads after getting a kick on the ankle to halt opposition attacks.
Anyway I have a four-point plan on how to kick the timewasters into touch…
1) Take timekeeping away from the man in the middle. Introduce a stadium clock and stop it whenever a player sits down for no obvious reason. Referees are not medical experts so the only action they can take to ensure the tedious timewasters don’t win is to add the right amount of time on at the end of each half. That rarely happens right now.
2) Don’t bother warning a goalkeeper (the worst offenders) for wasting time. Caution him early and caution him again if he still offends. I reckon the Bristol Rovers goalkeeper was warned three times before he was cautioned in the 81st minute last weekend. A red card or two will soon stop this nonsense.
3) Introduce a change of possession whenever time-wasting occurs. For instance a goalkick could become a corner which surely would make repeat offenders think twice.
4) Broadcasters should stop using the phrase ‘time-wasting.’ Let’s call it ‘cheating' which is the truth and that’s a reputation no-one should really want. ‘Game management’ is another phrase that should be banned. ‘Cheating’ is again the word that covers the practice most accurately.
Football clubs too readily forget they are in the entertainment business as well as the results-based business they love to witter on about.
There have been instances in the Premier League this season of the ball being in play for under 45 minutes, so less than half the game.
It’s a scandal that needs addressing and there has been talk of action, but like every promised clampdown (remember the holding at set-pieces clampdown?) it lasts about a week before players and managers resume taking the mickey out of officials and paying spectators.