As stated above, the ball was only in play for 11 minutes in the final third of last night’s Champions League tie, but only four minutes got added on at the end. Stoppage time is gone at the end of matches with the proposal of 35-minute halves. In the case of Aston Villa fans earlier in the season, it would be a 40% increase to their average before November. Fans would get more value for their ticket with this proposal by seeing more action on the pitch. Ultimately, this should cause a better flow to Premier League matches as there would be no benefit in doing so. With this proposal, players would be less likely to go down ‘injured’, goalkeepers would restart quicker from goal kicks, and players would release the ball earlier when taking a throw-in. Therefore, reducing the halves hypothetically to 35 minutes would see halves last an hour. Whilst Liverpool and Manchester City fans would love to watch their teams play for longer, in an era where there are more games than ever before, the demands on players would be unacceptable. Adding a second half and the typical 15-minute half-time interval, a 90-minute game would last around two hours and 47 minutes.
Taking the Premier League average from this season, completing 45 minutes of football with the ball in play would take approximately 76 minutes. Some will call it genius, and some will call it anti-football, but is it time to revolutionise football and eliminate time-wasting in football? Southampton caught everyone’s attention when around the 67-minute mark, a player goes down ‘injured’ and his teammates go and refuel on the touchline whilst he receives treatment. The worst game in terms of the ball being in play this season was when West Ham hosted Brentford (41 minutes). It may be down to more teams playing for set-pieces, with notoriously bottom-half teams having the ball in play for less as they seek goals from playing in this manner. It has since reduced slowly to 56 minutes in the 2020/21 season: meaning there is a 90-second difference from last season. Over the last decade, there has been a massive change, with the ball being in play for 58 minutes back in 2013/14. ? In the last 30 minutes of the #mufc vs Atletico Madrid game, the ball was in play for just 11:19 minutes. On the other end of the scale, Aston Villa fans saw just under 50 minutes of action in their matches under Dean Smith. In November, a stat showed that the ball was in play for just 54 minutes and 43 seconds of each match, with Manchester City having a higher average than most playing just over an hour – mainly down to their high-intensity possession based football. In the final 30 minutes of Manchester United vs Atletico Madrid, the ball was in play for just 11 minutes and 39 seconds, which is a staggering difference compared to the average in the Premier League. However, the referee’s display at Old Trafford highlights one of the fundamental issues within the beautiful game. Manchester United’s defeat to Atletico Madrid last night means it will be another trophy-less season on the red side of Manchester. By Luke Humphries | On Should the clock stop when the ball goes out of play in football?
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