WORLD Cup-style time-keeping could be agreed by football’s law-makers today – signalling a major change in the Prem next year.
England’s World Cup opener against Iran saw 27 minutes of added time across both halves, with an average “ball in play” of 58 minutes across the 64 matches.
And the successful stance is one of three options to address time-keeping to be discussed by the law-making International FA Board at its business meeting at Wembley today.
New PGMOL chief Howard Webb received the green light to stick with the approach in operation since the start of the season when football resumed at Christmas after the six-week Qatar break.
That has seen referees urged to clamp down on time-keeping and add some extra time but has not addressed the issues with the ball in play for an average of just 54 minutes and 16 seconds.
The IFAB – made up of the four Home Associations and four representatives of Fifa – will discuss the World Cup style stricter calculation of playing time as one of the debate points.
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More consistent application of the current laws, including penalising goalkeepers who hold the ball for more than six seconds, is another option.
Both of these ideas will not require Law changes but a more rigorous application of the existing statutes.
But the third idea, of a stop-start clock operated by an independent time-keeper with a ball in play minimum of 60 minutes each match, would require a fundamental change in one of the key Laws.
It would also further divide the top level of the game from grassroots football.
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SunSport reported how Ifab bosses will address the “grey area” of offside, brought under further scrutiny by the Bruno Fernandes goal in the weekend’s Manchester derby.
There will be an update on the Far East trial of Arsene Wenger’s proposed “daylight” offside Law as well as the success of the Semi-Automated Offside Technology applied in Qatar.
And while final decision for next season will not be made until the AGM back at Wembley in March, Prem bosses are likely to be given a steer over whether they will be allowed to trial temporary concussion substitutes next term, as they have requested alongside France’s ligue 1 and the MLS.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
