Premier League Witnesses a Storm of Protests Regarding Ball-In-Play-Time

The following article was published by Marie Schulte-Borkum in German for SPORT1. It is a wonderful article, and I wanted to share it with my English-speaking contacts. Extra time in football (soccer) has always amazed me. Especially, because it is so imprecise. Most amazing: the statistics: just 55 min (of 90 min total) of ball-in-play-time on average during the last Premier League Season. Marie Schulte-Bockum

Premier League Witnesses a Storm of Protests

By Marie Schulte-Bockum

25.08.2023 - 10:27 Uhr

https://www.sport1.de/news/internationaler-fussball/premier-league/2023/08/premier-league-lauft-sturm-dieses-thema-lasst-fussball-england-kochen

England's Premier League is divided. It's about time-wasting, referees, overloading and fair play. Several top stars are attacking the Football Association.

"The ball is round - and a game lasts 90 minutes." This soccer wisdom is attributed to Sepp Herberger, Germany's World Cup-winning coach from the 1954 "Miracle of Bern," a succinct phrase that has stood the test of time for more than half a century, despite everything.

But does a professional soccer match really still last 90 minutes today? A heated debate is currently simmering in England.

In the 2022/23 Premier League season, net playing time, also known as ball in-play time, averaged just 55 minutes per game. In other words, in the elite league of world soccer, the ball rested for an average of 35 minutes (!) per game, almost an entire half.

The main reason for this is the time wasted in soccer. By knocking balls away, delaying corners and free kicks, swallowing, feigning injuries, or substitutions in which players often provocatively creep slowly off the pitch, professional soccer players have been trying to gain advantages for their own team since time immemorial.

Other sports, by the way, don't have this problem: Either, time play is considered extremely unsportsmanlike and cowardly there (field field hockey), or the referee's clock is simply stopped during interruptions (basketball, football, handball).

Back to the English Premier League, to the new 2023/24 season. A lot happened on the island during the summer break.

In England, which likes to think of itself as the home of soccer and fair play, many soccer fans, referees and Football Association (FA) chiefs were fed up with time-wasting and the many interruptions in the Premier League.

In the future, the fourth official will stop the clock when goals are cheered, substitutions are made, penalties are taken (from the moment of the foul to the penalty kick), it takes too long to take a throw-in or free kick, red cards are shown - and when players are treated on the field.

Two match days have been played in the Premier League. So far, the rule adjustments designed to increase net playing time are having an effect. On average, the ball is in play four minutes longer than last season. One tier below, in the Championship, the "play-in time" in the opening game between Sheffield Wednesday and PL relegated Southampton was as much as 69 minutes, three minutes more than last season's second division record.

Yellow for wasting time? There would be 280 more!

But while England's referees focus on strictly implementing the new instructions, discontent is growing among players and coaches.

In the first 19 games of the new Premier League season, 14 yellow cards have already been given for time-wasting. While Sky Sports UK praises Premier League referees for "taking a firm approach to penalizing deliberate actions that delay the restart of the game," it says that the new rules are not only a good thing, but also a bad thing.

However, the British medium also calculated that the previous rate of 0.7 yellow cards per game would amount to around 280 cautions for time-wasting by the end of the season.

So the question arises: don't even more yellow cards make for even more game delays? For even more sending-offs (for yellow-red), even more yellow penalties for the stars - and even more dissatisfaction for everyone?

Arteta: "Maybe we have to play with a stopwatch".

A prominent example was the game between Arsenal and Crystal Palace, where Arsenal's Takehiro Tomiyasu was sent off after receiving a yellow card for time-wasting. Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta said after the final whistle, "For me it's not a problem. The referee makes this decision. I think it was eight seconds. We might have to play with a stopwatch to understand what is a waste of time and what is not."

Martin Odegaard, captain of the Gunners, said, "The first yellow was harsh. I don't think he (Tomiyasu, editor's note) wanted to waste a lot of time; he just didn't have anyone to play to. It's a little tricky, but we have to adjust."

In another Premier League match between Fulham and Everton, Fulham's Kenny Tete saw yellow for pausing eleven seconds before a free kick. Referee Stuart Attwell stopped play to caution the Dutch defender. Arsenal defender Ben White suffered a similar fate against Nottingham Forest when the England international took 13 seconds to take a throw-in before referee Michael Oliver intervened.

Guardiola: "Then we still play tomorrow at 9 o'clock".

"These yellow cards will have a bigger impact on players wasting time than the addition of 15 minutes at the end of games," said Gary Neville, the former Manchester United defender who now works as a TV pundit.

Some Premier League players also fear further strain on professionals in an already stretched league. Manchester United Raphael Varane wrote on X: "We players and coaches have been voicing our concerns for many years that there are too many games, that the fixture list is overcrowded and that the physical and mental well-being of the players is being compromised."

The 2018 World Cup winner went on to write, "Despite our feedback, the league has now recommended for next season: longer games, more intensity and less emotion shown by the players. We just want to be in good shape on the pitch and give 100 percent for our club and our fans. Why is our opinion not being heard?"

The Premier League, its referees and the English FA now face a complex challenge: how to ensure fair play and the flow of the game without overburdening players and coaches with additional rules, yellow cards and minutes of play. The next few match days could show whether the new rules will have the desired effect or whether they need to be revised.

Pep Guardiola, by the way, is not a fan of the new rule either. England's champion coach joked after this year's Community Shield, whose regular playing time was 90+13 minutes (1-1, Arsenal defeated ManCity on penalties): "They extend the game time every time you score a goal. So if you're leading 4-3, are we still going to be here at 9 a.m. tomorrow?"