London – Football’s law-making body will look at plans to curb time-wasting in the Premier League after Cardiff City’s home match against Burnley on Sunday marked a five-year low for playing time, The Times and others reported on Tuesday.
The ball was in play in Burnley’s 2-1 win for just 42 minutes and two seconds out of the regulation 90 minutes. Cardiff defender Sean Morrison reportedly took an average of 25 seconds to make long throw-ins.
It was the shortest amount of playing time in a Premier League match since the 40 minutes and 50 seconds recorded in a Stoke City-Aston Villa game in December 2013.
A report in The Times of London said the International Football Association Board (IFAB) is considering “a number of new ideas” in regards to improving playing time as part of their ‘Play Fair’ strategy.
“We all want to crack down on major time-wasting and increase playing time but the fundamental question is how we do it,” an IFAB source was quoted as saying.
Any change or proposed trials will be discussed and possibly implemented at IFAB’s annual meeting which will be held in March in Scotland.
(Reuters/NAN)
