My fellow cheated Gooners, by Jon Fox
The long running farce of a game supposedly lasting ninety minutes has been talked about for seemingly ever. The recent generally welcomed changes are, IMO, no more than a short first step in the right direction, to halt the increasing shortening of play.
I have long held decidedly personal views on not only time wasting but on very many other things where I see room for great improvement in our global game.
However, I start with what I see as what humans will and will not accept. And bearing our all-important human nature in mind, is where I begin with so much of my thinking in general. I maintain that if proper deterrents are used, and used consistently, much of bad human behaviour can be retrained.
Human nature is about the only thing in life that does not change, although we can and do evolve, but I digress!
I will first lay out the basic problem, and then give a deliberately naive cure to that problem, simply to illustrate the DEPTH of the real problem we all have.
So, a game lasts ninety minutes and the ball is in active play for only approx. fifty-five to just over sixty minutes. No problem then! Simply add a good half hour or more to each game and make players stay there for two hours and more. Fine, in theory!
But if you don’t immediately see the consequences of doing that foolish thing, then please don’t bother reading on.
If we accept that players have to play each ordinary game, just as if they are playing a cup tie that goes through extra time and then on to penalties, we will soon see squads plagued with injuries and worn-out players.
Moreover, the deepest, largest squads – did someone say “CITY”? – would have a still greater and unfair advantage over all the less deep squads.
So, adding endless time is NOT a sensible suggestion. That being so, thinking logically, we have SOMEHOW to reduce the massive amount of deliberately wasted time in each ninety minutes. As things currently stand, we NOW play an extra ten or more minutes in almost every game, far more than even last season.
Though I am happy with this SMALL reduction in the ACTUAL wasted time, games that now last 102 minutes, as ours against United did last weekend, are already pushing the fatigue boat out further than almost all managers and such as MA and Pep would like.
No, my friends, saving time in the 90, and not endlessly adding time on is the only sensible answer. Some important aids I offer now.
ALL throw ins to become free kicks, with a strict time limit of ten seconds from the moment the ball goes out of play til the side taking the free kick, KICKS it into play. A failure to comply with ten seconds automatically gives the ball to the opponent. Repeated failures lead to bookings and then red cards. I suggest a ref’s whistle to end the ten seconds grace, and then, if not kicked in, the ball goes to opponents instead and the next ten seconds runs from that whistle for the other side too. No more Ben White style long lasting failures to throw the damned ball!
All free kicks anywhere, but especially within crossing or shooting distance of the goal, take WAY TOO LONG. Refs themselves are complicit in this charade and football law needs to be altered to FORCE a free kick, once blown for, to be taken in fifteen seconds at maximum.
No silly time-wasting shaving foam to be used, but refs to personally and quickly mark out the ten yards where a dangerous position warrants it.
ALL OPPONENTS, bar none, to be the required ten yards from the place taken, to be punished by a mandatory yellow card if not obeyed.
Consistent and enforced punishment of those who refuse to accept this, would in short time ensure complete near complete compliance. You cannot stop those tiny percent of brainless idiots who NEVER learn, so they much face the consequences of their brainlessness.
Wilful dissent and argument or harassment of refs, by any player – save only the captain, who would be allowed to enquire, not demand, but to enquire only, in polite and respectful manner about queried ref decisions – warrant a mandatory red card.
Wasting time at goal kicks should be pounced on immediately, consistently and at the refs fear for his own future in the game, if he fails to do so EACH AND EVERY TIME it occurs. Yellow, followed by red cards for repeat offenders. Refs who fail to apply the law to be suspended without pay for a period to be decided by the games lawmakers.
Immediate yellow card for time-wasting, and another, making a red, if repeated by the transgressor. When a player is deemed injured and lying on the pitch- UNLESS as now, it is a head injury, then the game can continue if the ref deems it wise.
He has the power to decide either to blow up for a halt in play and also not to, if he so decides. No dissent by any player should be tolerated with no exceptions. A red card for those who refuse.
When a player is forced by genuine injury to leave play for a while, then the player injuring him- IF the player is responsible (and sometimes no opponent is responsible as self-injuries occur now and again) is also to leave play until the injured player returns. The farce of a team forced to have only ten players against a transgressing teams eleven men, even for a while, is ludicrous, is the wrong principle and must end immediately.
Corners should be also taken within ten seconds of the whistle and all players, other than keepers, BE FORCED to stay outside the six-yard box til the kick is taken. This would stop the ridiculous and mostly ignored constant holding and wrestling and save a lot of time. And deliberate blocking of the keeper.
A change in the law would be needed and would help greatly, also saving masses of time in every game.
Importantly, all these proposed changes, IF accepted by the games lawmakers, must be trialled first in lesser competitions for a full season, to iron out what are bound to be problems and to see how well they work overall. After that one trial season the changes, if ratified, would then be written into EVERY player’s contract, widely advertised in all football contexts, on SKY and TNT sports and other broadcast networks and in national newspapers, and a signed acceptance of such contract be signed by every player and every manager and coach too. Refusal to sign would render that player or manager unemployable. That would not, in reality, happen.
No doubt some of you will have better suggestions and I long to read them.
But my fellow Gooners, unless we take this increasing waste of time problem far more seriously and unless we use REAL deterrents to those who refuse to co-operate, then we are in for far worse still.
I repeat that the small extra minutes added so far only slightly alleviates a massive problem. We cannot sensibly keep further adding to the ninety minutes, so we MUST find ways, either mine or some other suggestions to halt this runaway time-wasting con that make us all victims of the cheats.
Imagine paying the high prices some of us pay to watch our team but getting only less than two thirds of what you pay for. THAT IS NOT RIGHT, and it must be changed.
REFS NEED TO BE OBEYED AND HOPELESS REFS DEMOTED. But backchatting them hardly helps them, does it!!
Thank you for reading and I know many of you will have your own sensible and workable ideas to share with us all.
COYG
Jon Fox
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