Johnny Phillips: Fans are being short-changed by timekeeping
An analysis from my colleagues in the stats department at Sky Sports this week revealed that almost half of Premier League match action is lost to time-wasting, VAR deliberations and other pauses in the game.
On average, the in-play time comprises 55.9 per cent of matches this season – the lowest in 11 years since records began – and has been on an incremental slide in eight of those campaigns.
The advent of VAR did not change the downward trajectory, if anything making it worse.
This is just one more layer of frustration for supporters, many of whom are fed up with the delays for VAR reviews – particularly when they deliver verdicts such as the shambolic one at Anfield last Saturday.
Stoppage-time has hit an all-time high this season, currently averaging at around eight minutes across both halves – which helps mitigate some delays caused by VAR reviews and the new five-substitution rule.
But stoppage time is not always the answer. In the New Year’s Eve clash between Wolves and Manchester United, three second-half injury stoppages totalled more than seven minutes, but just five additional minutes were signalled.
Multi-ball was introduced this season to get the ball back in play quickly, but it has had little effect.
Crystal Palace’s 2-1 win over Leeds provided the least amount of in-play activity this season with just 43 minutes and 46 seconds clocked.
Two first-half incidents racked up more than seven minutes of stoppages alone – but only five minutes of time was added on.
As is often the case, it is the paying supporters who are suffering.
Elsewhere, the Under-17s African Cup of Nations regional qualifying tournament is the setting for an extraordinary football scandal this week.
Chad’s young footballers are the latest to come under scrutiny after one of their players failed an age test.
Now, I’m not entirely sure how you “test” somebody’s age but apparently it is a process done through an MRI scan, which is performed on the wrist and can accurately measure age by the bone structure of the wrist. Who said this column wasn’t informative?
The qualifying tournament is being held in Cameroon and already 30 players have failed to pass the tests in the pre-tournament process.
Samuel Eto’o, president of the Cameroon Football Federation, ordered the testing as he bids to clean up the game.
The Democratic Republic of Congo pulled out the five-team qualifying process on Tuesday after 25 of their players were discovered to be overage. They took a bit of a chance there didn’t they?
Now, with Chad also disqualified there are just three teams remaining to fight it out for the two places on offer from the region for April’s 12-team African Cup of Nations finals.
