This time wasting is killing the sport

Yes it is.

We never saw the type of staged theatrics we are seeing now. It’s every week look at the keeper last night.

Theres no bottoming out of balling rolling time. What we see is the game evolving. Improvements like the goal kick are cancelled out by using multiple subs in the last five minutes to manage time. And on this cycle goes in what is a dynamic game.

The game in England does not see games seeing the ball in play only for forty five minutes as they did in the eighties.

In regards to keepers. Check how long Roberts has the ball under his control, six seconds or?
 
The referee last night seemed to just ignore it. Their keeper in particular had (IIRC) four different on pitch treatments, wandered about waving his arms at every goal kick, careful weeding of the pitch before every goal kick and dead ball including seeming surprised when an outfield player indicated that he should take free kick and then wandering up to do so, more arm waving and eventually restarting play. They were allowed to get away with this from the 4th minute onwards. Oh and their goal celebrations took over a minute each time, yet he only added three minutes at the end of the first half.

It made no difference to the result we got what we deserved but I paid to watch a game of football not some am-dram fakery and pantomime shenanigans it is spoiling the game as a spectacle. The defence that we do it too is just bo111ocks, I don't want us doing it either. I'm fine with the corner flag malarkey, the ball is in play but things like cramp manifesting only in those professional athletes who are currently winning, the micro siting of the ball for a dead ball and all the other nonsense is a terrible advertisement for the game no matter the result or the team doing it.
 
It's not just time-wasting, it's micro-coaching. They take ages over every throw-in because they have to get in position to run throw-in drill #27B. We're a couple of seasons away from the captain wearing an earpiece and calling set piece plays from a huddle.
Exactly it’s not just the old playing for time that has gone one for ever, no this is more cynical as you say micro managing.

Calling the physio on who must know there’s no injury and so they are just a complicit in it. Look at the keeper last night.
 
One day a referee is just going to have to add 15 minutes on. I said the other day, one thing to do would be to stop the clock for every stoppage after the 75th minute and add it ALL on at the end. This would be in addition to the time lost before the 75th minute being added on as well.

One minute per goal, one minute per substitution, two minutes minimum for each time the physio is called on(if it runs over two minutes, add the extra onto the two). 30 seconds per throw in and goal kick. Surely the 4th official can be keeping an eye on these things?

You might get games running well past 5pm for a few weeks but teams will soon stop once they realise officials are going to add it all on at the end.

As has been said, it isn’t “game management,” it’s time wasting. Cheating.

Aren’t the refs supposed to add 30 seconds per sub on anyway? They never do. Just like ‘keepers only holding the ball for 6 seconds. They don’t enforce these rules. Players and managers take the p*ss out of them.
 
I don’t think you could add time for every stoppage to make the ball in play for 90 mins as it would go on for ages, but you could have someone accurately timing every injury/cramp stoppage, every goal celebration, every substitution and other similar examples to significantly reduce the ability to time waste once that accurate time is added.

Along with play acting and the VAR joykill, it’s one of the aspects of the game I find incredibly frustrating to the point I switch games off when this starts happening as it’s just not an interesting spectacle. I’ve already massively reduced my (non-Boro/England) live football intake over recent years for many mostly minor reasons that accumulate to make the whole experience increasingly dull.
 
The most galling aspect of the time wasting wasn't that Cardiff did it, every single team would in those circumstances, its that the ref had zero control and didn't issue one single yellow card!!!!!! He could have easily stamped it out in the first half by booking the keeper and the right wing back, the two worst offenders.
 
Two 25 minute, ball-in-play halves with a non-referee timekeeper and an official game clock would eliminate this form of cheating and deliver more actual play to the fans than we’re getting now.
 
Refs simply need to book players for time wasting. I mean, that's not going to be too helpful in a situation where a team takes a late lead in a game - but last night Cardiff were time wasting ridiculously badly from the 4th minute. A first half yellow card to the goalkeeper and he can't risk doing it any more. That's immediately about 5 minutes more game time. Cardiff should've had yellows for several defensive players last night which then gives us an advantage in terms of the defenders having to be careful when they're been ran at etc.

Last night was some of the worst time wasting I've ever seen and not one yellow card, and time not added on for it. Ruined the chance for us to salvage something and ruined the game as a spectacle.

I'd be happy as mentioned above, if subs, goals, injuries were timed with a stopwatch, and then the time wasting from throw-ins and goal kicks etc. was dealt with immediately by bookings . I think that'd be all we would need to see the game return to something like what we'd like to see.
 
Their keeper was a joke, but on the timewasting in general we would do it too
You are right, but it doesn't make it right.
When McNair does a McNair and simply falls over. Or when Jones does a Jones and flings himself to the floor.
All teams are increasingly cynical.
Stronger referees, brave enough to take the actions to cut the time wasting out, cut the diving out, cut the manhandling and obstruction at set pieces out.
The sport is poorer for the cynicism in plain sight.
 
Adding time back on - or having a shorter half with stop-start time-keeping - does nothing to stop teams from wasting time to kill momentum. It'd also be a massive pita for those of us with a train to catch!

Refs need to get their cards out, which probably needs a combination of them having the guts to do it, and the rest of football being willing to back them up.
 
- or having a shorter half with stop-start time-keeping - does nothing to stop teams from wasting time
Just for starters then how about this… upon player receiving ball in hand for throw-ins, a 5 second allowance to put the ball in play before automatic turnover of ball to the other team and similarly for goal-kicks, a 15 second allowance for placement of ball and completion of kick before yellow card to keeper?
 
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