HEAD INJURIES

Pitch-side brain scans aim to make sports safer https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61269585

This maybe the way to stop the time wasting,only in the early stages apparently but if a player falls holds his head than off he goes for a scan brilliant idea

There's another issue here beyond reducing the wasting of time.  

If you introduce things like assessments and scans during the game, you'll have some players who will simply ignore the head injury to start with. They'll want to carry on and not leave their team short, that's unacceptable and will increase the risk factor tenfold.  

My view is very much in support of the time control aspect.  The amount of time the ball is in play is reducing all the time and quite frankly we're getting ripped off.   Player safety shouldn't be compromised and their always needs to be a requirement for players to receive treatment, but at present the safety net of that is getting abused to run down the clock.

I get the traditionalist argument but would you rather stick with 90 minutes and spend nearly half the game watching players try to kill time or know you're going home having seen 60 minutes of actual football?    

Quoted from diehardmariner

I get the traditionalist argument but would you rather stick with 90 minutes and spend nearly half the game watching players try to kill time or know you're going home having seen 60 minutes of actual football?    

Why should I pay for 90 minutes and only get to see an hour? Stoppage time should be more accurate. Maybe put the fourth official in charge of time keeping.

I still think a third of the game being stoppages isn't good enough.

I don't disagree, Rugby is 40 minutes in-play time a half and I think football should follow the same pattern personally.  

Just basing 60 minutes on the arguments I've seen have been of 30 minute halves.

In the East Lincs Combination a number of years ago, a newly qualified referee taking his first game stopped his watch every time the ball was not ”in play”. They kicked off at 2 pm, and were still playing at dusk!

Often players are feigning head injuries to quell the immediate pressure their team is under, rather than specifically waste time. Loads of times a corner comes in, it gets cleared to the edge of the box, but the goalie or defender goes down clutching their head, so that the attack is stopped in its tracks. So whilst I'm in favour of stopping the clock, I still think players would try it on in scenarios such as this.

Quoted from Roast Em Bobby

Often players are feigning head injuries to quell the immediate pressure their team is under, rather than specifically waste time. Loads of times a corner comes in, it gets cleared to the edge of the box, but the goalie or defender goes down clutching their head, so that the attack is stopped in its tracks. So whilst I'm in favour of stopping the clock, I still think players would try it on in scenarios such as this.

Yeah exactly this. Unfortunately this 'safety' measure is already abused. Its not one that town seem to do but you do see it from some oppo teams. I would be I  favour of scrapping it as players can't be trusted, unsurprisingly, to not abuse it. But failing that, when it happens the drop ball should return to the team in possession at the point they had it, so the attack can continue OR the player involved leaves the field for an assessment as mentioned above. That would help greatly.

You can tell its abused because how often do you see these teams doing it when they are attacking  - I can tell you it's never. So unfortunately this safety measure can't be left as it is because teams use it to cheat.

One reason the authorities don’t care about time wasting is because the tv companies, basically the ones who pay all the money, want to be able to schedule programs, it’s no good if a game goes on for an additional 30 minutes to ensure 90 minutes of actual game time is played if it means the following programs are all pushed back.

Quoted from joe56

In the East Lincs Combination a number of years ago, a newly qualified referee taking his first game stopped his watch every time the ball was not ”in play”. They kicked off at 2 pm, and were still playing at dusk!

I think the answer is to just do it for major stoppages I.e. injuries,  goal celebrations, substitutions. Not every time it goes out for a throw or goal kick

The other thing footy could learn from rugby is allowing the physio on while the game continues. They'll be much less likely to cheat if their team has to continue a man short