Does football need a 60-minute 'stop-clock'?

2 years ago 24

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Man City boss Pep Guardiola with referee Daniele Orsato

Real Madrid's comeback win over Manchester City was one of the most dramatic games in Champions League history - but it was not without controversy.

Having forced extra-time with Rodrygo's stunning late double before edging ahead in the tie through Karim Benzema's penalty, Real did what most teams would do: they ran down the clock with a masterful exhibition of game management.

However, referee Daniele Orsato had added just three minutes to the second period of extra time, and then blew his whistle with 10 seconds remaining, just when City keeper Ederson was about to boot the ball up the pitch.

While some have eulogised Real after another stunning fightback, others have used the latter stages of the game to debate the rules around the ball being in play.

Writing in the Daily Mail, former referee Mark Clattenburg suggested football introducing 60-minute matches with a stop-clock to eradicate gamesmanship.

Other sports like basketball and American football use a stop-clock, and it's a straightforward concept: essentially, the clock is stopped whenever the ball is not in play, for incidents including injuries, substitutions and the referee dishing out cautions.

Football's law-making body the International Football Association Board (Ifab) has previously looked into the possibility of introducing a stop-clock.

In this season's Premier League, the average 'ball in play' time is 55 minutes and three seconds - the lowest it has been in over a decade.

BBC Sport - using Opta data - looks at some of the ball in play stats to see how each team performs.

Ball in play season by season

This season's ball in play average is the lowest the Premier League has seen since 2010-11.

It's down one minute and 19 seconds from last season, and a minute 40 seconds on the 2013-14 campaign's average.

But there has been less than an hour's play for as long as Opta has been collecting the data.

Season	Minutes	Seconds
2006-07	53	28
2007-08	53	48
2008-09	54	33
2009-10	53	25
2010-11	54	16
2011-12	55	53
2012-13	56	23
2013-14	56	43
2014-15	56	22
2015-16	56	1
2016-17	55	51
2017-18	56	11
2018-19	55	31
2019-20	55	49
2020-21	56	22
2021-22	55	3

But how about each team in the Premier League?

It will hardly be a surprise to learn that the league's best teams have the ball in play more than those who are fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table.

Norwich are something of an outlier, however, placing 11th for 'ball in play' despite having propped up the Premier League table for much of this season.

How much play are you seeing in your club's matches?

Team	Minutes	Seconds
Manchester City	60	53
Tottenham Hotspur	57	2
Liverpool	57	0
Chelsea	56	39
Manchester United	56	26
West Ham	56	19
Wolves	56	9
Arsenal	56	1
Brighton	55	47
Leicester	55	21
Norwich	54	48
Crystal Palace	54	24
Watford	53	49
Everton	53	28
Brentford	53	10
Newcastle	52	58
Leeds	52	53
Burnley	52	47
Southampton	52	42
Aston Villa	52	23

As seen below, a lot of the same teams pop up in this season's Premier League fixtures with the lowest ball in play time, with Aston Villa, Newcastle and Everton all appearing four times in the table above.

Date	Home	Away	Minutes	Seconds
03/10/21	West Ham	Brentford	41	33
21/08/21	Aston Villa	Newcastle	41	51
13/02/22	Newcastle	Aston Villa	43	6
28/11/21	Leicester	Watford	43	31
4/12/21	Southampton	Brighton	43	33
22/01/22	Everton	Aston Villa	43	51
06/04/22	Burnley	Everton	44	13
18/09/21	Aston Villa	Everton	44	43
25/09/21	Watford	Newcastle	44	48
08/02/22	Newcastle	Everton	45	16

The Pulis pinnacle - games with least ball in play time

The game with the lowest time in play this season - West Ham v Brentford with 41 minutes, 33 seconds - is someway short of Stoke v Blackburn from February 2010, though.

That game - which Stoke won 3-0 in Tony Pulis' 300th game in charge - saw the ball in play for just 39 minutes and one second, 58 seconds fewer than the next game on the list.

The ball being out of play was a common theme in games featuring Stoke. The table below has four of their home matches.

Date	Home	Away	Minutes	Seconds
06/02/10	Stoke	Blackburn	39	1
23/02/08	Wigan	Derby	39	59
19/11/11	Stoke	QPR	40	41
21/12/13	Stoke	Aston Villa	40	50
11/07/20	Watford	Newcastle	41	32
03/10/21	West Ham	Brentford	41	33
21/08/21	Aston Villa	Newcastle	41	51
30/09/18	Cardiff	Burnley	42	02
31/01/18	Stoke	Watford	42	08
18/04/09	Sunderland	Hull	42	17

The highest was Manchester United's 1-0 home win over Fulham in March 2012 with a whopping 71 minutes and 51 seconds.

That's over half an hour more than Stoke-Blackburn, so you can see how the ball in play times can vary wildly.

Date	Home	Away	Minutes	Seconds
26/03/12	Manchester United	Fulham	71	51
19/11/11	Swansea	Manchester United	69	53
28/04/18	Swansea	Chelsea	69	45
03/02/21	Burnley	Manchester City	69	29
15/05/21	Brighton	West Ham	69	26
02/01/20	Liverpool	Sheffield United	69	23
04/03/18	Manchester City	Chelsea	68	21
11/05/15	Arsenal	Swansea	68	14
11/01/20	Tottenham	Liverpool	68	14
01/09/07	Manchester United	Sunderland	68	01

Champions League on top again...

But how does the Premier League's ball in play averages compare to other leagues across Europe and the Champions League?

Interestingly, in Spain's La Liga - which Real Madrid have just won - has the highest average game time (97 minutes, 43 seconds) and the lowest percentage of time in play (54.6).