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Came across this in the Africa thread, regarding the Egypt-Ivory Coast game:

Little Green Man wrote:Shame about the hammy dramatics at the end from some of the Egypt players - totally unnecessary - they were much the better team.

It was an absolute joke and had me swearing at the telly. Two or three times in the last fifteen minutes Egyptian players were rolling around in 'agony', clutching random body parts, and wasting a good minute each time. At the end of the match there were only four minutes of stoppage time, not a lot when you take into account these 'injuries', four goals scored, and five substitutions. Surely it's time for football to introduce a rugby union style 'stop the clock' for player injuries? At least for anything that involves the trainer coming on. This would immediately eliminate the need for play-acting, as the team would gain no advantage from it.

The same thing could be done for substitutions. I'm sick of these injury time subs which have no use apart from wasting valuable playing time, the substituted played walking off as slowly as possible, milking it. The ref rarely adds more time to the already-announced 2 or 3 minutes.

What do you think - good idea or not?

You get my vote.

Fairly good suggestion; give the power the refs to stop the clock when they feel it necessary.

You'd have to be careful not to make the game 'stop - start'.

The reason current situations are hurried is because of the clock; taking that time dilema away may slow the game down. Putting in breaks of 5 mins leads to american style gaps in sport... And adverts.

Just wondered if there was any evidence of tv influence in how much time is added on?
A good close game one team launching assault after assault, couple of mins spare on the network, "lets keep it going a bit longer" or net work tight "don't add too much on" Sets you thinking!

Backgammon wrote:Fairly good suggestion; give the power the refs to stop the clock when they feel it necessary.

You'd have to be careful not to make the game 'stop - start'.

The reason current situations are hurried is because of the clock; taking that time dilema away may slow the game down. Putting in breaks of 5 mins leads to american style gaps in sport... And adverts.

yes, but if the clock was only stopped when a player requires treatment (or pretends that he does) then there would only be a break, say, three or four times during a typical match. I agree though that advertisers may start to take advantage of it.

I thought in Union the play went on while players recieved treatment??!!

boltonboris wrote:I thought in Union the play went on while players recieved treatment??!!

I too was of the impression that the clock largely continued to run in Union as there is always stoppage time at the end of a game?

In league, however, the referee can stop the clock should there be an injury that causes an obstruction on the playing area or where there is any time wasting when lining up a conversion, so the playing time lasts exactly 80 minutes.

Certainly a good idea, problem being that United wouldn't be too chuffed as it would eradicate 'Fergie time'.

hoboh2o wrote:Just wondered if there was any evidence of tv influence in how much time is added on?
A good close game one team launching assault after assault, couple of mins spare on the network, "lets keep it going a bit longer" or net work tight "don't add too much on" Sets you thinking!

Don't let TV control things. Shades of the infamous Heide Bowl which left millions of Americans apoplectic:

In American football, the Heidi Game (also sometimes called the Heidi Bowl) refers to a famous 1968 American Football League (AFL) game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders, played on November 17 in Oakland, California.

With the Jets leading 32-29 with only 65 seconds left in the game, the Raiders quickly scored 14 points to win, 43-32. Meanwhile, millions of American television viewers were unable to see Oakland's comeback. The NBC television network cut off the live broadcast in favor of a pre-scheduled airing of Heidi, a new made-for-TV version of the classic children's story.

While millions of stunned football fans east of Denver suddenly found themselves watching Jennifer Edwards in Heidi, the Raiders scored two touchdowns in just nine seconds and held on to win, 43-32, in what has been voted by fans as one of the 10 most memorable games in American football history.

The Jets were stunned but the fans watching NBC were furious. At 7:20 pm, a crawl across the bottom of the screen announced the ending to the game (during a dramatic point in the movie when Heidi's paralyzed cousin Clara fell from her wheelchair and had to summon enough courage to try to walk). So many fans called NBC to complain about missing the fantastic ending (and to make various and sundry threats) that the switchboard ceased to function, blowing at least 25 circuits in the process. When they couldn't get through to NBC, the irate viewers started calling the police, the telephone company, and The New York Times. At 8:30 NBC made a public apology and the next morning the fiasco was recounted on the front page of The New York Times.

boltonboris wrote:I thought in Union the play went on while players recieved treatment??!!

well yes that's true, but don't they often stop the clock for other breaks in play, such as when a penalty is awarded?

spraggy wrote:

boltonboris wrote:I thought in Union the play went on while players recieved treatment??!!

well yes that's true, but don't they often stop the clock for other breaks in play, such as when a penalty is awarded?

That, I don't know! But if it is the case and we follow suit, play would stop for everything from Free-kicks to throwings etc.. We'd end up with a 2 and a bit hours worth, kinda like American Football

boltonboris wrote:

spraggy wrote:

boltonboris wrote:I thought in Union the play went on while players recieved treatment??!!

well yes that's true, but don't they often stop the clock for other breaks in play, such as when a penalty is awarded?

That, I don't know! But if it is the case and we follow suit, play would stop for everything from Free-kicks to throwings etc.. We'd end up with a 2 and a bit hours worth, kinda like American Football

my idea is that they stop the clock only for a player receiving treatment, not for every stoppage, that would be daft.

As a supporter of the U.S. National Team, trust me, I hate this kind of thing. The banana republics in CONCACAF apparently only train in time wasting. But I don't like the idea of stopping the clock. As an American who has grown weary of the constant time-outs in basketball and American football, the continuous clock is one of the things I love about football. What about mandating that any player who requires treatment sit on the sidelines for a set amount of time so they can ensure he's actually OK to play on? Would prevent people from killing two minutes being carried off and then trotting back on seconds later.

Or the referee could just send the bastards off.

What about mandating that any player who requires treatment sit on the sidelines for a set amount of time so they can ensure he's actually OK to play on?

Because what about those who legitimately need treatment? It's bad enough as is now where you can foul a player, and he has to go off but you can stay on. Like when Andy Cole jumped on Nicky Hunts head, forcing him to go off, only for us to concede seconds later.

Tombwfc wrote:

What about mandating that any player who requires treatment sit on the sidelines for a set amount of time so they can ensure he's actually OK to play on?

Because what about those who legitimately need treatment? It's bad enough as is now where you can foul a player, and he has to go off but you can stay on. Like when Andy Cole jumped on Nicky Hunts head, forcing him to go off, only for us to concede seconds later.

If they need treatment then they'd be staying off the pitch anyway.

Why? If they need treatment on the field and are then fine, why make them stay off for another two minutes or whatever.