• 2 Aug 2023, 11:17 p.m.

    The pgmol have announced that this season will see a crack down on ensuring the correct time is added for stoppages.

    Good to know that they are focusing on timekeeping, rather than getting the odd decision right and managing the games.

    Sooner or later they will realise that they just need independent timekeeping. Mostly later.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 12:14 a.m.

    I'm down with this. I mean yes, should be independent, but baby steps. Guess we'll start seeing 5-7 in the first half and 10+ in the second half.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 12:27 a.m.

    I find extended periods of injury time annoying. I'd much rather they did something about the timewasting than let them do it and then tack all the time onto the end.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 12:45 a.m.

    Pretty tough to do when it's coming from players feigning injuries. I can personally attest to shouting YOU CHEATING CUNT at a Sheffield United player years ago before he was subsequently taken off on a stretcher.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 1:04 a.m.

    I think it's pretty straightforward. If a player goes down with an injury, he has to be removed from the field of play and isn't allowed to return for at least the next two minutes. The exceptions to this are a) if the injury is the result of foul play by an opponent, b) it's the goalkeeper and the injury was caused in a collision, or c) the injured player is substituted. You'll get a lot less feigning injury if every time you do it your team goes down to ten men for the next two minutes.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 1:36 a.m.

    While he's laying in agony saying he thinks his leg is broke, you're going to forcibly lift him onto a stretcher? No chance any medics are going to do that.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 1:37 a.m.

    This is totally unworkable. You'll be needing VAR to check if the guy is "allowed" to be injured.

    I'm not against these sorts of ideas, but whenever I try to think through putting them into action it's very difficult.

    I think the solution is to add the time on. It removes some of the motivation for faking it. I mean it still disrupts the game and flow, so it's not ideal, but at least no time is lost.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 2:22 a.m.

    No, you miss the point. Obviously he's not going to be removed until he's medically capable of being removed, but if his leg is broken then he's going to be substituted so no time penalty for his return is invoked.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 2:25 a.m.

    It's completely workable, you're not stopping to think about it. If he's injured and needs to be replaced then there's no penalty. He's allowed to feign injury and waste time if he likes, but not only is it added on to the end of the half as it is currently, he also puts his team at a numerical disadvantage. As most feigned injuries are so because they're trying to protect a small lead or a draw, or because they're trying to relieve pressure, the last thing you want to do is put your team at a disadvantage.

    If the injury is caused by an opponent's foul, then there's no time penalty. It's only if you pretend to be injured. No VAR is required.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 2:36 a.m.

    What about if they pull up with a strain, need treatment, but are able to play on after some legit treatment?

    Or if they're clattered by an opponent, but the ref doesn't give a foul ?

    It's a melee in the box at a corner, as the players come apart there's a guy on the floor and nobody really knows what happened?

    I know I'm a bit 'what if" .... But there are so many caveats and cases that it's really hard to legislate for them all

  • 3 Aug 2023, 2:46 a.m.

    Then they will wait on the sideline for 2 minutes. I don't remember Stuart Pearce rolling around because he'd tweaked his hamstring and then being fine after the application of a sponge. Strains don't just magically go away.

    Then it wasn't a foul. It's part of the game, you're not injured. Unless you are, in which case the sub will come on for you.

    Get up and play on. If you want to make a deal of it, you can wait on the sideline for two minutes.

    There really aren't. I think you've just become conditioned to the idea that the slightest of knocks could actually result in an injury because it happens so much. Watch how injured teams get in the last ten minutes when they're a goal down, it's amazing how quickly players get up from the most crunching of legal challenges. Stop buying the bullshit, and don't indulge it.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 7:33 a.m.

    Just have a crack medical team come on, put cones around them, and play on.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 7:49 a.m.

    No joke, I was reffing a charity match where we had movable goals and the lines were marked with small cones. A guy broke his ankle so we picked up the pitch and moved it so we could carry on till the ambulance arrived.

  • 3 Aug 2023, 9:03 a.m.

    I was also speaking from personal experience. ;)

    Football was an eleven man game, with no subs. They just got on with it.
    They introduced a sub, so that teams with a broken player could still compete, and not ruin the game.
    They added another sub, it got tactical.
    We've now got five subs.

    We will soon have an injury sub, so that a player can come on while a player is injured...and the game can continue.

    It will end up with rolling subs, so players can come on and off, and become fully a squad game. And it should. I think it will be better.

  • 6 Aug 2023, 7:51 a.m.

    Tactical fouls to make time for time-consuming regroups and reorganisations could be dealt with to some extent by allowing the fouled team to get the fuck on with it, rather than giving the fouling team exactly what they wanted. Including an automatic yellow for not immediately retreating 10 yards from the free kick point. Quite why referees hold everything up so that the offending team can do exactly what they offended to achieve is entirely beyond me.

  • 6 Aug 2023, 11:20 a.m.