Respected former referee Pierluigi Collina gave his thoughts on including effective time in football and prolonging the stoppage time.The effective or actual time is the amount of time the ball was actually in play during the match, not counting stops in play like injuries, celebrations and lining up set pieces.NAPOLI – ROMASpeaking to Calciatori Brutti, Collina discussed effective time in football and the possible changes on the horizon.”I am part of a body called the International Football Association Board, IFAB, which is the one that oversees the rules. One of the things we are talking about is whether it is not worthwhile for all matches to have the same duration.Did you know that Collina deliberately blew for the final whistle of 2002 WC final about 20 seconds later after the end of added time, to be sure of catching the ball and taking it home? Today he still jealously keeps it as great memory of the most important day in his career. pic.twitter.com/axgw0dwGNa— Law 5 – The Ref (@Law5_TheRef) April 17, 2022 “If you look at the statistics today, you see that there are teams that play 52 minutes, others that play 43 minutes and others that play 58 minutes. “Another thing to think about is: as a spectator, I pay a ticket, physically at the stadium, or at home by TV, to see 90 minutes of football, but I only see 44, 45, 46 played. Half the price of my ticket goes into unplayed time. Most of the wasted time comes with throw-ins or goal kicks.##EDITORS_CHOICE##”These things are functional to the game, but eight to nine minutes for throw-ins, eight to nine minutes for goal-kicks (…) So, we are doing some thinking.”If we’re going to be a bit more precise, we’ll have to prepare ourselves for a nine-minute injury time. Today, nine minutes is eye-popping, but give those who want to see a spectacle the chance to see a bit more, ” concluded Collina.
